My most recent work challenges the concept of contextualization. Relative to the way the mind categorizes and stores what a person might deem important, my work refers to subjects taken out of context, or out of "real time." These subjects are then mounted into subjective environments. While stripping these images of associations based on context, I investigate the motion, action, and physicality with which individuals involve themselves in their surroundings. Images against subjective grounds create mysterious figure/ground relationships. Figurative poses are static and entirely unmovable.

The drawn forms are responses to the figurative posing of the individual. These marks are an intuitive response to the relationship between the figure and its new surroundings. The shape, placement, and scale of the marks explore the limits of the subject’s interaction within the space.

My process of redefining the figure and its location stems from questioning how individuals distance themselves from reality. The dichotomy between being physically present while the mind is disengaged is a common and ongoing theme in my work. I create similar conditions as individuals are removed from a definitive place, and cast into a theoretical, and often fantastical, situation.

The ground’s ephemeral nature is suggested by evidence of deterioration over time; i.e. the discoloration and tears in the paper. By halting this destructive process and preserving the object in its current state, I elevate its importance from commonplace to something cherished. Each work is a marker of particular instances in time, gathered in one arena. The past meets the present, and both are equally regarded.

I embrace both the visible and invisible history of found objects. I consider visible history not only in terms of formal composition, but also with regard to each individual who has come in contact with the object. My contribution to the object’s collective contact history amounts to it being preserved. In finding and appropriating these objects, I both formally and conceptually transform something transient into something permanent.

Recently I have begun enlarging some of my images digitally. Which allows me even more freedom to shift the formal focus of my work in order to strengthen the intricacies of formal mark making and emotive surface qualities of found grounds. The shift in scale encourages a closer observation of each image. Every crease, fold, and stain is physical evidence linking the paper to an existence outside of the frame: a history isolated and ultimately preserved by this process. - ADAM STOVES