Continuum is both the name of my current painting series and the essence of my ongoing aspiration: to convey to the viewer a sense of the unseen structure that supports the universe. My work is informed by my study of ancient uses of pattern, symmetry and iconic symbolism in traditional forms such as Tantric drawings, Navajo weavings, and Byzantine mosaics, as well as modern interpretations of these vocabularies, including geometric abstraction, Carl Jung’s collective unconscious, Josef Albers’ color theory, and Robert Lawlor’s sacred geometry.
During the past year I have been particularly fascinated by Sanskrit algorithms that define the Fibonacci sequences, the Golden Mean and how these philosophical geometries are manifest in the world and in my work. Each of my paintings starts from a central axis that divides the canvas into equal “golden” sections. Starting at the center of a schematic framework, I apply small beads of pigment in a process that combines colors in recurring accretions. The resulting lattice of color on a contrasting ground imparts a gnomic expansion, much like the symmetric growth of a tree, a shaft of wheat, or the shell of a nautilus. Each mark begets and relates to another mark, creating a visible record of time as the surface evolves and the past is seen with the present.
