This series of work reflects a turn away from events and histories, places and territories that exist in the world. In place of these subjects that have served as the focus of other works, I have chosen to explore the geometry and territory of the surface of the painting itself devoid of any external narrative. This has created an opportunity to focus strictly on what a painting can be as an autonomous entity through an explicit dialogue with the history of the medium.
The goal of turning away from engaging the world around me in an attempt to make visible stories, histories, narratives, people, and ideas that otherwise might not be seen is to find a space to consider composition, color, figure, ground, shape, encounter, transformation, and event in a strictly non-representational space. While some of the forms that emerge and their relationship to each other and field of the canvas may seem to stand in for forms of encounter that may exist in the world, the intention is to offer a strictly other space without any of these preconceptions or histories that have clear connotations. The purpose of doing so is both to offer an escape from the world we occupy on a daily basis while also setting up a series of questions and provocations through what exists within the field of the canvas. What is the relationship between the figures? How did they come to take on their present form? What is the ground in which they exist and how has this ground been formed? How have the figure and ground been brought into a state of tension and how will this tension be resolved? What is the specific nature of time within the painting? What has happened before the current state and what might happen in the future? And, what role does color play in provoking and answering these questions?
My hope is that in setting up these relationship the viewer will be sufficiently captivated that their attention is held and they find a few meditative moments as a break from the rest of their day.