Artist's Statement on Quarries

Scroll through all 72 "Grids" from Quarry 5: Valley completed thus far
Quarry 5: Valley 2, 12G, 1
Quarry 5: Valley 4, 12G, 1
Quarry 5: Valley 4, Remade 10.1
Scroll through both of the "Quarries, Figmented" works Quarry 5: Valley completed thus far
Quarry 5: Valley 2, X-Ray 13.1

Index to and links to all the "Grids" works in Quarry 5: Valley completed thus far
Index to and links to all the "Figmented" works in Quarry 5: Valley completed thus far

Original images for Quarry 5: Valley 2 and Quarry 5: Valley 4.

This group of Quarry works is based on photographs I took in October, 2007, near Los Angeles, from a peak in the Angeles National Forest, showng the San Fernando Valley, with the town of San Fernando in the foreground. So far I have used only two images; more are to come. To construct each of the "Grids," a single image is divided into between 4 and 169 parts, and these parts are then rearranged using random processes.

My use of randomness here is different than in much other art. It is my hope that because of the choice of images and the ways the parts are rearranged and presented, each work creates a kind of opening-out effect, suggesting to the viewer that seeing, and the seeing of a single image, offer a nearly infinite diversity of possibilities. More can be found on the Quarries main page and in my Artist's Statement.

For one group, the Quarries, Figmented, I divided the original image into grids between four by four and thirteen by thirteen, and then puts each cell in the grid through a treatment related to that used in Figments works, creating 35 lower resolution versions of each of the 36 cells, and then using random numbers to decide which of those along with the original cell to use. Each work has nine differently-modified versions of the original image. The Remades are constructed by rearranging the cells of the original image into new patterns in the smaller sheet; in the larger sheet, the rearranged image is repeated nien times in the manner of the Figmented works. Be sure to click on the larger version and move around in your browser to compare different treatments of the same image.

With the works in this group I especially like an effect that should be rather obvious: that my various grid-making forms parallel the grid that humans have made of roads and lots and houses in "the Valley" that archtypical suburban locale.

The works now titled Remade were titled Figmented-G before November 23, 2010. Quarry 5: Valley 4, Remade 10.1 was Quarry 5: Valley 4, Figmented-G 10.1.