Plaids

Pen and ink drawings on watercolor paper, drawn by a robot.

For the Plaid series, I wanted to explore how I could draw layered color fields using very restricted means: identical tiny parallel pen strokes, and a constrained layout system that I could use to create layers of patterns of parallel bands.

I wrote a custom Mac app to let me graphically design these plaids by quickly changing parameters and seeing the results. To create the works themselves, I use a pen plotter robot that I program to draw those designs onto paper using ink pens.

These are very much physical, analog works. Every bit of the hundreds of meters of ink is carefully drawn over many hours. They have variation and errors and each is unique.

Within the restricted constraints of plaid, I am exploring subjects like geometric minimalism, color, symmetry, scale-free behavior, illusions of depth, negative space acting as positive space, and how we can't help but interpret and make stories about abstract images.