Genie Maples
I use the process of making as a strategy for finding sense and meaning in a perplexing world.
I started out as an oil painter and continue in that vein, currently working on large format suggestive abstract paintings with complex compositional trails. I work in a deliberate, analytical fashion fueled by emotion and curiosity.
Each piece is a tapestry of small decision upon small decision, stitch upon stitch, a relic of its own unfolding. I generally work on individual pieces over many months and sometimes years. I consider the passage of time a foundational component of my work.
I lean away from rote habitual or predictable choices as I work, and toward the intricacy of the present moment with its ever-shifting emotion, thought process, and perspective - focusing on solving visual puzzles as they arise. I pay attention as each problem shifts until it settles itself without resorting to formulaic thinking.
In addition to painting, I make intricate meditative ink drawings and intricately detailed exploratory sculptural fiber pieces. My process and approach to fiber echoes my approach to painting. My drawing process echoes my stitching process.
