The pieces don’t want to stay inside their four sides. They want more air, more relationship to the room, more space for feeling. Letting the larger paintings remain unframed is coming out of that questioning, out of trying to listen instead of default.
The smaller 8x10 works are bringing their own set of questions. I want them to feel held without being boxed in, and an idea that’s been quietly brewing is starting to take shape: building custom-cut mounts that give the pieces an artifact-like presence. Instead of reaching for what’s usual, I’m building each mount by hand specifically for this show. They’re custom-sized, carefully cut, and individually stained to support the vision. It’s slower and uncertain, and I’m still working through whether it will fully land, but sometimes choosing the unfamiliar is exactly what the work is asking for, and my job as the artist is to see it through.
