Shuffled Pairs

SHUFFLED PAIRS, 2024
Ink on paper
Dimensions variable

I started making Shuffled Pairs in early December at a makeshift drawing table looking out at the Mendocino coast. I set up at the window to paint the landscape but found myself making loosely patterned ink paintings instead. I then tore them into 3x4” segments, eight from each painting. I liked how they looked combined in a big group, but not as much as I liked specific pairings.

I separated the hundreds of torn parts into pairs and sent them to friends and collaborators around the world. The collective work is unlikely to ever be reassembled. Nor can it be destroyed really, existing in so many fragments in various places. Eventually, just a few pairs will remain, on the side of an old refrigerator or in a shoebox in someone’s closet. A testament to whatever came to pass in 2024, and everything that happened after.