Airlines

The idea for the title came from a blank white postcard I received from the German artist Elke Grundmann, which she called Airlines, air on white. I was hesitant to choose this theme, particularly after the mysterious disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines plane, fearing that the title might be misunderstood.

I approached the subject of visible and invisible lines from three perspectives: philosophical, neurophysiological, and artistic.

Our brain tends to fill in what we cannot see. A neurophysiological example is the blind spot in our retina, where there are no photoreceptors. Although part of our visual field is missing, we normally remain unaware of it because the brain completes the image.

In painting, lines can suggest forms and spaces beyond what is actually visible. Even an interrupted line may lead us to imagine its continuation. As a saying attributed to Edgar Degas puts it: “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”

These paintings explore the relationship between visible and invisible lines.