Statement and Technique

Geometric abstractions rooted in the early twentieth century work of the Bauhaus, Constructivists, and Concrete artists have always interested me. My paintings are reminiscent of 1950’s patterns and designs while connecting with today’s technology. My elements are circles, squares, rectangles, dots, ovals, and segmented letter type  which reference pixels, bits and bytes, circuit boards, molecules, and atoms.

By experimenting with acrylics, I developed a technique of making acrylic look like encaustic, a wax medium commonly used by artists. I wanted that same irresistible, tactile and translucent quality of encaustic without the fragility. As a result, the paintings have a soft undulating, yet durable surface with multiple layers of geometric shapes floating beneath.

Illusional depth and actual depth are made by heavily applying multiple layers of acrylic medium between sheets of painted motifs. There appears to be a calculated order of these shapes, when in fact, the order is intuitive and irregular. The raised forms, as if cut out and applied, are trapped between the layers like leaves under ice, implying the passage of time. Tiny bubbles can be seen through the wax-like surface, caught in the layers below. The motifs appear to float slowly through this thick emulsion, yet are contained.  They gently bump the edges of the canvas and remain suspended in an aquarium-like space.

My intention is to create a visceral connection to the tactile quality of my canvases by manipulation of acrylic mediums, while connecting symbols of the past with the present, suspending time.