This piece is a part of my Main Reason series. The pieces are related by having strong color palettes, multi layered and textured backgrounds and feature a center focal point of an open or closed circle. They are created using a layered printing process called monoprinting. I paint each layer onto a soft plate, lay the paper on top and then slowly pull it off. This step is done multiple times and with each layer I paint new imagery and marks, leaving some layers beneath visible and hiding others. The pieces are finished with a final, directly painted layer creating the circle. In this case, I added a circle mask over the center area and painted a white border around it. After removing the mask, the center revealed all the composite layers beneath - a recording of the actions in the painting and the circle was formed by the opaque border enclosing the portal to the painting's history.

The title, "If I Knew I'd Have to be Perfect, I Wouldn't Have Even Bothered," reflects the imperfect nature of creating, the allusiveness of "perfection." The center of the piece is clearly a circle, yet it is not perfectly geometric and bares the recording of a human hand in the creation process. I find myself both attracted to the truth in the imagery and aggravated by the imperfection. Yet, as the title suggests, if I knew it would have to be perfect to be worth making, I would be incapable of even making a first mark on the surface to begin. Better to be imperfect than to not exist at all.