I work with a "pharmaceutical pointillist" technique, in which I build up images out of precise, pill-shaped dots of color. Working on synthetic substrates such as Kevlar ballistic fabric and polyester canvas, each dot, made with custom tools, is a particular pill's exact size and shape. Each oval is the color that corresponds to the branding of that pharmaceutical, an actual sample of which is mixed into the paint.
I'm interested in the relationship between the parallel development in Western Modernism of abstract forms of art and synthetic pharmaceutical and pigment production in the late 1800s. I use source images from contemporary advertising that are remarkably evocative of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. These images allow me to explore how representation, abstraction, and chemical materiality infuse bodies and cultural narratives.