Everything Bagel Series

The Everything Bagel series has been the focus of my attention for the past few months and will likely continue as a motif in my ongoing work. As an abstract artist I’ve always been concerned with the iconography of prime geometric forms like circles, rectangles, lines and triangles. They lend themselves to interpretation as physically observable objects such as people, animals, flowers, landscapes, architecture etc. The Everything Bagel is an allusion to things that have less familiar forms, for instance; the emotion of excitement, an idea, a memory, the scale of a galaxy, or the quantum state of a subatomic particle, The indistinct circular shape represents a specific object while the random and ordered marks represent our tenuous grasp on its details. Together they represent my personal, and I imagine widely shared, search for an ultimate truth. That’s where the tongue-in-cheek title “Everything Bagel” comes from. It really does represent a deep personal search, but the overly romantic banality isn’t lost on me, so Everything Bagel seemed an apt title.

The Everything Bagel form isn’t entirely new for me. I’ve made radial compositions in the past, but they were more patterned and mandala-like. The first sketches for the Everything Bagel series were done on my iPad with an Apple Pencil.

The next iterations were acrylic on wood panels. The iPad sketches seemed to be hinting at physical brush strokes and I had recently moved to a house with workshop space that I could use for painting. I hadn’t painted in a long time, so I began experimenting with the medium and process while I was experimenting with the new compositions.

I liked how the first half dozen paintings turned out and I decided to bring the idea back to the digital realm and do some high-resolution pieces. They have a different energy than my previous radial compositions and I’m enjoying the fluidity and contrast of working with a concept across multiple mediums.

At the end of 2021, my new work includes materials like cut paper, string, and even a few sticks. I’ve also started experimenting with hybrid processes and materials that include digital, photographic, and physical techniques.

Have a bagel — or pick up a dozen! Better yet, contact me for availability :)

Cheers!