The nature of Slippery Geometry is an exercise in futility, by design. Jokingly, that makes an excellent metaphor for life.
Centrally, it’s a collection of single-material works of layered geometric repetitions–aiming to be an even field, with no single focal point. Instead, each piece is infinitely divisible into sub-compositions as the eye moves around the work. The wet materials defy precision, but add nuance, complicating the delineations.
Slippery Geometry was arrived at by merging two long-running personal interests: a lifelong love of monochromatic painting maintained for decades (borne of an obsession with materials) and the pursuit of a rewarding way to paint abstract objects with inherently fluid media.
As luck would have it, a breakthrough was made while traveling. Armed with only a bottle of walnut ink, a small pad of paper and a single brush, the pieces made while on that journey fired the imagination. Being mid-March, 2020, it was also a trip cut short by the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdowns.
A wellspring of inspiration met with a surplus of free time.
Slippery Geometry is a well-defined but flexible concept that has expanded into separate sub-categories, broken out by material. Each series finds its own expression within the whole, while staying true to the core idea. Now that the vocabulary is defined, and expanded, there’s new room to experiment, seeing if the work retains its essential nature but becomes more flexible. It remains an ongoing body of work.
-Ames Finney, 2023