The above drawing is in the collection of Charles Dee Mitchell. Now I wish it was in the show with the others as it is part of that series. Please come to the opening of Parallel Process, Saturday May 10th 6-8pm with Polly Lanning Sparrow, Leslie Wilkes, and Toni LaSalle.
Artist Statement:
In my work mechanical-like systems are subjected to or are
participants in an indirect and formal examination of structure; or a subverted
diagrammatic, engineering process. Parts are extracted, analyzed, and
re-translated, using both digital and analog tools. I propose questions in the
investigation and set up specific games, parameters and rules to respond to in
the work’s progression. The language of line propels the work, and I use it to
help make visible the parts, and to find the answer to ‘what connects to this,
how is this connected to that, etc.’
The Octagon Vibration
series:
Thoughts 2/14/14 with
excerpts from my artist statement
These large “white” drawings
on paper (60” x 44”) consist of graphite, charcoal, conte, pastel, pigment and
paper collage elements. I include rulers, tape, and stencils in my process.
Along side them I have been working on monotypes and drypoints utilizing
stencils. This often results in embossed areas of “white on white” They are my
most recent response following my L.E.D. series, as in how I vary my grounds in
a series, “The
L.E.D. work’s veils and values of blackish-grey follow previous works where my
investigation of painted grounds focused on bright yellow, various greys, red
or Pescia blue.”
The
limitations of color grounds is part of my game playing, “I propose questions
in the investigation and set up specific games, parameters and rules to respond
to in the work’s progression. The language of line propels the work, and I use
it to help make visible the parts, and to find the answer to ‘what connects to
this, how is this connected to that, etc.’ ”
Charles
Dee Mitchell and others
have suggested to me that the viewer’s engagement in my work is in “seeing” the
drawing being built in the drawing. That is very satisfying to me as the
artist.
The
physicality of edge that results in my collage process is desired and parallel
to the embossed edge in my printmaking imagery. It becomes another way to make
a line or shape, another way to delve into the structure of the image. In 1999
I began to build my drawings and paintings with scraps of wood, as another way
to draw. I would have to anticipate the top view, back view, side view of the
image, whether I was re-inventing the drawing in wood or re-inventing from my
mind’s eye on paper; “Overall, the resulting mechanical-like systems in my work
over the years are subjected to or are participants in an indirect and formal
examination of structure; or a subverted diagrammatic, engineering process.
Parts are extracted, analyzed, and re-translated, using both digital and analog
tools.”
The
Octagon Vibration series is a reference to Emma Kunz’s work, which might serve
as a portion of the iceberg for a mountain of spiritualists involved in
abstract art throughout art history. “Reference,” as described with the Maldoror Drawings, or
mentioned in the L.E.D. series, and each past series of my work; the “reference”
is an underlying “something” which I find kinship mostly after the work is made.
I am not trying to illustrate ideas or make them visible. All in all, each
series is a continuity of that which resonates. Each series is a different way
to approach how to make visible that which resonates. The references are more
like how a poem works to help make visible or structure the thing that drives
me to “make” which has no words or imagery. This is why I included a poem in
the L.E.D. exhibition.
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(OVS-3B) Octagon Vibration
Series, Oscillation Expansion, 2014, graphite, pastel, pigment, 44"x35” and below, an inversion of the image as an experiment. It doesn't surprise me that it reminds one of my L.E.D paintings.
