Over the past few years
I have been experimenting more with inks in my larger works. I enjoy the tensions that the ink medium creates in my paintings. I find the collaboration of the illusionistic, volumetric, weighty bodies that I draw and paint against the backdrop of the flat ornamental ink motifs to be appealing, and compelling from the standpoints of both design and storytelling.
The dried ink on the canvas offer me a bustling, swirling Black Universe of galactical objects and spaces in which I can imagine new forms, bodies (both terrestrial and heavenly). As I draw them, I sing. I also speak openly to them and to myself as they come into being. It is an equally beautiful and anxiety-producing process for me, that inevitably leaves me satisfied and frustrated nearly every time I engage it.
From the floor to the wall, my perspective of these bodies are always shifting. I spend many of my studio hours staring at the works, sometimes, weeks, months, and yes, even years at a time. The creation of these bodies from a technical standpoint happens rather quickly. But, the in-between times – those spaces in which I am staring intently at a work and deciding in which direction it should grow (or wondering if it might already be complete) – well, let’s just say that I have been staring at certain works in my studio for a long time, now.
I don’t like forcing creation. These bodies have a right to exist when they are ready to do so.