Artist Statement

This collection is the result of getting thoroughly creatively stuck. I knew that if I kept making and seeking my own enjoyment in the process, eventually, I would get to something that felt good again. I made over a hundred abstract pieces- pouring, mushing, scribbling- before these pieces started to emerge, and once they did, they just kept coming until I had just shy of forty 12”x12” finished canvases. I have grouped these canvases into five pieces, ranging from 2’x2’ to 3’x4’.    

This mixed-media collection (composed of liquid watercolors, acrylics, water-soluble oil sticks, and silica gel packets—to create the bubble-esque texture), emphasizes the process of creation over its end result. The majority of these pieces started with loose brushes of clean water to lay down variations on a circle. I then dripped, poured, and flicked paint of various concentrations onto the water, occasionally using a palette knife in the application. I was primarily guided by the curiosity and the pleasure of finding out, rather than notions of complexity or seeking a particular end result. I used my favorite colors, often the same ones over and over, across the various media, simply because they bring me joy. This collection responds to the pressure that artists face to make art that is both ‘good’ and ‘authentic’ by resituating a successful piece as one that was enjoyable to make without further guidelines. 

I painted these in batches of three to six, working across multiple canvases to keep moving and to worry less about each canvas. By combining these individual canvases into sets, I enforce that the context of their fellow canvases is a crucial aspect of viewing the individual canvases. More often than not they are paired with their batch siblings. Though I invite you to look closely at individual canvases, I ask that you also view them in the context of the whole piece and the greater collection. I eschew the preciousness of a single canvas and sidestep the concern of any given moment needing to be perfect. They speak as a community. 

My approach to creating this collection is inspired by the Zen Buddhist Enso paintings, whose creation functioned as a meditation and spiritual practice. Seemingly simple, the Enso circle is painted in a single fluid brush stroke which “symbolize enlightenment, power, and the universe itself. It is a direct expression of thusness or moment-as-it-is” (Seo, Audrey Yoshiko, 2007, Ensō: Zen Circles of Enlightenment). In the hands of a Zen Master, the amount of expression possible within this seemingly narrow framework is boundless.  This collection is the first in which I intentionally have left a lot of white or blank spaces, trying to not ask if the pieces were ‘enough’ – interesting enough, complex enough, meaningful enough. Instead, my focus was on being part of the process— wholeness and connection to myself, my materials, and my surroundings. The interplay of mastery, acceptance, paradox, simplicity, and thusness that come out of Zen practices heavily informed my process in creating these pieces. I played with how perfect the circle shape is (with some being only vaguely circles), the movement of the pigments within, the blankness of the white canvas, and the acceptance of the change as the wet pigments move and interact as they meet and dry. This collection is also heavily influenced by contemporary Croatian artist Ana Žanić (www.artsy.net/artist/ana-zanic) and contemporary American artist Pamela Black (www.pamelajblack.com/) in their use of color and transparency.