This series of four drawings began haphazardly to reconcile language, image, and natural form into how they can come together sensibly. Once again I chose an Oriental screen painting format to work with this subject matter. They are each 60 inches long and 22-1/4 inches wide.

The idea for a leaf “to float” started with my reusing a photo of a leaf I had glued to the center of the first piece. The photo had curled up so I peeled it off and reglued it to the bottom section. The missing parts, I drew in so the leaf appeared whole again and as if it were floating on a pad in a pool.

My photography often dominates events in the studio because I can take pictures faster than I can draw. The resource material for my pictures is my house plants. Particularly the lickety-split philodendron which I have had trouble maintaining. I repotted it though and it has rebooted with gusto.

The thread that runs through my work is always language. No matter how abstract or specific the references. In the 70s, lines emanated from drawn contours of the mountains outside my studio window. I isolated the lines and placed them in many drawing contexts, both minimal and maximal. The lines indicated many meanings, created many shapes, and carried many ideas to new levels.

The Floating Leaf series includes sections of a print of a drawing done in 2014 called Waterfall. I chose to imitate the image forms of well-known Japanese woodblock printers. I chose to use Japanese papers to bridge the conceptual gap between how I draw, how the printmakers draw, and how I conceive of a detailed and consistent surface. Often photographs of the “floating leaf” are used to emphasize its shape and the details of its dried-out surface in black & white and in color.

In the upper right of each piece is a copy of a print I associate with my drawing. It tells a little story about what is to be seen. To the right of that is placed a signature of sorts. Just as could be in a Japanese woodblock print of the Ukiyo-e period.

These pieces appear complicated but they are not. They simply are one kind of image superimposed on or placed next to another.