STATEMENT OF WORK

Growing up in the 1980’s, my eyes were trained to see the world in simple, distilled shapes. From my early childhood in the US through my pre-teens in Japan, my favorite comics, graphic arts and product designs embraced effortless, decisive lines and a blissful economy of form. Bold contrasting colors abound, imbuing their contours with a euphoric charge. These elements became the basis of my visual vocabulary, the lens through which I perceived, translated, and generated pictorial information. 

My art practice today is driven by the ever-expanding potential of drawing and by the elasticity of visual perception. Committed to the in-person viewing experience, I aim to produce singular works whose full effect can only be witnessed first-hand. These days I am especially compelled by the double-edged nature of visual cognition, a tool for efficiency and survival yet rich with pitfalls and glitches: as it fills in missing information and discards unwanted data, the brain is, in effect, constantly drawing. Both as a producer and observer of images, it is within these faulty and often hidden areas of seeing that I find the most excitement.

In my latest project, I engage the effect of anaglyph 3D glasses through red-and-cyan drawing installations and smaller works on panel. The contrasting high-chroma hues clash and collide, generating a potent vibration to the bare eye. When seen through 3D glasses, the image now flickers relentlessly between background and foreground, positive and negative space, and flatness and volume. As each lens masks its corresponding color, the brain fails to integrate the picture as a complete whole. The resulting effect, disorienting both in a physical and psychological sense, is compounded by the spatially ambiguous compositions. The shape, scale and density of the forms each affect the flickering differently— a field of tiny polka dots might scintillate more rapidly, yet less loudly, than an expanse of bold stripes. As the observer approaches or walks away from a detail, its flickering behavior changes. The viewer’s subjective perception is essential in completing the work. In my own way, I seek to give shape to the uncertainty and exhilaration lurking within our visual processes.