Explaining My Work:: A Pattern of Uncertainty/ A Pattern of Stability.

This is a new post in my series Explaining My Work.

For this post, I'm going to talk about 2 brand new pieces. I've been thinking about the pieces for a long time, but i don't usually write about brand new pieces because living with the work for a time usually brings new thoughts to the conversation.

The pieces are sisters, and both are slated for a show Personal Patterns at the Cafritz Foundation Art Center in Silver Spring Maryland. 

This is the information I sent for the catalogue:

I began the works in Personal Patterns by thinking about choices we have previously made, and choices we are currently contemplating. The two pieces I have created reflect these two different issues and the underlying patterns of those mental places. 

A Pattern of Uncertainty

In the Patterns of Uncertainty, I depict doors as the options presented before us. There is an act of volition in choosing what door to enter. But also shown, is the capricious and outside forces of a child blowing wind affecting the course of a ship at sea. The interplay between our will, and the motions of the universe on our actions. 

A Pattern Of Stability

In the 2nd piece, The Patterns of Stability, I thought about decisions I’ve made in life, decisions that resulted in being held securely, but also being held, locked into place. The locks hold an ambiguous meaning of both security but also inaccessibility. A double looped knot and the emergence of a key in the imagery adds to the sense of the result and resolution of past decisions.

Both pieces are presented with a background of a pattern. For me, this is the patterns that we fall into, keeping the rhythm and reoccurring themes of our lives, but also sometimes, a predictability we try to overcome. I use the patterns from old tin ceilings to create a feeling of the age of these patterns, that they are remnants of decisions made even before we are born. The represent to me the influences on our lives, and sometimes things we are simply drawn toward. 

My work is window glass that I form into molds in a kiln. Once fired, I add drawings and photos, and paint various layers of glass. Finally the pieces are backlit, allowing the viewer to see all the subtle layers of imagery, textures, and bubbles in the glass.