An Indigenous story tells that the known universe came into being through the separation of two lovers locked in an embrace. This story, along with many of my own life experiences, led me to believe that art is not an act of synthesis but of separation—that I cannot fully understand something without placing it in relation to something else. This body of work explores the idea that separation is a fundamental component of existence.
I am inspired by Japanese ink paintings, which look upon not what is seen, but what is not seen. Sumi ink paintings emphasize that the white empty space of an image is symbolic of that which is unexpressed: the perfect imperfection. My work incorporates the notion that negative space is not merely an inactive, stable support for solid objects, but rather represents a dynamic force both within and around objects we refer to as solid. More than a passive background for the real subject, the negative space is as much a focal point as the positive subject.
The writer Goethe once wrote, Good and evil are two sides of the same coin. Static and dynamic, positive and negative, beautiful and grotesque: I believe that all things are interconnected. With this body of work, I have expressed an approach to seeing objects in a context beyond dualistic mechanisms in order to show that dualities are not separate but inherently connected. (1999)