The Sasse: Where love stories develop
between art and viewer

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“How utterly wondrous it is that a small collection of the universe's particles can rise up, examine themselves and the reality they inhabit, determine just how transitory they are, and with a flitting burst of activity create beauty, establish connection, and illuminate mystery.”
―Brian Greene, Physicist

These paintings are abstract narratives that were inspired by works of literature, philosophy, music, and science-they attempt to translate these sources of inspiration into intuitively emotional responses and expressions of joy. They form a deeply felt affirmation of existence, despite life's overall lack of permanent, universal meaning and purpose.

Artist Matthew Wettlaufer embraces this paradox directly: "If there is ultimately no absolute value or meaning to life, then deriving joy and gratitude from the present moment seems a reasonable recourse-and so my work appeals to the spirit of play, a childhood turn back to the original excitement that forms and color can have on the psyche."

Here, color becomes feeling, form becomes philosophy, and gesture becomes the echo of a poem or symphony. These works don't illustrate their sources but rather respond to them-the way one friend might answer another in an ongoing conversation about what it means to be alive and aware in this temporary world.

What emerges is celebration-a visual testament to choosing joy in the face of our fleeting existence. These paintings invite you not to decode their references but to experience your own moment of recognition, your own spark of connection between the artist's playful energy and your own conscious particles rising up to meet it.

Der Schwanendreher (Hindemith)

The Apparition of These Faces (Ezra Pound)

Mar 6th - Mar 28th 2026
Reception: Sun Mar 15th 2-4pm