Artist Statement

From Drawings and Constructions, Digging Pitt Gallery, 2007

These drawings and constructions, all in various stages of completion, were inspired in part by the investigations of the biologist Ernst Haeckel, who studied microscopic marine animals in the 19th century. Haeckel’s drawings were engraved and published widely at the turn of the century, and I wondered if these intricate and lace-like images had some influence on the decorative arts of the Victorian period - particularly women’s arts - and the development of Art Nouveau. Intrigued by their seemingly endless variations on spherical forms, I have attempted to construct them in one way or another throughout this exhibition.

Spheres and Flowforms

I’m interested in the surfaces of curves, the construction of spheres, and the study of flowforms. The cells, pods, and vessel shapes that occur throughout the work, as well as the folding leaf and flower forms, are essentially water forms, or flowforms, derived from the movement of water. As I studied flowform design, I began to find evidence of fluid structure in just about every natural object I encountered. This led to an investigation into crystal structures, radiolarians, pollen grains, and other microscopic forms, which eventually revealed resemblances to mathematical models. It’s interesting to compare the construction of these microscopic spheres with their open-grid designs to the architectural space grids, towers, tanks, and liquid storage vessels of the urban-industrial environment.

Observation of Details

Most of these pictures are about the act of looking at things closely, particularly things that are small and delicate. As I have an interest in science and natural history, I try to approach my subjects in the manner of a naturalist, through research, reading, drawing, and fieldwork (walking and finding things). In this spirit, I see my work as a record of nature in the process of its disappearance. To celebrate the beauty and complexity of natural forms, and to ask the viewer to slow down and take a closer look is mostly what I’m trying to do. At the same time, I realize that our experience of nature co-exists with a knowledge of its chemical contaminants, so my interest in Haeckel’s microscopic creatures is also a record of a disappearance. As the ocean continues to absorb carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning, the acidity of seawater will eventually reach a critical point at which the skeletons of these tiny marine animals, at the base of the ocean food chain, will no longer be able to form.

Drawing and Printmaking

Much of my work ends up as mixed-media monotypes combining drawing, painting, and printmaking. As a printmaker I rarely produce editions, as I am more interested in the creation of variations based on multiples. I use a wide range of nontoxic print processes including relief, intaglio, stencil, transfer, and offset color-viscosity. As a draftsman I often follow the conventions of scientific illustration, where full chiaroscuro renderings are juxtaposed with schematic diagrams, cross-sections, or detailed enlargements. Preferring the act of sketching to the production of finished works, drawings are frequently left incomplete. For me, drawing is a means of investigating the structural designs of objects, as well as a contemplative act that offers me the time to carefully and slowly observe the beauties of nature.