Equation Study (Field), 18” x 26”; Oil, paintstick, wax, and alkyd on linen. 2008
Particle, 8” x 10”; Oil and alkyd on aluminum. 2009
Shoji I, 21 ¼” x 17 ½”; Oil, paintstick, wax, and alkyd on aluminum. 2009
Server, 21 ¼” x 17 ½”; Oil, paintstick, wax, and alkyd on aluminum. 2009
Systems War, 76” x 110”; Oil, paintstick, wax, and alkyd on canvas. 2009
Artists Statement
My work is a study of how the visual aspects of information can be conveyed — or distorted — within the framework of abstract painting. My source material is anything that transmits information visually, including diagrams, scientific images, written language, symbols, and musical notation. I use these forms to establish the underlying pattern of each painting. Then, as all communication is founded upon repetition and the breaking of the expectations that patterns engender, I stress the pattern through a process of editing, erasure, and re-transcription. The final image is a result of these accumulations and removals. Thus I conjoin the simplicity of a patterned field with the unique disruptions that can tell us something, though what it may be may remain elusive.
I use the traditional materials and supports of oil painting (pigment and stretched canvas) to stress, break down, and compromise the visual information I am working with. I start by defining a pattern or structure within the field of the painting and then build it up with layers of impasto and wax so that the pattern has a physical presence. I then scrape and sand the surface of the painting so that the source material remains only as a trace within the field. I repeat this process through many iterations, letting the various corrections, changes, and errors in registration accumulate across the surface of the painting. I initially use color to define figure-ground relationships, but it becomes another means of erasure as the work progresses. Because I work with patterns, time and repetition are important elements in my work; my paintings take a long time to complete, and the marks and erasures that accrue over time evidence the tension between the flat surface and the deep space implied by a field of color.
Upcoming Exhibit
Opening at Brooklyn’s Soapbox Gallery on May 28th
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