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This particular series from which I drew these two
pieces is called "Ripple" and
they are
oil on panel, specifically MDF
which is Medium-Density Fiberboard. I started to paint on that because it's
very stable
A lot of wood or plywood expands and contracts and
MDF is virtually inert, so I started to use that.
My work
is really about the tension between
stasis and change. Almost
everything I do is about that and anything that you can
think of extends to that, whether it's relationships,
whether it's natural processes.
So Ripple
I was thinking of ripples on water, that's what I was thinking.
How things move and
I like making something that looks like it's on the verge of becoming
something else changing.
Maybe it's falling apart, maybe it's coming together. These are a little bit
more stable than a lot of the
other work I do just because it is still within a square format.
I use a square almost everything I do is based on a square format.
I started doing that,
the square, without really knowing why it was something that I was drawn to.
I've looked it up finally, started doing some
reading about the symbolism of the square and it turns out that it's
a very common cross cultural symbol for the earth,
and for stability. So
for a long time I've been working off that and sometimes they end up not being
squares but they always start
by being squares. The number four also has a lot of connections
with nature, whether it's the four cardinal points, the four seasons.
So the four sides of the square.
And the work also
is typified by being
a cross between painting and sculpture. It's got
obviously it's painted, and that's my background, that's my first language.
I call them paintings even though I know they are really
kind of fall into the arena of sculpture.
But they took on a dimensional quality
trying to reinforce the idea of
strength versus weakness, so we have this kind of
more aggressive layer that comes out and
others that kind of hang back and retire so it's
again about relationships