McCauley Forrest Hart
My current work examines issues of structure and design. Formally derived for the most part, these images detail structural elements - columns, beams, stalks, supports, connectors - in various views and layers as they roam through the compositional space. My history as a graphic designer (an organizer of visual space) continually comes into play in my work.
These images usually begin with the selection of a particular device, say columns, and a method for applying them to the space. In my Season series of drawings, and more recently paintings, I use some kind of resist to cover layers of marks as I apply them. Working from light to dark (as you do in printmaking) I layer one kind of distinctive mark again and again, building up a space filled with movement and agitation. Combining the vertical forms of the masked areas and a title such as "Threshing/Autumn", a time of year and activity are evoked. I almost always work in series - this also comes from the proofing and editioning processes in printmaking. I want to see how a method and idea plays out over some period of time and effort.
More recently, I have taken cues for images from the plant life here in the Southwest. These forms are more often curved or bent, and whip through the picture with some real energy. The colors are subdued, earthy and also are inspired by the color I see in the desert. Using relief techniques, I have been printing the same handful of plates in different juxtapositions and layering them with color to create new combinations.
