Primal Forms is a body of work that was created during my 2-month residency at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Connecticut in 2018. Informed by continued research and experimentation with bodily geometry and the abstraction of the human form, the interlocking shapes reflect primal elements that can be seen as both primitive and tribal as well as cosmic and universal.

Created through a ritualistic and alchemical process, each canvas becomes a palimpsest of layered quartz, ash, green earth, mud and walnut, using earth-based pigments which are made by hand in my studio from natural materials collected during my travels. The resulting sensual intermesh aims to transport the viewer into the realm of the unconscious, the primordial forms acting as contemplative spaces, openings beyond time and space.

Inspired by the natural world, the works aim to travel beyond its physical manifestation to the inner realm of symbols. The paintings invoke seed forms that are germinative, containing within them the primal cosmic energy, a union of male and female, reminiscent of a cave, a womb, a tomb—the spaces out of which creation and the cycles of birth and death emerge.