‘Geheimnis’ is a body of work painted by Kansas City artist Kelly Kruse. It is an extended meditation on mystery, mortality, and glory and is inspired by the book of Ecclesiastes.

From the artist:

Art-making, by nature, presses into the bittersweet sensation of having one foot in a tangible world that passes while having another in the world of the unseen. In early 2018, as I finished work on an exhibition dealing with human suffering and the stations of the cross, it became clear to me that I wanted to do an extended meditation on mortality and transience through the book of Ecclesiastes, which is utterly unlike much of the rest of the Hebrew bible in its tone.

I could never have imagined then that I would open an exhibit of this work on March 8, 2020, just days before the COVID-19 pandemic would dramatically alter daily life in the United States. In the midst of this crisis, there has been a collective wail of loss and grief rising up around the world. We are not living in a time of conceptual instability and loss. No matter what our worldview, we do not need to be convinced that we stand on shaking ground, or that what we thought was secure was in fact just passing.

The voice of the teacher in Ecclesiastes echoes our fears. We will not find hope by burying our heads in the sand, or by clinging to the things that pass away. If the earth is shaking, we need to find something steady to cling to. Through this work, I offer an extended meditation on these ideas, which have resonated in all seasons of history and in any kind of grief or loss. More information about this exhibit can be found here.