Monday, November 25, 2013

ADDING SUBTRACTION (On the Benefits of Absence)

#1302, 24" x 24", Ink and watercolor suspended in polyvinyl resin glue on cradled wood panel

After testing a full grid of new formulas (#1301, previous post) my usual procedure is to weed out the weak results and replace them with new possibilities on another full grid. But an alternative priority entered my mind - - breaking the grid.

The grid is a function of the research process - - it allows orderly notation of the formulas for future reference. But it's also an essential element of the "meaning" of the work - - to lend a sense of order and rational categorization to a mysterious phenomenon (the self-determined expansion of the materials from the center of each liquid cell). A balance of order and chaos.

But the rigid square grid offers few possibilities for variation. Or does it?

The idea that came to me here was to simply subtract the less desirable formulas leaving arbitrary openings on the glue-bed surface. A vestige of the research grid remains intact but a new compositional balance emerges with variations that allow more complex relationships between the cells. Breathing room.

In what other ways can I break out of the square grid?

Next - The Hex Grid

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