Ever since I was little, I was obsessed with plaid. I appreciated the calming presence of a grid and pleasing color. For a moment that was all I thought about; a structured pattern that could be a lot more complex than originally thought. I began to create my own and filled sketchbook after sketchbook.

Eventually I was able to take a weaving class and began to understand plaid on another level. In this class I was able to create what I consider “classic plaids”. I would weave and be enthralled watching it slowly come together thread by thread, becoming more defined with each pass. At its root’s plaid is just an optical illusion. Two colored threads woven so close together that from a distance they appear to create a whole new color.

With this new knowledge I am able to finally create concise plaid patterns, as before I had felt they always lacked something. It occurred to me that I can paint these plaids and I have been thrilled to begin experiencing them on a larger and more complex scale. Acrylic paint allows me to have immense control over the work. I can make perfectly sharp lines. I can get whatever color I need. While life continues to be the chaotic mess it always has been, there is one place I can still have control to create.

There are many rules that go into weaving a plaid. It is more than just squares and intersections of color. There are many simple things that add to the pattern and make it what it is. While I am definitely a person that loves rules, I have begun to discover that some rules have to be broken to actually make a painting function correctly. I have begun to push boundaries. I try to see what rules can be broken or shifted. Overtime I am learning how to take plaid patterns and make them my own. I remove rules or change them entirely to create compositions that have moved beyond their plaid origin. I have taken a set collection of guidelines and made a new creation. I continue to search and try to find the perfect place between structure, freedom, and control.