Paintings 2009 - present, source material: Rorschach transparencies, R_01

The Rorschach transparencies are based on a series of 100 inkblots (actually, red enamel paint on copy paper, each sized A4, or 29.7 x 21 cm) I made in 2010. I had been looking for a wholly different "species" of form, unlike the stylized calligraphic forms of the smudge transparencies, and it was an obvious choice, since the original Rorschach forms are inherently symmetrical.

The name "Rorschach" is used merely for convenience's sake, the technique of folding a sheet of paper over a fresh blot of ink to create a symmetrical (and biomorphic) form having been popularized by the Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach in his set of psychological tests from 1921.

The fact that most viewers of my paintings can't help but blurt out names of various objects they see in my paintings is of course heightened by integrating a psychological test into the subject matter. At that moment when the viewer names an object (that isn't really there ;0), he or she is indeed the "patient". I suppose one might argue that I was subconsciously aware the entire time that I prod the viewer (to see things in the paintings). Having said that, my recollection is different; I was interested in adding a new type of form to the smudge series, and was immediately drawn to the pseudo-anatomical interpretations of these symmetrical paint-blots, as well as the fact that I was able to quickly produce a whole series, creating an entire alphabet of pictorial elements in one afternoon.