GREATER SILENCE

Part of Field Studies

"At every level, physical, subtle and causal, there are invisible patterns of unity and oneness interconnecting all the worlds."
 - Hans Jenny

Field Studies is an ongoing series of ink paintings that have emerged from previous Zen practice. This work continues the explorations that began in the series Out of Stillness as I am investigating the emergence of pattern within the seeming random (this is known as ergodic theory).

My brush gestures create circles that continually repeat, with no erasure or measurement. As I paint, my body follows the rhythm of my breath, activating the brush on each exhale. Mutations in the series are created by changes in brush width, ink density, and the type of paper used. When the order of the circles is allowed to be determined by these and other environmental variants, the 'fields’ become spontaneous and the variations appear as random. Through these concentrated and repeated gestures, patterns of surprising ambiguity emerge.