In my abstract paintings, I cast symbolic geometric forms as characters upon which traumas and joys are enacted. Therefore the language of painting is used in part to communicate ideas about power dynamics and human drama, and as well to speak about the search for perfect forms inherent in our act of looking. My paintings aim to revitalize a stripped-down geometric vocabulary so that this vocabulary may be re-engaged and re-envisioned within the 21st century discourse. Using painted and collaged forms that quote from a Minimalist formal tradition, I am re-injecting my painting practice with a narrative strategy so that the paintings speak as more than simply material explorations. As my project develops I will be gradually uncovering the parameters within which this visual vocabulary must function, the formal relationships at play, and the order that is shaping these relationships. I am interested in the negotiation of the space of contemporary abstract painting with the idea that an image is a concatenation of signs. My questions about painting lie in whether the visual can escape the realm of the coded. Does abstract painting have a space beyond the code, beyond the terrain available to the written or spoken word? I aim to find a critical standpoint for abstract metaphoric space, which expands upon the current boundaries of painting and representation.