Russ has exclusively been making paintings of simple two dimensional mathematical forms called circle immersions for about two decades now, finding them as he goes. My strategy is to minimize content, to sweep away the arbitrary and the unnecessarily complicated, to avoid distraction, to leave space and quiet for the next-to-nothing to become something. I am motivated by wanting to see things I haven’t seen before, that didn't previously exist, that exist in their own right. I iterate over the forms I find to refine them toward a push/pull equilibrium, getting as close to the mathematical or platonic ideal they suggest for themselves as painting them strictly by hand allows. The practice of articulating these pocket universes of clustered loops and spirals is contemplative, and the practice of looking at them can be as well. If it helps, think in terms of "walking the labyrinth", a practice in various religious traditions, though I consider my geometries to be less sacred and more quotidian. At any rate, if in doubt about what you're looking at, just follow the line.