Artist statement

Signature 2020
 
Sometimes I feel like the relentless progress of progress is threatening to smother my distinct, personal self. And I know I’m not alone. When life is being radically changed by technology, at some point, you need to dig in your heels and figure out where you stand. That was the impetus behind Signature 2020, my current solo exhibit at the George Billis Gallery, New York.
In this series I created painted aluminum wall and floor sculptures that are composed of non-color, black and white ovals suggesting the Universal through which cuts the Individual in the form of an ink- blue line.

Why call it “Signature”?

Because I want to capture the distinctive pattern, product or characteristics by which someone or something can be distinguished. The personality I weave through the painted blue stroke throughout this series has always been in my work since I began oil painting at the age of 7. I love the expression of a fluid, cleanly painted line. Notably, I include these distinctive strokes and carefully display them just as they would be in signatory real life -- from left to right. It is my subtle but distinctive way of not just preserving the importance of identity -- but my identity.
Along with the three natural identity traits – the fingerprint, the iris and DNA – only the signature is acquired or learned. 

Therefore, sadly, due to the universal march of technology, this individualistic human identifier is being used less and less.  In fact, cursive writing is not even being taught in schools today. The titles of the pieces in this series reference other things we have lost, such as “A Complete Sentence”, and “Write Me a Note”. In my “Hashtag Signature” piece I suggests we take a pause to consider our spiritual identity as well. In this time of our dis-ease with the mechanizing, methodizing and alteration of our, and our planet’s, basic building blocks, Signature 2020 is a call to action to announce out loud and in vivid color, against the non-color standardization of the universe, the vital importance of our personal signatures.