Wabi Sabi is a Japanese aesthetic concept that grew out of Zen Buddhism and the Japanese Tea Ceremony. One of the philosophical tenets of the Wabi Sabi view is that everything in the world is in the process of either evolving from nothingness into form or devolving from form back into nothingness and it is mostly impossible to tell, and unnecessary to know, which direction any particular thing is going. Each direction encompasses the other in its potentiality. Hope and Loss always dance together in every moment. This leads to a valuing of the particular over the universal, a high tolerance for ambiguity and happenstance, and the attending to beauty in everyday or overlooked places and objects.
My most recent work evokes the feeling of melancholy, loss and longing, but also beauty and hope that is Wabi Sabi. I work with computer-manipulated photographs of trees, monotypes (a printmaking process that produces one-of-a-kind prints) based on the photos, and actual branches collaged together to create a sense of intimate space. The play between the realism of the photos, the “real” branches, and the abstract monotypes captures the unsettledness of Wabi Sabi: Figuration? or Pattern? – Realism? or Nothingness?
I choose to photograph trees that I come across in the course of my regular travels – to and from work, shopping, local walks, visiting the family cemetery. I haven’t gone looking for a spectacular view or extraordinary specimen. These are very ordinary trees, in the cemetery, at the back of a parking lot, along the highway entrance ramp. I try to capture the beauty and specialness right under our noses everyday.
Then I create monotypes, inspired by the photos, with a process that includes a lot of opportunity for accidents and chance. These unexpected changes in the images of the prints increase the ambiguity and abstraction of the final piece. They often help induce a surreal feeling in the work.