Untitled Collage

My work is a search for equilibrium and harmonic beauty, perhaps best found in natural shapes, patterns, colors, and textures. Each work is a record of a pursuit that I would compare to gold mining or pearl diving. Preparation is complex, deliberate, and essential. And the result is usually a surprise - a surprise that is sought after. The first event of every piece is the invention of a shape. With a myriad of inspirations including art history, architecture, literature, and music, that shape is arrived at by a combination of intuitive drawing and distillation. Step 2 is to cut out the shape, and then exploit it as vehicle for printing, as stencil, and/or as collage material. Then, using dry pigment and shellac, and often working with translucent Japanese paper, I manipulate both front and back of the paper to arrive at a finished image that I hope appears to emanate from within.