The Shape of Things : Artwork 1

The entire surface of this large-format panel is covered in an irregular lattice of organic pebble-shaped cells, and at its precise centre sits a ladybug with wings open and spots cut clean. The lattice is not decoration. It is the engine of the piece. A fragmented, activated ground causes the central subject to radiate with a presence it would not have on a plain surface, a perceptual principle borrowed from mosaic tradition where the broken field makes the focal point feel more luminous than anything around it. The ladybug is one of the most universally beloved symbols of good fortune across Arab, Asian and European cultures, and here it gets the scale and the setting it always deserved.