The Scaffold: New Abstracts

I have been obsessed with scaffolds since the day I got my first camera and started walking around looking at things. I love the diagrammatic quality of them, how they point to geometric systems in plan view and elevation. How they layer in the landscape of the built environment with infinite variation. They are both a structure and a space: mostly space, enclosed by tenuous lines that can hold up a fleet of construction workers or a wall or the hull of a ship on shore. They are filigree and lattice, ornament and infrastructure.

Here is a selection of recent pieces. For these I use my design mind and my experimental printmaker mind. Using imaging software as my press I layer dozens of textures and colors and photographs, altered to become pure abstraction. The work lives as fine art prints on paper or canvas, offered in limited editions of 10. Details on availability at the end of this post.

"On the High Beam"

"Wind Scaffold"

"Magellan's Ladder"

"House of Mysteries"

"The Sky is Not Always Above You"

"Dream Scaffold"

What I love about the scaffold theme is not just its abstract qualities, but its metaphors. If you build anything, whether it's a house or a life, you need a structure to hold it up as you go. The structure can be a poem, a song, a belief, or a beam you actually stand on while you reach. Sometimes the scaffold is simply a question. What's yours?

This series is available in 24x24 or 30x30 inch sizes on paper or canvas from SaatchiArt, or in small sizes from my shop at Iskra Fine Art.