Crystals and Stitches in Time

This body of work is centered around a theme of what I've called crystals and stitches in time. I began this series in January, 2004 when I was in Maine for a couple of weeks and it was bitterly cold. I was drawing the landscape, but also started to draw a small crystal which seemed related to the parred down exterior life. I wanted to work with something very minimal and basic, using the crystal structure and its geometries and a limited palate. Initially the work was either black or gray and white, but over time I've been adding more color.

The repetitive marks, stitches, derived from listening to Bach and hearing the individuality of notes. I was thinking also about sewing and decoration as a kind of polarity to the rigidity of crystals. I also just felt like succumbing to the compulsive desire, surprisingly euphoric, to make patterns, as in the hiding and revealing of some Australian Aborigine art, which I like tremendously.

Most of my previous art has been more directly related to the figure. Lately I've been incorporating some of the crystals/stitches into work involving the figure, seeing the crystals as both a contrast to the figure and a kind of ideal removed from the body, and the stitches almost as a protective blanket.