Connecting the Dots

Recently I realized that the Test Pattern pieces that I've been working on seem to relate to a series of small charcoal on gessoed paper drawings from 2004. These drawings, which were done in response to some serious back surgeries that my niece was undergoing at the time, began as stacked vertebrae-like forms arranged either vertically or horizontally on a square-ish white ground. Eventually they morphed into something different (electrical circuits? building blocks? floor plans? game boards?) until they got too studied and fussy and the project ground to a halt after a month or so. Anyway, they got filed away and I hadn't really thought about them until recently, when I was thinking about the Test Patterns. Maybe it's the square ground or some of the solid blocky forms of the later drawings, but I can't help thinking there's a connection between the two bodies of works.

I like it when stuff like that happens - those "ah-ha!" moments when the dots get connected: