The Bite Magazine Issue 17

what he feels is ‘this unseen world unto those who may be blind to its hidden beauty’. Zielke explains that in this, his most recent col- lection of pieces, he was inspired by the idea of memories. “My inspiration comes from my memory, memories passed down through gen- erations, and how I reflect to determine who I am. I am an introvert that internally processes how I sense the world. With the artwork represented here, instead of depicting empir- ical objects that people can relate to through symbols, I focus on a phenomenological process of my own thinking to produce work emotively that people feel. My work remains as focused on the present as possible; balancing between my previous marks and where my hand rests on the canvas. I naturally am inspired by some- thing I read rather than something I see, and as I am creating, it is intuitive from how I feel to where I move. My current film installation I am working on is inspired by a tangible idea of memory; an object that I have nostalgia for. This project is translatable to anyone through an empirical sense and will heavily rely on film language and semiotics. I am currently studying Existential phenomenological philosophy.” “We use memories to construct our identities, to fathom our pasts, and to create our idealised future selves. The ambiguous nature of memory necessitates that this construct is but a memo- rial to a transient self, but at the moment of creation, our thoughts become a mark of per- manence - a symbolic language deciphering the artist’s identity in a moment of action. My work is an exploration of this symbolic language using a personal syntax, grammar, and physical toolset to describe the relation between mark making and identity in a moment of creation. Through this process, my work explores a personal phi- losophy and speaks to the ancestry implied within the marks of the medium.” This series allowed him to branch out and really delve into working with a variety of materials, like charcoal, paints, film, etc. Each of which, when handled can produce an array of weights and affects. “This series represented ranges in media including oil paint, house paint, charcoal, and spray paint. It depends on what the inspira- tion for a piece is. Echo, for example, is made to resemble an aesthetically pleasing drop cloth,” states Zielke. “I am inspired by the process of a worker. As a painter, woodworker, or house painter is working, they leave wood or paint remnants of their process and time beneath their feet. I give importance to something that empirically does not resemble an object but values the phenomenological aspect of time one takes to create a work of art. For this painting, I used house paint, conte, tape, straight edges, bite artist profile