June 2023
This was my first semester in the Lesley MFA program, and I used my studio time to explore several different questions. The first was technical. As a former sculptor, I wanted to begin to learn how to paint with oil (although obviously that is a life-long project). The second was to connect my studio practice with the conceptual interests that emerged in my written papers. Especially the spiritual content of the work of Japanese conceptual artist On Kawara. The third question was the relationship between figure and ground in two-dimensional work, or how to define or experiment with what constitutes "ground." There was plenty to tackle with these three on the plate.
But the two clay heads here transpired at the eleventh hour. They seemed to demand to be made, emphatically contradicting my conscious intentions to pursue rational abstraction in two dimensions. Existing in close proximity to the paintings and prints that had been made over the semester, the heads were a scary question-mark. This fear felt like a good reason to include them in the residency.