NATURAL FORCES

The patterns created by the effects of water on our environment are the primary source material for Natural Forces. Fungal growth as on water-damaged surfaces, topographic changes through erosion, formations of air-borne water vapor, the geometry of light passing through water (caustics), the deformation of clay through shrinkage at its loss…  Each image, derived from my photography, gps data, or scientific illustration, is studied for its organizational power. Selections from this digital, “factual” data are then converted to one of the most basic analog techniques, ink on paper.
The ink, itself 95% water, performs in a corresponding manner to what it is set to depict. The capillary spreading stain of ink on wet paper manifests this sympathy between media and concept. The paper, too, is treated, not as a neutral surface, but as material subjected to the patterns and the forces that generate them through hand embossing from the back via hammer and sharpened nail. Each of thousands of embossing marks and their associated points of ink quantify the action; and the work thereby aspires to a suggestion of the passage of time. Another goal is a sense of ‘actuality’ for the imagery, though simultaneously, as they always do, the images open themselves to other readings and interpretations.