French Curves: Precision Is Overrated

The French curve was invented to solve problems, not create them. It is an obedient servant of engineers, architects, and draftsmen—a cold piece of steel that promises perfect, repeatable curves with no surprises and no opinions. It exists to eliminate human error. That seemed like an excellent place to begin.

French Curves Schematic Sketches

French Curves is a series of four paintings that hijacks the language of technical drawing and abandons it in a riot of paint. Each work starts with a schematic composition generated from metal draftsman’s French curves, then systematically betrays its own blueprint. Thick paint buries clean geometry. Palette knives scar immaculate surfaces. Brushes refuse to stay inside the lines. Every calculated decision is met with an equally deliberate act of defiance.

Modern art spent the twentieth century arguing with itself. Cubism fractured reality. Constructivism worshipped structure. Abstract Expressionism attacked the canvas with raw emotion. Art Informel celebrated accident. Hard-Edge painting pursued absolute control. French Curves invites them all into the same room and lets them interrupt one another.

The result is neither homage nor parody. It is a collision.

These paintings reject the convenient fiction that art must choose between intellect and instinct, order and chaos, design and expression. Geometry is not the destination; it is simply the fuse. Once lit, the paint takes over.

The irony is irresistible. A drafting instrument engineered to remove personality becomes the catalyst for paintings that celebrate nothing but personality. Every brushstroke argues with every measured curve. Every ridge of paint mocks the notion that perfection is the highest artistic achievement.