Space and Illusion is from the artist's first solo exhibition at Jen Bekman Gallery, entitled Doing a Lot with Very Little.

Doing a Lot with Very Little is the result of my endeavor to create a series of non-narrative work. I am using recognizable imagery and the language of systems to create a dialog where the mathematical and the organic cohabitate, creating a world of exploration and curiosity. I chose to paint houseplants after coming across some elegant images in a Japanese architecture book. I've painted them before and found myself returning to plants when I needed a break from the detailed birds I had been working on previously. I like the quiet and contemplative way drawings of ordinary houseplants can say so much through very little. The abstract drawings are observations in color, value and composition, generating three-dimensional images in a two-dimensional space. They act as pauses between the houseplant paintings. It is an organic process; each color choice was in response to the previous color painted. Simple marks combine together to create an optical illusion, much like the subtle value changes and intricate lines that make up the images of houseplants. The majority of my source material is found online and my final artwork is often viewed online. Is the final image just a collage of media reconstituted through me? I can't even really see a drawing until I scan it and view it on my screen, knowing that is where the majority of my audience will view the work. Drawings and paintings were the first ways humans recorded imagery and communicated. Nowadays, recorded images are captured and edited with digital media. How has this changed the way we see, construct and choose our images? Pixels create a large chunk of our visual world. With that in mind, how is experiencing art in person different than what you will see online?

Each piece is hand signed and dated by Carrie Marill