Construction|Pattern
My work is rooted in pattern-based construction. Beginning with a polygon, I multiply it in a semiformal alignment. Ultimately, it manifests into crystalline forms that “become” because of what they can do. When enclosing a row of beads, the construction emphasizes the joining edge. The edge is where one shape terminates and another begins; it is where shapes interact with one another.
Each work is made in a singular material: fabric or beads. I use color to emphasize fabric’s “two-sidedness” allowing each shape to reveal its different colored side at its shared seam with another shape. When I work with tubular beads, the shapes are being described solely by their edges so the ownership of an edge to its respective shape becomes ambiguous. Neighboring shapes join at a shared edge. Color in the beadwork is kept monochromatic to emphasize the dimensional folds in the beaded plane.
Whether the plane is beaded or constructed from cloth pieces, the assembly creates a directly related pattern. Michael Shermer, historian of science coined the term patternicity which is “the tendency to find meaningful pattern in both meaningful and meaningless noise.” A well-known example of this is the silhouetted image that could be interpreted as a vase or two faces. It is our predisposition to find clarity, even when it is not clear. Therefore, a pattern can be ranked as highly organized to random and irregular.
Deciphering the “noise” is easier at these poles of the continuum. I make patterns that are somewhere between organized and random because the ambiguity requires investment to interpret. I make meaning from the meaninglessness of a given set of shapes, colors and quantities of each. While doing this, I experiment with form at its most essential components: line, shape, and plane. Removing all other considerations clarifies what is taking place in the process of making form. By aligning shapes into forms, I construct as I create a field of pattern. In my studio, I am a mathematician and musician of color and form.
Each work is made in a singular material: fabric or beads. I use color to emphasize fabric’s “two-sidedness” allowing each shape to reveal its different colored side at its shared seam with another shape. When I work with tubular beads, the shapes are being described solely by their edges so the ownership of an edge to its respective shape becomes ambiguous. Neighboring shapes join at a shared edge. Color in the beadwork is kept monochromatic to emphasize the dimensional folds in the beaded plane.
Whether the plane is beaded or constructed from cloth pieces, the assembly creates a directly related pattern. Michael Shermer, historian of science coined the term patternicity which is “the tendency to find meaningful pattern in both meaningful and meaningless noise.” A well-known example of this is the silhouetted image that could be interpreted as a vase or two faces. It is our predisposition to find clarity, even when it is not clear. Therefore, a pattern can be ranked as highly organized to random and irregular.
Deciphering the “noise” is easier at these poles of the continuum. I make patterns that are somewhere between organized and random because the ambiguity requires investment to interpret. I make meaning from the meaninglessness of a given set of shapes, colors and quantities of each. While doing this, I experiment with form at its most essential components: line, shape, and plane. Removing all other considerations clarifies what is taking place in the process of making form. By aligning shapes into forms, I construct as I create a field of pattern. In my studio, I am a mathematician and musician of color and form.
