Dafu Diptych

I see my work as abstract interpretations of subject matter that is usually quite specific. In a broad sense, I am interested in the connection between things which are opposed, what they have in common, and what kind of visual statement they make when combined. For me, all art that is meaningful deals in multifarious ways with the reconciliation of opposites.

Since I began drawing and painting at a very early age, my work has evolved from figurative to various types of abstraction. Although I am primarily a painter, I occasionally work with oil sticks on paper, applying them heavily so that they appear much like paint. On a physical level, the use of color and its role in expression and communication is of paramount importance in what I do. I have a strong interest in surface as well, and I prefer to work on large canvasses, scraping, scratching, over-layering and glazing. At times it is this physicality itself that triggers the work, but more often it is my response to something I have seen or read, music I enjoy, current events in the news or travel experiences.

Some of my paintings and drawings incorporate mark-making, mostly obscured or unreadable text, and/or an element of architectural shape. Simultaneously, I continue to have a fascination with nearly empty, contemplative canvasses (a type of landscape referential minimalism) where color and texture are key. Presently my interest is divided between these two types of work and my challenge is to resolve this dichotomy. — Maggi Brown

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