Staccato by Philip Bell

Staccato practices capturing space with elemental geometry. Positive and negative ground dissolve as the eye reads the rows and columns as if distinguishing sheet music. Rhythm emerges from the space between the shapes that tie them together.

The emergent forms of Staccato result from the perception of the collection of shapes as a whole.  High contrast monochrome rendering maximize this psychological effect as the eye groups similar shapes and patterns into subdivisions. 

The process of Staccato stems from letterpress printmaking experiments with decorative typographic material. The process involves filling the letterpress with decorative borders and shapes, inking by hand, pulling a print, inspecting the result, making a small adjustment and repeating.