The top photo is about 4'x2', mixed media on Rives. The bottom photo is about 2'x1', mixed media on paper. I see them both as exercises in composition, color, space, and materials. I'm experimenting with surface, magazine transfers, and incorporating the blue tape into the work that was used to affix it to the wall while working. I'm presently fascinated by the order in which a color or shape is laid down and how what comes after it affects whether it sits on top of the surface or under it. For example, the typewriter was laid in before the brown ink ground around it, yet it appears to be hovering above or sitting on the ink ground. I also like how the typewriter becomes a weird 3-d accordion fold that then spills into a large white ground. The paper beneath the white paint strives to remind us that this is not an image, but white paint on paper. In other words it shows a history of what came first in the process (the collaged paper) and refuses to let us accept the work as merely image.
A similar thing happens in the top photo where the white gesso meets the white paper. Because the gesso has body and is a much brighter white than the paper, it subtly sits on top of the paper even though from a distance it could almost blend right in. There are two reasons for this: 1. The pencil drawing of the box is drawn to look like it goes behind the gesso and 2. The gesso caught and trapped some eraser bits, drawing attention to the gesso's surface and its differentiation from the white paper around it.
