Bob Landström’s paintings (if they can, in fact, be described as paintings) are unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Made from crushed volcanic rocks, they’re dense with color and symbolism. According to Landström’s website, over the years he has developed numerous techniques for coloring volcanic rocks, treating the rocks themselves as pigment which he then “paints” with.
The paintings themselves add up to an assembled constellation of recurring imagery, including animals, letters or word fragments, diagrams, symbols, and glyphs. These elements in combination form their own pictorial universe.
A self-proclaimed “student of metaphysics,” Landström brews a unique cocktail of symbols, languages, formulas, and animals. According to him, this concoction emerges from the babbling brook of consciousness in his head, presenting itself on canvas.
Though varied, together his paintings make for a cohesive (if cryptic) series. “I think every person is a kind of transceiver to varying degrees, depending on where they’re from and how they live,” explains Landström on his website, “which is reflected in the fact—among other ways—that certain images or symbols are universal and occur in vastly different civilizations all over the world and throughout history.”
Unscramble his cryptic messages if you can.
