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 CLICK ON IMAGE TO SEE SHOW | My paintings in Cloudbusting have unfolded from a non-objective exploration of media. I am interested in pushing the plasticity of paint, deconstructing surfaces and atmospheric manipulations. I pursue meditative, obsessive, mark making and forcing “organic” forms out of paint. I often use a monochromatic palette to elevate the presence of subtle shifts between materials and the refraction of light. The initial stages of my process are quick and gestural, rapidly manipulating surface tension and dissolving pigments. After working through movements of the automatic the process slows to a drawl, lacing intricate lines, burns and blurs through the first patterns. The violence of subjecting a canvas to a torch is diametrically opposed to the soft, sweeping lines of smoke and the subsequent illuminations with which I respond. I appreciate the tenuous dichotomy between chaos and control—the imagery delicately coaxed out of the edges of destruction. As a counterpoint to my paintings on canvas, I am also exhibiting a series of magnetized panels. These works sit on the sculptural edge of drawing; incorporating dimension through the use of resins, iron and spackle. Playing off of intimate natural forms and industrialized materials the resin provides a medium to highlight minutia. You can see the path of the iron being pulled through the resin, tracing a visual migration over time. The subsequent objects become reliquaries of movement. My works allow the viewer to interpret for themselves, dissolving the space between landscapes of violence and the quietude of calligraphic movement. Conceptually, the flow of paint evokes a flux from cellular microcosms to the vast topographies of the macrocosm and somehow manages to engage a sense of the sublime. The formalist center of my work lies in compounding organic forms and exploiting the dynamism of the paint itself. -Nika Blasser |
