My work is largely moored in the real world. All of the paintings, and most of the prints (except the three series of abstract monoprints “clean coal”, “beach day”, and “spherical”) are directly derived from my photographs. Of a landscape. At some scale. What seems to catch my eye are situations where disorder (nature) and order (geometry) collide. I capture many images as I walk down the street, and when I travel. The selection of source images starts an internal process of investigation. The effort is to uncover the essential interest that motivated the capture of the scene. As the work progresses, I attempt to recover, enhance and demonstrate that motivation. The series "cloth" is a run of prints using the same small cloth and a plastic plate as the image matrix.
Digital manipulation of the original image yields masks, stencils, and carborundum plates. The final work emerges from combinations of these components. Additional collagraphic elements and direct manipulation of the ink or paint are part of the process. Detail is reduced as the work progresses in order to reduce distraction and to provide room for the viewer to relate the work to their own experience.
The paintings are more traditionally focused on the geometric or formal aspects of the view – but contrasts in size, direction or misdirection of sight lines motivate my interest. The work is a manifestation of sharing this visual attraction, an explication of my effort to rediscover why I noticed the frame in the first place.
Current prints mostly derive from photos of the inevitable degradation of built structure, specifically cracks and dislocations in sidewalks. I insist that the force behind the work is strictly based on the forms in the original photos, but of course the originals admit to stories of time, renewal, change, and the persistence of the chaotic.
on instagram @davidhcovert