Construction No. 50

The oldest intentional marks in paint that we know of include geometric shapes on walls deep within caves in France, Spain and Indonesia. In my work, I strive to give the viewer access to the perspective of these original painters. It was at this point in our collective history that we took the first steps towards impressing our symbolic representations on the world. We applied the structure of oral language to the structure of the repeated marks in paint and, in doing so, created the symbol. Ultimately, this led to the creation of writing, which, while astounding in its scope to encompass reality, is necessarily limited. I believe that the limitations inherent in symbolic representation now constrain the image and stop us from recognizing the importance of the image that lies outside the scope of its symbolic meaning. By focusing on simple forms that do not refer to anything outside themselves, my work reveals the importance of the image in its original state, before symbolic meaning has been applied to it.