LAURA PAULINI |
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Artist's Statement The creation of my work contains elements of ritual. The white square paintings are completed in a single sitting on a single day and the monochrome works on paper over a set of days with a predetermined schedule. I make the marks across the surface, left to right and top to bottom, as if writing. Although I set the marks down one by one in sequential lines, their position and size vary slightly one to the other. These variations, which I accept and even welcome, add up to become waves which ripple across the surface, waxing and waning. They distort and free the underlying grid structure of the square while staying safe inside its shape. Each of the colored dot paintings begins with the placement of a single dot of either watercolor paint on paper or egg tempera paint on panel into the exact center of a square. From that first point, the simple, iconic compositional structure is built dot-by-dot until the surface has been fully traveled. The route of that journey is out from the center. The panel is rotated clockwise and each quadrant is addressed sequentially. The color scheme evolves over the days of the painting's creation and—due to the evolutionary manner in which the dots are placed—isn't fully realized until the very last dot is in place. At that moment, the painting either clicks into place, or it doesn't. A very specific visual texture and optical effect are created by the imperfect placement of the dots, the color and grain of the wooden maple surface showing from behind and around them, and the shifting hues and shapes of the dots themselves. In addition to the pleasure I find in the execution of the work, I enjoy exploring the tension between the wavering rows of dots and the stable, square shape of the image. In this way, my art embodies dualities I find in myself and the world around me. The square format and step-by-step execution illustrate the beauty in measured movement, with an implication of progression, balance and completion. The unique and irregular marks that cover the surface—an unaltered record of every touch—evidence the equally vital effect chance brings into play. It is this contrast—between the desire for order and harmony and the need for the organic and serendipitous—that interests me and which I hope to make visible in my abstractions. — Laura Paulini |