We calibrate interference patterns into luminous volumes: radiating cones awash in spectral color. Precision and plotting paradoxically yield resonant and unstable perceptual experiences. Using principles of phasing, binary logic, and wave propagation, these elusive paintings organize pigment and geometry while intimating their material origins.

Raking through wet paint with custom fabricated tools that create multiple parallel lines, we layer (almost) concentric circles. Viscous paint flowing over the edges of the panel and ruptures in the image are surprising vestiges of gesture and materiality. In our exhibition Dark Rainbow, we expand on earlier techniques: applying texture upon texture and then excavating to create multiple color “channels” within an individual layer. The increased chromatic complexity creates varied shadows that simulate light moving through space.

A longstanding seduction in the history of Painting is the translation of intangible light and atmosphere into the tactile substance of paint. In dialogue with realist and observational painting, these abstract works re-enact, rather than translate, inherent structures within nature, specifically light as wavelength. The illusory effects in these paintings— of gloss, prismatic color, shading, and volume– are simulations of the wave behavior of light, i.e. reflection, refraction, diffraction and interference. Another familiar visual form of interference pattern is the moiré one encounters in pixelated digital and print images. Thus the work performs and renders physical certain latent mechanics in both the natural world and digital technology.

Through a rigorous and iterative artistic method rooted in perception and process, we arrive at unexpected associations to historical scientific experiments in optics and physics. Connections emerge between our studio and various fields of inquiry: for example, interference patterns can be the most accurate means to measure the minutest of increments from the curvature of telescopic lenses to the motions of gravitational waves. Devices called interferometers detect otherwise undetectable units. We share this desire to render the imperceptible. Our unorthodox painting duo resists cultural pressure to individualize, compartmentalize or essentialize identity and creativity.