Tracey Adams

I am drawn to intersections: ideas that seem to be at opposite ends of a continuum, like the organic and the geometric. My starting points vary: they come from something personal, a glimpse from an experience or a piece of music.

As a graduate student, I spent a lot of time around John Cage; his early influence, to this day, informs my studio practice of intention and chance. Music is present within my work, in terms of the visual intervals and the patterns that appear. I am interested in the physical engagement that creates a sense of performance while I am creating.

My works attempt to create environments that I want to find in myself: they represent internal worlds that I am attempting to externalize. My pieces are quiet, and are meant to express a form of serenity. It has to do with the feeling of calm, inside and out. I love what the late jazz musician Charlie Haden said: “The artist’s job is to bring beauty into a conflicted world.”

Each work and series is a diary of my explorations. My ideas evolve as I apply my intellect, my sense of order and play to the images with my materials at hand. I start with a kernel of an idea in mind, but somewhere between intention and chance I find new energies and new directions. I try to stay in the moment as I work and let the work surprise me. I’m never quite sure how a painting will look until it’s finished.