"Snakes and Ladders" + Interior Angles + Process Essay

"Snakes and Ladders"
Ink on paper
15" X 22"
2014

I am weightless in a web of invisible threads. I pluck one and watch tender reverberations create thin reflections that spider deep into the darkness. From this vantage point, I can only see a part of the structure's infinite complexity. There is neither here nor there, only a spatial median that divides deeper into self-similar parts. Like the trapeze artist, I hold my breath and attempt to climb atop one of these threads. I stand straight, trying to become objective within this innumerable prismatic organism. One step forward, and the thread flexes beneath newfound gravity! My spine curves against the forces of instability and I see anamorphic shifts of light play off multiple contradicting planes. A colossal geode surrounds me: it is the image of relativism - a place where coordinates are lost in the game of snakes and ladders.

* * *

Also, I have some new ideas for how I am going to create my wood panel paintings.  Hint: they are not going to be quadrilaterals.  I am letting the interior angles speak to each other to create the individual shapes of the panels. 

...Ellipses?

I am also working on a process essay regarding the surface-paint-space relations in my work:

"...My work explores the potential of surface by using paint to create the illusion of contradictory dimensions between sculptural and architectural spaces.  Having borrowed the concepts of surface roughness and fractal dimension from Benoit Mandelbrot, I have come to challenge Clement Greenberg's notions of flatness and medium-specificity in painting.  Essentially, my process embraces the reality that nothing in this world is flat, and as a result, my paintings are concerned with the wide range of space that can be exploited between surface and paint.

According to Benoit Mandelbrot, surface is inherently rough, but may appear smooth from distances where detail and dimension become invisible.  The ability to see dimension depends on the relationship of scale between the viewer's bodily subjectivity and a surface's roughness.  Both the material and illusionistic application of paint can alter surface roughness, increasing or decreasing dimensional visibility.  For example, thick impasto can materially rough up a smooth surface, while optical tensions between layers and color contrasts can illusionistically smooth out a rough surface.  Consequently, I define painting as the material or illusionistic adjustment of dimensional visibility on surface..."

More soon!  Up next: full essay and paper models ~