Nathan Jackson Gallery
One is through the use of pattern. By taking an abstracted form or a geometric shape and covering the entire canvas, I am able to create a solid two-dimensional plane. This is sometimes called crystallographic balance or all over pattern. By doing this, it allows me to escape some of the limiting factors of linear perspective and to concentrate on a paint film as a solid entity that is both the foreground and the background.
This type of balance or pattern is a useful element in my painting. However, I do not feel that I can communicate the full range of the human experience with this alone. I am a figurative painter, and I have found that the human figure (its facial features, body shape, and form) is a perfect way to communicate complex ideas. Therefore, what I endeavor to do is to blend together both pattern and figure. While this disrupts many aspects of crystallographic balance, it allows for a higher sense of focus and expression.