Tuesday, July 28, 2009

swarm, 4x4" graphite on layered drafting vellum, 2008


scatter, 4x4" graphite on layered drafting vellum, 2008


amass, 4x4" graphite on layered drafting vellum, 2008
Chapter 3, 4x4" relief, 2009


Chapter 4, 4x4" relief, 2009

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Artist Statement

“A work of music is not simply a set of individual notes arranged in time. Music really begins when the separate pitches are melted into a pattern.” – Jonah Lehrer*


Drawing repetitive marks, I engage in the concept that complexity and potential can arise from seemingly insignificant fragments. Each mark – a short, straight line – is elementary yet deliberate. By limiting my means of expression, I am able to investigate the dynamic capabilities of the deceptively simple mark. The fundamental nature of the drawn and printed marks is consistent although the methods of creation (using a variety of tools, tracing, redrawing, enlarging) provide diversity in length and thickness and draw attention to distortions or imperfections. The individual marks, like notes of music, gain further complexity when composed and layered. New patterns emerge, and density, sparseness, value, directional movement, and scale become crucial to the psychological effect of each image. The visual experiences of my works vary, as fog differs from a blizzard or hailstorm. Essential to all pieces is the shift that happens when the viewer approaches the work. While I work from part to whole, the viewer experiences the work from the whole (an atmospheric image) to the part (a recognition of individual marks.) A phase transition, like water forming into ice, occurs within the viewer’s perception when approaching the work: atmospheric fields crystallize.


*Jonah Lehrer, Proust was a Neuroscientist (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2007), 130.