Process: Behind the Images

        Many of my favorite artists utilize the process and the materials used, rather than focus solely on a finished product and illusion. What I love about process-based artwork is the way the product reflects openly how it was made. 

A detail of Dencity, 2015.

Eva Hesse. Contingent. 1969. Cheesecloth, latex, fibreglass. Courtesy The Estate of Eva Hesse, Galerie Hauser & Wirth, Zurich.

Eva Hesse stands out as a major figure in the post-minimalist shift towards a handmade approach, and her work is very open about the materials used.

     My work is about the process as well as the product. My ideas come from local and regional architecture, but construction is also woven through much of my work as it is inherently found in architecture. 

Detail of Dencity, 2015.

​Building can be a structure or an act; both noun and verb apply. 

      Lately I’ve been wondering how much to display and include of the process in the final piece. Do I leave only small hints at how they are made or let unfinished elements and layers show more than they do? At right, a detail of Chasm reveals wood supports, cut linen, and a shape of plexiglass held on by aged screws. 

   My hybrid relief sculpture/wall pieces usually hint at their underlying structure, but as much as I love the details from the etchings… can you believe the back? 
Both left and below are details from the back of Inlet.

I’m drawn to the mess of materials and the visible process, but wondering how to include more process without detracting from the architectural imagery. To the studio!