The Alignment series will be presented as part of a group show at Paul Kyle Gallery in mid-August.

A Word on the Alignment Series
January -April 2025


Alignment was originally developed for a solo exhibition at the Art Rental & Sales program operated by the Vancouver Art Gallery. As with many of my projects, the series was shaped in direct response to the space it was intended for.

I spent time in the gallery observing its lighting conditions, architectural details, and material finishes. The
caramel-toned 2 x 2" tiles in the bathrooms caught my attention early on—they’re original to the building, which was constructed between 1906 and 1911 as the Vancouver Law Courts. I was drawn to how their surface shifted throughout the day depending on the light—sometimes more saturated, sometimes more muted. That quality informed both the palette and the grid structure of the work as a starting point.

As I explored the main areas of the VAG, I spent a lot of time in the rotunda—a central space where people naturally gather, slow down, and tend to look up toward the source of light. It’s also a point of convergence, a place where one moves from one floor to another, or from one side of the gallery to the other. A place where one rotates. That rhythm—pause, transition, continuation—found its way into the compositions through the use of circular forms connected to vertical bands. Other details stood out during my time there: the dark wood moldings, beautifully carved original wood doors, the marble stairs leading to quieter corridors and less explored sections of the gallery. These elements subtly shaped the direction of the series.

I began working on this series in early January 2025, just as a rare celestial event was unfolding—the planetary parade of February, when seven planets—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—appeared in alignment along the ecliptic, visible together in the night sky. Something about that convergence captured my attention and stayed with me. It was followed by a lunar eclipse in March and a pink full moon in April. These events didn’t dictate the imagery, but they shaped the energy in the studio and found their way into the work. They brought a quiet sense of time passing, of cycles aligning and drifting. That feeling settled into the paintings, layering the architectural references with something more expansive and distant.