Synthetic Aesthetic

Synthetic Aesthetic
1997

In the same way Color-Field painting freed color with its immediacy and the melding of acrylic to fabric, these works on dishcloth freed my materials from the buffer of dyes, resin, assorted varnishes and woodworking. Using scissors instead of brush (Tree, Dust, Lace Silhouette, Centrepiece) or weaving a tapestry (Flowerbed, Plastic Leaf Arrangements) they tipped the scales in the direction of pure thought. With little to come between the materials in my hand and the image in my head, a spontaneous growth spurt occured. As an artist who prepared and prepared almost athletically before beginning each painting, this parallel body of work was a pleasant exhalation. Like finding bones, each piece was a skeletal companion to its fleshly counterpart of painting. The dishcloth provided a readymade backdrop, and I don’t mind at all the associations of the kitchen — working, making things, cleaning up. In Handiwipe (Blue, Pink, Yellow) one kind of dishcloth meets another of a different stripe. You might think of Agnes Martin’s grids and stripes but the everyday nature of the materials erase much of the seriousness of minimalism while still managing to hold onto a core classicism.