Borrow the Mountain
I see Borrow the Mountain as a method of unfolding the way we experience landscape. 16 feet long and 8 feet high, these panoramic paintings engulf the viewer’s frame of vision. The paintings have multiple topographic layers to them: at the base of each painting’s topography is an abstract paint-splatter rendering reminiscent of both galactic and cellular imagery. The topmost topographical layer is a thickly painted color blend, reminiscent of skies and horizon lines. Through an intricately checkered web created through masking and removal, these two layers permeate one another, oscillating between two very distinct optical strata. Color, texture, mark, and image complicate the cerebral shift that takes place as the viewer reconciles the shifting patchwork of the two layers. At the base of the painting sits all the masking that has been removed from the surface, suggesting both seasonal variations in landscape and the passage of time in its relationship to the process of making the work.
Both Borrow the Mountain pieces are components to the larger installation project The Triangles Through the Leaves.
