Sipping Tea Painting

Concept: I think of these as sumptuous visual poems. The works are intimate, and they encourage looking. The painterly and textural elements entice the viewer to not only see, but to want to feel the artwork. They are collage-based mashups of diverse and competing styles. They incorporate elements of Formalism, Pop, Collage, Visual Poetry, Dada, and more. Our perception is very fragmented. Our minds stitch the fragments together into a smoother view. Understanding this, I want to create mixed media paintings that are not literal but suggestive. My aim is to create work that is both visually stimulating, and thought provoking. The more time one spends looking the more they will see, and the more they will see how things are related. These works are not representations of the world, they are more representations of our minds wondering. Methods: These works, from my Chaos Fields series, are mixed-media paintings which incorporate collage and new dimensional printing technologies. I use fragments of images - text, symbols, and patterns - which are silk-screen printed (using dimensional inks) and then collaged onto the work. The works are then painted (using primarily white to enhance the texture) producing a uniquely textured surface. Over this surface are printed digital images using new printing technologies, such as UV cured printing and hydrographic printing. These allow me to print over the textured surfaces. I then go back in with more painting, collage, and printing creating a subtle layering. I see the various printing technologies as new ways to apply paint.