Untitled, detail
Points of Departure
New Fingerprint Paintings
In all of my imagery, pattern suggests an organic geometry, an ordered chaos of the natural world. Each image implies a seemingly scientific perfection of patterns in nature, yet is made chaotically with thousands of fingerprint marks. I use fingerprints to avoid any intervention between my hand and the page. This markmaking process allows me to be as personal as possible. The amount of pressure of the touch of my fingers determines the value of the mark, like playing an instrument. Using fingerprints allows me to attain the most varied range of value with emphasis on the lightest marks, in order to create a shimmering, pulsating sensation. The importance of the white space and the repetition of marks in a wide range of value create a meditative and atmospheric perception: a reverberation, like waves of sound or light, which echo the time and movement of the release of energy inherent in transformation. These images, which are all based on nature, landscape, biology and astronomy, are caught in transition-- falling or ascending; forming or dissolving; exploding or imploding. Shapes or spaces emerge, simultaneously pulling one in and radiating out an inner glow. This duality is linked to the micro and macro scale of these works--the whole universe glimsed as if under a microscope. These works are moments in which the internal self and the external world collide.