Progression Statement
My work up to now has essentially been an experiment in communication. The goal was to get the visual language to a point where it could stand on its own without the support of a statement such as this. This effort was in response to a style of art that was indecipherable to most of the viewing public without professional assistance. Wandering exhibitions it was common for me to see baffled viewers search the brief text hanging alongside the art trying to make some sense out of what they were looking at. Often what they read did not clarify, but merely compounded their confusion.
It might be possible to take my strivings for clarity as an affront on the idea of abstraction. This is not the case. The mode of abstraction can be a playground for the artist allowing opportunity for experimentation and renewal. While this is all well and good, the viewer should not be forgotten. True, painting is a spectator sport but the artist should not assume that the viewer already knows the rules of the game. So, how do you show the viewer that you aren’t hiding anything? How do you tell them that there is no secret meaning?
You can’t really. It is in our nature to look for patterns and meaning in unfamiliar things. What I have tried to do then is to give the viewer something else to look at. I have made a sandbox to contain my play. The numbers that dominate the pieces serve as containers for the abstraction, play and experimentation that the work is really about. They give the eye a familiar starting point, instantly putting the viewer at ease. You know what you are looking at. This solution is not unlike that achieved by Jasper Johns in his iconic ‘Flag’ paintings.
Perhaps the question will then become “Why?” instead of “What?” There will always be questions. Some questions, in my opinion, are better than others.