Emergence
An Intuitive Pattern Exploration
2019
At first glance, a printed image looks seamless. But under magnification, it dissolves into thousands of tiny colored dots, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, arranged to create the illusion of continuous tone. This method, called halftoning, is both beautiful and flawed. Every color we see is built from imperfection.
That imperfection became the seed for Rosette, the first series in the 11ELEVEN Project. The series reimagines the halftone process as a metaphor for modern society, fragmented, layered, and perpetually out of register. Just as misaligned color grids create moiré patterns and optical tension, our collective misalignment generates social noise: conflict, inequality, and disconnection.
Yet when those same grids find balance, they form a rosette, an intricate flower born of chaos. Each piece in Rosette explores that transition from interference to harmony, from distortion to emergence. The visual language of printing becomes a mirror for the human condition, imperfect, interdependent, and searching for cohesion.
Each work in the series is constructed as a layered composition using archival pigment and transparency film prints. A spacer between the back print and the front transparency creates a subtle three-dimensional effect beneath the glass, enhancing light play and visual depth. The result is an optical experience that shifts as the viewer moves, echoing the complexity of perception itself.
Rosette set the foundation for everything that followed, a study in structure and empathy, design and humanity. It reminds us that what appears seamless from afar is, in truth, a collection of fragments, and that beauty is often found in the spaces between.
Moiré
The illusion of continuous tone in printing is created by layering color grids of halftone dots at different angles. When those grids fall out of alignment, a distortion known as moiré appears. In this piece, a large black dot at the center represents the concentrated power of global wealth. Inside, three circles embody the elite whose influence radiates outward, shaping the systems that sustain them, while the surrounding distortion becomes a metaphor for the widening divide between privilege and everyone it overshadows.
Date: August 2019
Process: Pigment Print and Transparency Film Print, Framed
Size: 16 × 20 inches
Series: 1 of 11
Dot-Centered
This pattern reveals a visible core within the rosette structure, emphasizing a slight loss of tonal depth and heightened sensitivity to color variation. The enlarged dots symbolize the rise of global diversity and the transformative power of exposure. As visibility increases, balance becomes more attainable, and the pattern begins to stabilize into unity.
Date: August 2019
Process: Pigment Print and Transparency Film Print, Framed
Size: 16 × 20 inches
Series: 1 of 11
Open-Centered
Created by shifting one of the process colors, this rosette maintains greater shadow detail and chromatic balance while revealing a slightly more open design. The darkened areas encroaching toward the center represent the gradual synthesis of difference into cohesion, visualizing collective movement toward harmony and shared understanding.
Date: August 2019
Process: Pigment Print and Transparency Film Print, Framed
Size: 16 × 20 inches
Series: 1 of 11
Addicted
A single black dot anchors the lower corner, opposing a small white dot in the distance. Between them rises a dense field representing the barrier of addiction. This composition captures the fragile distance between despair and recovery, darkness and light, isolation and renewal.
Date: August 2019
Process: Archival Pigment Print and Transparency Film Print, Framed
Size: 12 × 12 inches
Series: 1 of 11
Afflicted
Scale and proximity serve as metaphors for vulnerability and power. A looming black form casts tension over a smaller, luminous blue circle that signifies resilience and release. The blue evokes both sorrow and survival, while the distance between forms conveys the long shadow of trauma and the strength required to emerge from it.
Date: August 2019
Process: Archival Pigment Print and Transparency Film Print, Framed
Size: 8 × 8 inches
Series: 1 of 11
Starved
Referencing the growing issue of food insecurity, this work visualizes agricultural innovation as both solution and symbol. The pink and magenta tones evoke LED light and hydroponic growth, reimagining the future of cultivation as humanity’s response to scarcity.
Date: August 2019
Process: Archival Pigment Print and Transparency Film Print, Framed
Size: 12 × 12 inches
Series: 1 of 11
Homeless
This composition reflects the quiet displacement that exists within dense urban environments. Its subdued tones and fragmented geometry echo the invisibility of those who go unseen. The work invites the viewer to pause and acknowledge presence, turning awareness into empathy.
Date: August 2019
Process: Archival Pigment Print and Transparency Film Print, Framed
Size: 8 × 8 inches
Series: 1 of 11
Intangible
A meditation on faith and perception, this piece contrasts dark and light fields to reflect opposing ideologies. The overlapping color forms invite a dialogue between belief systems, suggesting that progress emerges not from division but from shared illumination across differences.
Date: August 2019
Process: Archival Pigment Print and Transparency Film Print, Framed
Size: 8 × 8 inches
Series: 1 of 11
Erudite
This composition reflects the imbalance of access to education and knowledge. While some experience abundance, others inherit scarcity. The divided imagery evokes the contrast between opportunity and exclusion, a visual metaphor for the uneven distribution of wisdom across societies.
Date: August 2019
Process: Archival Pigment Print and Transparency Film Print, Framed
Size: 12 × 12 inches
Series: 1 of 11
Gateway 2019
Created as the connective link between projects, Gateway offers a glimpse into what follows. Each series within the 11ELEVEN Project includes two Gateway pieces, one for collectors and one retained by the artist. Upon completion of the eleventh project, a final exclusive work will be offered only to Gateway owners.
Date: August 2019
Process: Archival Pigment Print and Transparency Film Print, Framed
Size: 16 × 20 inches
Series: 1 of 2
Artist’s Note
Rosette marked the beginning of my journey within the 11ELEVEN Project. The first release was produced for exhibition using a layered printing process that creates a luminous three-dimensional effect beneath glass. Every piece from that debut collection sold during its initial showing. I later chose to pull the series from production in order to refine my methods and move forward with the next body of work.
The depth and dimensionality of these pieces are best experienced in person. As light moves across the surface, the spacer between the pigment and transparency layers creates an optical shift that changes with the viewer’s position. Videos of this illusion can be seen on my social media channels.
I plan to reintroduce Rosette in a future release. Collectors or curators interested in commissioning a new production or discussing exhibition opportunities are welcome to inquire directly.
