Untitled (Tone Series)
Mixed Media on Paper

Susan Constanse

The works comprising the Stream series are a non-verbal journal, recording the evolution of a visual language. Each piece is produced over several days and is completed in succession. This process presents a time portrait that is a combination of the process of mark-making. Movement is a key component in the process of creating these works, depicting rhythms that range from staccato to adagissimo. The progression from all ink, with marks reminiscent of stitching, to the recent drawings that use the hard graphite pencils to create subtle shades indicates an evolution of a visual vocabulary. This series has come to represent a visual journal.

Fibonocci and prime numbers are an artificial mechanism that finds significance in the concrete world of math. These number systems serve the same purpose in identifying clusters and densities in non-objective art. The Stream series draws much of its inspiration from flora and many of the repeating motifs resemble flowers, seeds, and fruit.

The general complexity of the pieces has increased as a vocabulary of marks has developed. And so has the system for organizing the groupings. The marks are organized into groups of densities with repeating motifs, organized around prime numbers and numbers from the Fibonocci Sequence.

All of the pieces are informed by elements of textiles, from ink stitches to drapery motifs and wrinkled fabric. None of them reference objective reality in either a direct way or metaphorically. The thing about non-objective art is that the references are not necessarily transparent. What Constanse has found with these works is that they are highly internalized. There seems to be a mix of exploration of material form. Constanse finds herself organizing the elements around prime numbers of parts of the Fibonocci sequence.