All she wrote is my most reductive work to date made during a particularly chaotic period in my life. The simplicity of paper, watercolor paints and metal point drawing all come together in concept and process for this body of work.

Water color paints are notorious for the unforgiving nature of the pigment once laid on paper. Metal point is also a drawing method that you cannot really erase. The third component for the work is a child’s toy called a Spirograph from my childhood which promises beautiful patterns made with colored pens. All materials used in this work lend themselves to an expression of beauty derived from the abstractions, purity, simplicity, depth and order of geometric math.

The Spirograph toy in all its variations is a geometric drawing device. It is supposed to be easy to use but in my experience is frustratingly difficult and has created a lifelong obsession with the toy. The patterns it makes are created by the path a user traces on a curve while rolling on another curve without slipping. Easy, right? Not so much as I often slip the gears resulting in skips, broken lines and irregular patterns.

Metal point drawing is done with a thin metal wire inserted into a mechanical pencil holder on a prepared surface. As the mechanical pencil moves over the textured ground it leaves tiny particles of metal and creates a mark. The metal becomes part of the surface and is not easily erased. My concept of using a mechanical toy and unforgiving drawing method with a textured pigment ground allows me to accept the broken patterns of multiple attempts with empty promises of success and to see the beauty in process. Choosing these methods generates multiple ideas of how much is enough. All she wrote becomes a visual statement that means nothing more to say. Patterns, difficulties and similarities are part of human life. Math has rules but also beauty and can be creative in application.