About the Sand paintings:
In 1999 three things happened: I moved into my current desert studio, I acquired an extended set of very soft pastels, and I started working on sandpaper. By the end of that year I was manipulating the pigment on the sandpaper with a brush. The small works in this gallery explored that technique, coming to life in the crucible of the isolation and exposure of my desert studio over the years 2000-2001.
Here in the Mojave desert the dry, gritty, ground-mineral substance of pastels feels appropriate. Their dual draw/paint nature allows me to play among the dimensions, at the illusionary border of line and plane.
I worked in an entirely exploratory manner, without goals or guiding concepts. The desert combines the nakedly geometric with the dynamically organic. My time here has profoundly affected what I am able to see. |