The Screen & Beyond is an online project originating from an open call conceived by Nick West for the Art Byte Critique collective. Find out more about these works and other artists involved by checking out the e-book designed by Yuka Otani.

The idea for this series began after the quarantine restrictions allowed me to reconnect with the ABC group via Zoom screens, and we discussed the potential for more work involving maps, revisiting a commission I had done a few years ago. I originally planned to place maps over the paintings, where the relationship to screens was direct - I was literally tracing the maps from my computer screen.

The idea was not translating the way I had imagined and the paper screen was creating a divide. As one vision disappeared, another came to life. I started to see natural scenes emerging from what I had intended to be abstract paintings underneath the maps. I sketched more imagined versions of these scenes onto the tracing paper, and the layers came together. I was influenced by the layers of landscape I often look at through my quarantine window screen - a literal screen - as well as my memories of the coastal landscapes I grew up with - a figurative screen. I reflected on the many types of screens I interact with each day.

Screens have the ability to either blur or reveal different information. In this way, the work took me on an organic journey through many screens. What started as two layers divided came together to create a new, complete image where the clear and unclear details produced by screens work together in harmony.