My new body of work, the phenomenology of painting, is an extension of my previous explorations. Whereas earlier work investigated empathy, and the way we form emotional connections to the objects around us, this work more widely considers the mysteries of physical presence, and the way that complex meaning can be created through motion and abstract form.

Phenomenology is a philosophical movement that can be described in its basic form as attempting to objectively study topics normally considered subjective, such as the experience of perception. The unique experience of looking at a painting has been an area of intense phenomenological inquiry: Why are we so interested in these flat, usually rectangular objects on the wall? And what happens when we look at them? Throughout the last 100 years there has been much discussion of the essential “nature” of painting, and the relative value of acknowledging the flatness and stillness of the picture plane versus attempting to create illusions of depth and movement. One of the major tenets of Modernism, which deeply influenced all the paintings that inspired this work, was that the arts should tend toward utilizing only their most indispensable components. Thesae pieces are intended as an exploration of what happens when one breaks this rule.

“the phenomenology of painting (Albers machine)” specifically explores the relationship of abstract painting to spatial illusion. Throughout the last 100 years there has been much discussion of the “nature” of painting, and the relative value of acknowledging the flatness of the picture plane vs. explicitly creating the illusion of depth. This piece both pokes fun at and investigates these stances by creating the illusion of depth in three wall-mounted objects that very closely resemble Joseph Albers paintings from the series “Homage to the Square.”