I have been working under the umbrella of geometric abstraction for many years now. I like to work through iteration as opposed to open and shut bodies of work that don’t leave a thread with which to move forward. There was a major change a little over a year back. I think about this most recent development as an axial shift in how geometry functions within the composition. Older works always had a center point from which visual energy could radiate outward along the X and Y. This new body of work functions along the Z-axis; activating the space between the viewer and the artwork. Just like an origami crease pattern that implies a hidden physical reality lying in wait, these works use line and color to suggest a willingness for the picture plane to shape-shift and fold into an unknowable yet somehow tangible secondary form. This past year I have focused on small works and increasing the visual vocabulary within a group of ideas. I’d like to explore compositions based on classic “impossible” geometries. Geometry is one of those universal languages we can all associate with. I’d like to see what happens to the way we relate to shapes when they contain inherent contradictions. I’m constantly drawn to the idea of infinity. It’s the single most humbling concept recognized by the human mind. I’d love to be able to imbue my works with just a touch of that feeling I get deep in my core when I’m able to step so far outside myself that the weight of the infinite sinks in. As a natural counterpart to the infinite, I think about the finite as well; about self-contained systems built of parts but able to find a resolution. Then there are a bunch of semi-related words and themes at that resonate and become part of the feedback loop: physics, time, space, energy, origami, transformation, etc. I found printmaking late in my MFA years. I was focused on painting but ultimately bored by the endless brush and canvas connection. I started following materials instead. I ended up making wooden surface “paintings” in low relief. The surfaces sort of begged to be printed from because they were a lot like relief printing blocks already. Painting brokered my transition into woodcut print. It’s now my primary focus. Painting and printmaking are in constant conversation in my studio now. There is a wonderful call and response that takes place when I use both mediums side by side to express one central body of ideas. Like using both hands to examine and understand an object, I use painting and printmaking to pass concepts back and forth as I explore them. And like each hand, each process works both independently and as part of a system where the motions of each are greatly affected by the other. I approach printmaking like a painter, inking fast, making marks, and throwing color around without concern for cleanliness or perfection. Through print processes, I am able to then impose a certain mechanical precision on an otherwise very fluid and painterly process.Alternatively, my painting has adopted the characteristics of print. Just as in printmaking where I control composition using printing plates, in paintings I rely on woodcraft to build compositions into the works before considerations of color and surface come into play.