Untitled (Senegal, West Africa) Painting

This piece is from a series painted while I was the artist-in-residence at Thread, an artist residency in the small, rural village of Sinthian, located in Senegal, West Africa, supported by the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. The Albers Foundation is a nonprofit organization to further "the revelation and evocation of vision through art." The gauche paintings I created reflect the patterns and colors found in the women's clothing in the village. I originally planned to be working with a desaturated, almost neutral palette. But when I saw the bright, patterned clothes juxtaposed against the dusty, neutral backdrop of West Africa, I felt compelled to record it. A surprising plethora of patterns and textures surrounded me during my month-long residency. I brought to Africa collected chipboard sketchbook backings that my students left behind. I'm attracted to the earthy color of the chipboard, the solidity of its form, and the fact that its function is to support something deemed more valuable. My process for creating the work is this: a graphite grid is drawn on the chipboard, and the rectangles in between the graphite lines are filled with gouache. I intentionally leave the binding edge on the chipboard. I find beauty in the repetition, rhythm, and precision of it.