Rick VIan artist statement…

I am mostly interested in visual perception and the underlying patterns that make sense of it. And I am interesting in how the visual information of this world is filtered through the mechanisms of perception (which are part of that world) and is affected by thought and emotion, resulting in expression.

There is a certain "grid" underlying my work, which i use as a shape and form generating matrix. It consists of a limited number of angles and curves and results in compositions which I rework until they feel "right". This "grid" idea was originally inspired by looking at trees. I noticed that each species of tree conformed to certain proclivities of growth, which I thought of as a kind of "grid" over which innumerable patterns could be laid. Regardless of the individual pattern, an oak could be recognized as an oak, because the pattern of its growth (its "growth habit") stayed largely within the framework of structure allowed by its DNA; its "grid".

The kind of grids with which I am concerned, are networks that underly and organize perception, and are inherent in the structures of the world we perceive. Because these structures are most apparent in trees, I use trees as a referent. Also, the structures and resulting patterns are amenable to compositional manipulation, more so than, say, the human figure.

- Rick Vian