Erin Waser

A painted pixel, A small element, made complex through its relationship to the whole.

Similar to my paintings, in digital imaging thousands of tiny pixels merge together in A grid to form A picture. Removing, altering, or changing the individual pixels impacts our perception of the whole image. This notion of perception serves as my reminder that everything I encounter is only as I perceive it in that moment based on the details present: A combination of my personal history, projected experience, and knowledge. in my work I explore how controlling or manipulating the smallest details changes the perception of the whole.

Using round painted pixels as A vehicle of manipulation, I explore how individual pixels interact to create A painting. the painted pixels provide A common shape through which I merge color, texture, value, and mark making to layer individual pixels and gestures into A unified piece of artwork. the multiple layers within each piece create A relationship between the surface and background, where objects at once form and disintegrate. This additive and subtractive layering process builds A visual history and personal story within each painting, questioning the relationship of subject and context as objects become clear and fade away again. the process influences the final outcome, where each mark dictates the next step. Displayed as A series, the paintings find their cohesion through pixel-fields formed as A result of the similarities between the gridded process. I utilized the pixels to draw out the details, or at times they even become the focal object of the painting.

© Erin Waser