The Philosophy Behind the “Art of Emptiness”: It All Started with a Paradox…
I was sitting in my (nice) office. Back then—long before I began the “Art of Emptiness” project—I was working as a business consultant alongside pursuing my passion for art. My job was to help people become better, richer, more powerful, and more successful.
One day, right after finishing a call where my client happily announced that we had reached their ambitious goal (over $1 million in annual revenue) and immediately set a new target to double that, I found myself staring out of the window. I couldn’t help but wonder: Does achieving these dreams truly make people happier?
Time and again, I noticed the same pattern: as soon as one goal was reached, the next one was already lined up. This is great for a business consultant like me and for an economy fueled by endless ambitions. But does it add to personal happiness? More often than not, the opposite seemed true.
Paradoxically, all this striving, all this doing, seems to serve only one ultimate purpose: to be (more) happy. Why else would we chase anything at all?
That day, I decided I no longer wanted to spend my life running after goal after goal, hoping to find happiness somewhere at the finish line—only to be swept away by the next wave of emotions and ambitions. I wanted to understand what happiness truly is and how it works.
So, I dove deep into the subject for years, studying everything I could: neuroscience, history, economics, biology, philosophy, religion—you name it. And while reading a book about Buddhist art, I realized I had fallen into another paradox. In fact, two:
1. Wanting to directly be happy will never make you happy. It’s just chasing another goal.
2. Gathering more and more information doesn’t necessarily add more value after a certain point.
So, I stopped consuming endless information and turned my attention inward—into the mind itself, where happiness and unhappiness truly reside. What I found there was startling: it was packed with endless activity. Even when the outside world is quiet, the mind never stops. It’s a constant whirlwind of movement, and looking at it was exhausting. At times, I wished I’d just stuck to chasing external goals.
Then, one day—almost inexplicably—I was fortunate enough to experience a moment of perfect, beautiful emptiness. I was standing in the middle of …, surrounded by absolute stillness. In that moment, I realized something profound: all ideas, concepts, goals, and ambitions arise from this stillness.
That moment inspired me to create the first painting for the “Art of Emptiness” project. I hung it (and it’s still there) in my living room, where it serves as a daily reminder: to stay focused, mindful, and calm, to avoid being swept away by endless striving, and to keep walking this journey we call life.
In 2023, approximately five years after I began the “Art of Emptiness” project, I received a rather "interesting" diagnosis. After being admitted to the hospital with severe headaches and relentless fatigue, I was informed that the scan of my brain was not as "unremarkable" as hoped. Such an experience naturally prompts one to carefully consider how to spend one's time, given that the duration of that time is uncertain. It turned out that there were too many white spots, and they were much too large. (As a sidenote: my brain actually functions very well, enabling me to earn a university degree in Engineering and work in the financial industry for several years.) The pain and fatigue eventually subsided, but of course, I asked the doctor—actually, quite a few doctors from different departments were involved in trying to find an answer—what those white areas meant.
Sometimes, I still find myself wondering whether it was these spots, the thousands of hours of meditation, or some other circumstance that inspired the idea of “The Art of Emptiness” within me. As human beings, we are always searching for reasons or narratives that make sense. In reality, if we trace any idea back, we find that we did not consciously generate it; rather, it simply arose within us.
And that’s precisely what my art is about: tracing ideas, thoughts, and art itself back to their very source. By doing so, at some point, the only thing that remains is a very liberating, beautiful emptiness. I believe this is the fundamental happiness we are all searching for.
So, while the story at the beginning might make for good marketing, you can set it aside. But if you’re curious about the doctor’s answer: “We don’t know what it is or where it comes from. It’s just… empty.”
I was incredibly lucky to "stumble" upon meditation and the wealth of valuable information surrounding it. I want to share this luck with you, hoping that you will benefit from the insights I pass along. I am convinced that we can all benefit enormously from meditation and striving to understand the fundamentals of our existence. Art has always been a way to point toward the unknown, to express what words cannot adequately convey. I want to highlight the uncharted areas within our understanding, to empower and inspire you to discover yourself. I hope that my artworks serve as unique, innovative, and aesthetically pleasing signposts on your own journey—reminding you to keep exploring.
Yours sincerely,