Cary Town Hall: April 1 – May 29, 2026
Medium: Oil and acrylic paintings
There is something inherently pleasing about the aesthetics of geometry. The precision, balance and exactness of it all. The ease of its symmetry. Thinking of geometry brings to mind architecture with its hard angles and straight lines. It conjures nature with the crystal structures, the arrangements of petals in a flower, the layers of feathers on the wings of a bird. The tools of geometry are built for exactness, measuring to the smallest increments, producing the finest lines, the most perfect circles and arcs. Even the equations have a balance and an order that conveys the logical, mathematical, step by step nature of the discipline.
Geometry has a predominant place in art as well. The golden ratio has been used by the old masters to build air tight compositions. Geometry features in Bauhaus, minimalism, dada and op art movements. Masters (and heroes of mine) like Agnes Martin, Sol Lewitt and Wassily Kandinsky made careers with their use of geometric forms.
I also have made geometry a focus of my work with sharp lines and crisp angles featuring prominently, yielding very precise results. Geometry is a major part of how I see the world and my work. But after decades spent with tape and straight edges I started to wonder; what would happen if I took the tools away. Could I create something that is still geometric but softer, with more warmth…the warmth that comes from the human eye, hand and mind, unaided by the tools I have come to depend on.
The result of this exploration is what I have termed ‘soft geometry’. It features similar elements of shape, spacing and composition, of rhythm and balance. But it replaces precision with intuition. It makes use of texture. The work focuses on what connects elements as opposed to what divides them and blurs some of the lines between back and fore ground. The work demands a letting go of control. A willingness to trust the moment, trust the materials and to trust my instinct.
Some of the pieces are still precise with only elements of this soft geometry. Others go further towards the unknown. It is still a process for me learning to go where the painting wants to go. I hope you will join me and see where it can take you as well.
