Abstractions are skillful transitions from delicate, playful lines that define the faint, swaying branches in tall pines, to aggressively managing ink and charcoal that build formidable, yet reductive relationships between the primary visual characters and the lesser noticed supporting network of marks and rubbings in a piece. The primary, sometimes geometric shapes that first catch one’s eye rely on the chorus of elegantly dancing secondary marks that grow like underbrush in and around the main, highlighted elements. Instead of approaching a subject like a tree or a human form from just one place, the pieces show many approaches to the subjects, building layer after layer where clarity of subject fades.