Material Thinking
Material Thinking is a way of generating knowledge through direct engagement with materials, processes, and practices—a concept that bridges theory and practice, emphasizing how meaning emerges through material exploration rather than being imposed from abstract concepts.
The core idea is that materials themselves - here pigments and paper - have agency and properties that shape creative outcomes when we and our surrounding environment interact with them. Rather than seeing materials as passive substances waiting to be formed, material thinking recognizes that the unique properties of materials actively participate in and guide the creative process.
Reversed Cycle of Abstraction
Traditional abstraction moves from observation to interpretation to visual simplification—the artist sees, analyzes, then reduces reality into abstract forms. My practice reverses this process entirely.
Instead of abstracting from reality, I absorb environments to such a degree that when I work with materials, they seem to express what I've embodied without conscious translation. Rather than my mind directing my hand to create representations, my body's memory of place guides how inks, gravity, and natural forces interact.
The result is a return to reference—but not through symbolic representation. Instead, materials organize themselves according to both their own physical properties and the environmental patterns I've absorbed. A fountain's rhythms become encoded in circular brushwork; wildfire smoke deposits its own presence across paper sequences.
This approach embodies material thinking—treating materials as collaborative partners with their own intelligence rather than passive tools. By stepping back from conscious control, I create conditions where deeper forms of meaning can emerge—ones that neither pure observation nor traditional abstraction can access.
The work becomes referential again, but through material collaboration rather than human interpretation. What emerges often surprises me, revealing the essence of a place beyond conscious planning or symbolic representation—offering a discovery of meaning and evidence of a lived moment.