88 keys

In 2017, I participated in the musically-inspired One-Hit Wonders show at GlaveKocen Gallery. My piece, originally entitled “Thomas Dolby, She Blinded Me With Science” was a nod towards my chemical rendering process. The songs’ debut was 1982, the year I graduated from the University of South Carolina. Figuring out how to subdivide a 36” x 38” sheet of copper to do the collage I had in mind, I knew I was on the right course when the number, 8 columns, 11 rows, gave me 88—the exact number of keys on a piano. I rendered 144 mint leaves onto two inch copper squares, and arranged them on the 88 square grid. As I was composing the layout, many of the leaf renderings looked as interesting or more interesting on the reverse side. I decided to try to show both the intention [leaf renderings] and the happy accidents [the reverse side of the renderings] as a nod to the process: How do we decide what we show to the world? Is it what we intend? Or is it what happens in the process of our becoming that shows up in unexpected ways and inconvenient places? I still enjoy finding happy accidents in my work, always checking the reverse side as worthy of consideration.