IMPROVOS

 Improvisation means creating or performing something spontaneously, without specific or scripted preparation, beyond, of course, preparation in the language or method of the form. Miles Davis said that there is no such thing as a “wrong” note, per se; the note that’s played next determines whether the previous one was good or bad. In engineering, improvisation aims to address a problem with the tools and materials at hand. In this body of work, the canvases are a site of improvisational action, each a turbulent surface meshing different vectors of movement.

 Or, more accurately, each canvas, presently at rest, came out of such improvisation. The result is visual flux and transformation, evidenced by a progressive series of actions that build, disrupt and rebuild the work. Dense, agitated surfaces and buoyant, open colors rest on the edge of collapse. The surfaces seem to struggle, even fail, and yet assert a commitment to process that is joyous and hopeful. The paintings reach toward meaning but haven’t arrived at a place where that meaning is fixed. The improvised conversation carries on, one hopes, beyond the paintings themselves.