Expanding the Conversation

This summer during my residency at SAIC I started working with acrylic paint in a way where it become both the structure and the image of the painting. Since coming home to the Pacific Northwest I've had to rethink my new way of working. My studio space it not heated, and in Oregon humidity is almost always a factor. Between the cold and the humidity, the work is not drying as quickly it did this summer. Large areas of my studio were starting to be taken over by lots of acrylic forms that had to lay flat to dry. Forever...

Work started to creep into the house so that there was room to set up installations:

Once that started there was really no good reason to stop myself from practicing installing wallpaper for my December exhibition in the middle of the living room:

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As more of my work started creeping into the house I've been able to see it differently.

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Which has led me to wonder what it is that I find so desirable about using paint the way I was this summer. I've enjoyed extending the vocabulary of my paintings by using the paint as the structure, but it was starting to feel like there was still a more vibrant conversation to be had.

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I began taking trips to hardware stores to look at odd materials to use for paintings: plastic fencing, rug mats, air vents, foam underlay for flooring, bubble wrap, etc. Incorporating these items into my paintings has been working out really nicely. Many of these objects lend themselves well to being resin coated and becoming the surface to paint on. I'm still using the paint in sculptural ways, but since adding these new materials I'm not doing that as much. I'm excited to see where this goes.