What Remains

​In the summer of 2019 Mako invited me to use his Pasadena studio while he worked in Princeton. This space was a turning point in my artistic practice and has laid the foundation for all of the work I am currently doing. In our most recent conversation on YouTube (shared below) we talk about the edges of things: making from the edges, what happens in the borders, what gets left behind. As we were talking I remembered some photos from 2019 that I took of the Pasadena studio floor. In this first image you can see some of Mako's remnant paint and some of my fresh marks. In the images below you can see the paintings or prints that happen on the floor, in my case directly under the paper works. What happens is that as I work on the paper surface, water finds its way over the edges and below along with the pigment. Even when there are plastic tarps the salt grinds thru them and creates holes that allow for these other images. A good mop of the floor and they disappear (such is the nature of water-based materials). And yet their ephemerality is part of what makes them captivating. You have to observe it now, because tomorrow it will be gone. What are some of the by-products of your primary work? How do you pay attention to them?