Daisy (b. Leopold Maria Tomaschek) is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer, a poet, writer and psychotherapist in the making – living in Helsinki, Finland. His broad background seeds his pieces with unexpected nuance, ranging from futuristic psychological conceptualism to historical blends of traditionalism. Nowadays, he focuses on his authentic artistic expression through a variety of media, oil-painting and poetry being the current main focus. Read his artist statement here:
“I have a love-hate relationship with words, maybe, that is why I paint and write poetry and not artist statements, yet to translate what I see myself doing: my work often seeks the imperfect, fleeting moments of beauty and flaw that teeter on the edges of consciousness.
I believe that we must move into post anthropocentrism and into a both/and instead of either/or – a pluralistic orientation – to survive on this planet together. This is quite a common statement in the art-scene but I believe even there too we often miss the point of understanding what it means to adopt a symbolic attitude to life, to acknowledge psychological truths and imagination as just-as-real, so that we could stop concretizing and projecting the pain of soul onto other beings and our planet all the time. Creating what soul demands is at the core of this shift of consciousness.
Often, art is supposed to ask good questions – I would not say so. For me good art is when the artist has allowed things to come into being naturally and has accompanied their growth. Such birth implies death, and I have seen and was forced psychologically and physically to deal with that truth – life after a death is always different yet beautiful. And I hope to show this.
The creating capacity I observe is resonant with all there is, it is doing justice to the experiences of life itself, and in that it resonates with others more deeply than any attempt at creating for others or for a planned cause alone.
Through personal suffering, therapeutic journeys and an everlasting curiosity I have learned various ways of engaging and listening to the interior, unconscious, ranging from visionary hypnotic states to deep meditation. Firstly only for myself, but now I am entering a phase of investigating the collective dimensions of intuition and creativity, going inwards with groups offers completely different ways of ‘unearthing’ artwork.
Trying to listen to the unconscious informs my entire being, my thinking and academic work just as much as a spontaneous napkin-painting. My art is an intuitive and genuine reflection of the way I live and experience life. The most honest way I can put it is that I compulsively paint a diary of the life ‘within’. This to me is the purest form of art-making – and the hardest because it requires deep honesty and presence.
Creating for oneself is selfish in a good way, it crystalizes ones purpose into a medium, which one doesn’t matter. Brutally honest, loving and kind – nothing can be hidden if one tries to put all plans and wishful outcomes aside. I can design pretty things and emotionally campaign all day long, but to imbue something with soul is something entirely different.
I am a believer of facing uncomfortable truths and finding the gold in the psychological filth of humanity, and that seeking for wholeness rather than a ‘better world’ leads to the latter. Because of that, my art is strangely mixed with light and dark ways of being human, of not only admitting, but finding expression for both the gnarly and the lovely. And luckily things are often not that serious either.
I see how a tender madness, the appreciation of darkness/light, death/life dichotomy and the journey through endless inner worlds, times, archetypes and characters greatly influence my paintings. My movies and installations are more societal pieces, inviting reflections and wonderings on future developments in both the material realm and the immaterial realm of the soul.
I don’t like sticking to one style or medium, that’s boring. When people say they recognize my ” unique-style” I jokingly become worried. I care deeply and I have suffered quite a bit of strangeness in my life so far – these might be the most influential attributes impacting my process.
I work process oriented and try to be empty of thought and any other disturbance, it can take a lot of time to do this meditative emptying. Then, with no inspiration or motivation, I start and what is emergent from such nothingness is more purely unconscious. This practice of dimming the light of consciousness before engaging with the creative forces under the surface – the relationship between coming up to the surface for a grasp of air and diving down into what pushes its way onto the canvas through me – is fascinating and exhausting.
Painting is a portal for me towards some sort of understanding of our place in the grand scheme of existence. This understanding is a purely intuitive one and my words alone will not do justice to my experience. The paintings and poems complement each other that way. My art comes from a mode of ‘just being’ – I can not say it better.
I refuse to occupy the space where meaning is created in others. I profoundly relate to my pieces and do tell my stories openly, but ultimately I like to invite into a moment of presence and introspection. If we become unable to be present we will lose our most precious ability – to love deeply. “
Daisy – 2024