Morten Klementsen: "Art doesn’t have to look nice, it has to work"

2022-10-21

Morten Klementsen is working with the art form AI-art or digital art. With a background in advertising and graphic design, he has learned the graphic rules - and now he breaks them in order to create art. 

With a love of colour and a wish to make new creations without getting stuck in a certain style, Morten Klementsen makes art full of fantasy and colour. In every painting he surprises the viewer and lets new things emerge from the image.

– I want people to be able to look at my artwork and find new things. Shining, happy people are nice on the wall, but I want you to be able to see deeper into the pictures. When you see a picture again, and again, it is nice to recognize new things. That is my recipe and my philosophy. 

In his day to day life Morten Klementsen works in politics, and creating art is to him a kind of contrast.

– You have to be a bit childish and think like a child. I do very serious stuff in the society, so it is also therapy for me to do things like this, and to take care of the child in myself. It is kind of an outlet and a strong interest, and I think it is important for all of us.

What makes a good painting?

– Sometimes you see wonderful art that is painted tremendously well, but what you see is what you get. If you see it once, you have already seen it. I can´t paint like that and not all of my art looks really good, and that is a bit of the purpose. It is also a thing of being realistic, to have the feeling out of the art piece. 

The most important thing, according to Klementsen, is that the painting appeals to the buyer.

– It doesn’t have to be a good painting for everyone else, but for the buyer. It is very individual. It has to hit you. I think that God, or whoever made this world, gave us colours, and people are not using the colours. We learn that different colours can affect us enormously, for example red can raise your heartbeat. The people who are buying from me aren’t buying only something to look on, it might also talk to them on a different level. Art doesn’t have to look nice, it has to work.

Is there a difference between traditional art and digital art?

– I think digital art is easier to use. You have so many possibilities, and if you are not happy you can erase it. You can try much more things with digital art and do things that comes to your head there and then. 

Through his art Morten Klementsen wants to connect people. 

– There is this connection between us, and we are losing it. I think you have to be a bit crazy and think outside the box. If you don't, art is like a television series; it is only the outside, the shining, happy people. There aren’t such things. I like people to be happy, but it is living in fake if you’re telling everyone that you are fine. There is a lot of masks out there and I would like to help them to look further into the picture. 

– I want people to be themselves, and through the art I am making I hope that people can just, for a glimpse, think something new, something that they didn’t think for maybe a decade or a year. It is dangerous for the world to only have followers. Jump out of that box, it is creating stress. It is not healthy for people to not think by themselves. 

In the end, it is all about conveying a message. Through the titels and the paintings Klementsen makes the viewer experience something new. 

– I try to help people to tell stories, to make stories out of my work that will help people to relax and understand that they can do what they want to, it is only one step away. The boxes are getting smaller, people are more and more the same. That is destroying fantasy and every nice thing we have been given by birth. Release yourself and don’t stay static, do not give a damn about what the neighbors say. Some day you might get hit by a train. Live life in quality much more than in quantity.

Matilda Wirström

Hitta din originalkonst på