IMAGE: METRO GRID

Typically I work with squares. Now I work with triangles. The image above is titled Metro, paper and acrylic on panel, 24″x24″ (2012). Notice there are triangles inside rectangles. Triangles are emerging.

WHY TRIANGLES?

I saw an image of an African textile with a diamond pattern in black and white that inspired the new triangle diamond series. I am intrigued with triangle patterns and love black and white. I think black and white are colors (many times I insinuate yellow into white and red into black). I think there are so many ways you can create patterns with triangles. It all depends on the shape of the triangles and how they stack.

IMAGE: 640_nikkal 1_ 11×10

The TRIANGLE DIAMOND collage above (image: 9″x10″) was the first small work in the new series, Four were exhibited at the Silvermine Galleries recently. Now they’re back in my studio and I plan to play with the design in a larger format. I will look at the small work as I create a large work. It may look different.

I need a lot of papers if I plan to work in large format. I’ve been painting papers for days. Every paper was black or white. Then, I decided to detour from  black and white to painting colors for a collage with thin diamonds. I started to paint papers in green, brown, teal blue, golden yellow, black, white and red.

IMAGE: 640_triangles diamonds canvas 24 x 24

The image above is a new finished collage with diamonds. It’s a geometric grid on 24″ x 24″ canvas made with painted papers. Notice there are triangles inside diamonds in this painting. I love the colors. It was so much fun to paint colors in layers, color over color, and scrape into the paint to create stripes and patterns. It was a challenge to place the papers on the diagonal. I didn’t lay the papers out in advance. The collage grew organically.

IMAGE close up triangles diamonds canvas

The image above is a close up of the collage and shows overlapping papers before they were glued down.

IMAGE: painted papers on the floor.

The image above shows a growing stack of painted papers on newsprint on the floor in my studio. I know I need many, many more papers.

Thank you for reading. Please email me comments and questions. I have more triangle and diamond collages in process, and will write about the work in upcoming newsletters.