Research in Visual Arts: Communication Through Materials

2nd Place - The Denman Research Forum, 2011Paintings are my forms of communication, creating harmonic poetry and prose through the dancing arrangement of marks, line, pigment, texture, and materials. These tools that I use to communicate are chosen through extensive experimentation and research. Just as a scientist toils in the laboratory, or a writer armed with a dictionary and thesaurus expands their vocabulary, so does the artist with their own investigative process. For me this research came in the form of extensively exploring paint making. In search of a visual vocabulary I created over one thousand ‘experiments’ using ancient and modern processes and materials. I became an alchemist in search of the golden elixir, the appropriate palette that best communicates my chosen narrative. The results of the research were transformed into a temporary installation piece focusing on light, movement, growth, preservation, and decay. The experimental results of visually defining these words were not filed away in a file cabinet or computer hard drive, but instead they hang on vellum sheets, from three moveable rods in my studio. This structure allows easy access for the visual mind to reference and gain inspiration. These experimental findings are not an absolute, but rather interact with the consistent change of my conceptual endeavors.No embarg