This exhibition represents a continuation and evolution of my Asvirus body of work, in materials, concepts and visual vernacular. In 1999 and later in 2007 I titled three pieces (IN)BETWEEN which were part of a series named Order and Chaos. These pieces set early groundwork for my Asvirus series in the sense that they were about cities and complexities within them. This fictionalized in-between or nonplace is a grey area, a topic not clearly one thing or the other, and open to interpretations. These are spaces of uncertainty or intermediacy. Even more so now than in ‘99, most of us exist with one foot, or more, in virtual space. I’m interested in the further digitization of life and the technological divide and/or singularity. Human interaction with technology, organic/digital dualities, has been something I’ve remained intrigued with, for well over a decade. The new drawings in this this exhibition begin to resurge these thoughts. There is an in-between space where viewers can get a feeling, some type of emotional response, idea, thought, or lingering-mood that they may not completely understand but sticks with them in the back of their minds seeping into consciousness or dreams. I’d like this work to live in an in- between space to be revisited over time.

I’m constantly evolving the array of forms/elements within the visual language I use throughout my work. Each element is not intended to have a singular or literal interpretation. For example, dense amorphous void like shapes represent cancer, glaciers, particles, pathogens, black holes, islands, etc.. These elements are more so often than not, intended to express intrusive dominating and destructive foreign bodies, however, in the same breath they can and should be viewed as neutral and peaceful entities. This type of duality, contradiction and conflict permeates through the work. There is an intended unfinished quality to the drawings. My aim is to imply a sense of growth and/or movement. I leave the work “unfinished” whereby lines that are not actually made, but still yet, a viewers mind may subconsciously make a leap visualizing them, even though the marks are not present.

I naturally gravitated towards using ink because I enjoy how it sits on paper, its permanence and because I don’t sketch or plan out anything, for the most part, prior to applying ink to paper I revel in the decisiveness and confidence of the mark-making by this process. More than anything else I simply enjoy working with the medium immensely. Through a process of elimination and trial and error I found myself simplifying the mediums I was choosing to work with. What started out as an exercise in restraint ultimately turned into an approach that intuitively felt right for this body of work. The work is done primarily with rollerball pen refills. The immediacy of working with common place office supplies has intrigued me for many years and it just so happens that I found a pen that comes with acid free light-fast ink inside.

Through a process of elimination and experimentation over time, I arrived at using the specific blue color and type of ink for these drawings. Initially it was a very fluid decision because I wanted to break away from solely using a color palette of black, white and grey that the first few works in this series were created in. What began as a technical problem I was attempting to solve turned into a solution of simplification and restraint that met both my conceptual and technical needs in achieving a dense, diverse, rich and layered look.