I see math. At one time that was the only way I could name what I was witnessing in nature. Pedestrians cluster, break up and re-cluster, weave, crisscross and layer as they maneuver their way through our urban environment, always conscience of proximity to one another. On the surface there seems to be no relationship in nature’s many life-forms, but I see more. I witness the flow and intersection of tree branches and the clusters and layers of their leaves; it brings to mind the flowing and clustering of city dwellers about their city sidewalks. I imagine invisible wavelengths connecting individuals cluster by cluster, as in the above-described tree system. If one takes a birds-eye view of a delta river basin, the same composition occurs. It seems these patterns are seen throughout nature in internal as well as external systems, in one’s body, and those of other life forms. Nature’s order is subtle and secretive, fooling one at a cursory glance. My ongoing series, “Nature’s Composition”, is born of an intuitive understanding of my urban environment.
Working with my matrix on the floor enables me to approach the painting from all sides. I keep up front what I witness in New York City’s streets and parks. With my viscous paints I use organic shapes when systematizing my perceptions of nature’s seemingly chaotic order. Using an array of techniques, I walk around my substrate in search of the crucial point of entry. That having been found, I drip, squirt, splatter, spray and pour my fluid acrylics. I race against time; maneuvering and pivoting; working with, and cheating gravity. A blow dryer via blow back serves to get my flow systems flowing in all directions. My visual calculations are confirmed by measuring the potential contiguity of each application of paint. Calculating the placement of my symmetrical lines and organic markings, I dance in all directions across my matrix. Based on proximity, I create relationships in disparate shapes, creating relationships through flow systems, tension, concentration of forms, intertwining layers of opaque and translucent variants.
Nature’s Composition has spiraled into a new medium lamp-work. I am creating sculptured beads that are inspired by my paintings. Like my paintings the beads are infused with opposites and layers of translucent and opaque colors of glass weaving and crisscrossing into clusters.
Over subsequent years, the more I referred to the above scenarios when working, the more I understood that the elements of math I was intuitively recognizing as Nature’s Math, is the same math that has been translated and formalized into “man’s math” as fractals, ratios, named shapes and human-designed sequences, intervals, density. Finally I understood what I was seeing. My series Natures’ Composition is a personal celebration of my understanding of the math symmetry I was intuitively recognizing in all life forms, and used in making connections with art and physics.