Currently, I am investigating different methods of filling areas with color and pattern. Through the use of porcelain, decals, china paint, and cut paper, multiple layers of surface are created that interact together. The end result of the process is a mesh of visual information that seems to exist between painting and architecture.
Most of the patterns have a beginning point as wallpaper samples dating prior to 1900. I am drawn to this imagery because of the complexity -- it has a dense matrix of information that lends itself to being opened up. It is not important to keep the original order intact, but to use it as a starting point to expand upon. The designs then become distorted through repetition and expansion, camouflaging them into the surface above and below. I am also exploring both the positive and negative, changing the focus of foreground to background. Each piece is created to be seen from several viewpoints, and contains information at a distance as well as close up. I am interested in the large and the small simultaneously, and create micro details along with macro arrangements.
The work is placed at a level that engulfs the viewer at close range, making them a part of the piece. Cut paper is used in several instances as a way to continue the ceramic onto the wall: to expand the patterns beyond the glazed edge. The decoration inside each piece is contained, but seems to have an implied motion of moving out and taking over the space around it.