2018-2021
24 archival inkjet pigment prints; edition of 6 plus 2 artist's proofs; sizes vary from 22" x 21" to 22" x 30"
When I began working on the Mystic Light series in 2018 using the white scrim, I also started a series with the black scrim, placing behind it the same tall glass vertical forms. It was not successful. The forms were too realistic, their outlines too prominent behind the more open-meshed black scrim; and the gestural black shadows created by the scrim’s folds seemed to move laterally rather than three dimensionally. Lacking a sense of depth, intensity, or internal movement, the images felt like designs. I abandoned the project.
The following year I looked again at my earlier prints. There was one good image, in which I had used a cube and had moved in closer. After studying the print, I started over, focusing on the cube, sometimes juxtaposed with vertical forms behind the scrim. As always, I worked with indirect natural light; this time, I manipulated the scrim until it created an intense glow of light that accentuated the volumetric feeling of the cube. Where dark folds in the scrim appeared, they now thrust forward rather than across, increasing the sense of three-dimensional movement.
Finally, by angling the objects and minutely adjusting their distance behind the scrim, the outlines of their sides partly dissolved into space, creating a sense of depth, spatial ambiguity, and mystery.