Statement
The conceptual basis for my recent works on paper began to develop in 1992-1993, during a year which I spent in India, with support from the Fulbright Foundation. I was introduced there to the idea of two forces held in a dynamic balance by a third force, pervading all things and events in the universe. In Hindu cosmology, these three primary qualities or modes are called Sattva, Tamas and Rajas; they are visualized as centripetal attraction, centrifugal force, and the balance between them, respectively....
Since my return from India, Eastern philosophies have continued to influence my work. Until 1997, I was involved with circles and spirals as basic elements of a visual vocabulary about the realm of the sacred: the circle as a symbol of divine unity, and spirals as schematic representations of forces in the world. Increasingly, I became interested in limiting means in order to bring process to the forefront. Like John Cage, I am attracted to the notion that art can be made in cooperation with life – as distinct from romantic conceptions of art as a willful dominance over materials, or as a triumph of order over chaos.
These drawings are experiments with folded paper, wax, and inks. The process is a structure within which a few of the world’s forces (gravity, absorption, evaporation, etc.) are welcomed, creating organic departures from my conscious decision-making. The works are, in a sense, simply a record of their own making.
