Craig Drennen interviews painter Carl Ostendarp whose work is on view at Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York, through February 25, 2017.

Ostendarp remarks: “Well there is secret stuff in the paintings! In addition to the images, there’s a crackpot math thing that I do. And there’s an idea about the ‘field’ that’s as much American color field painting as it is animated cartoon space. I have this idea, that’s also connected to the math, of the ‘life-sizeness’ of the painting. Abstract paintings especially have tended to function historically as either a cartouche, like when Pollock turns the corner when he gets close to the edge. Or as an interpretive representational thing where the imagery is implied to continue, like a Clifford Still. But in Jean Arp’s reliefs and in Barnett Newman-and obviously in the readymade-you have this sense that the image edge and the object edge are contiguous. They happen at the same time and place, and make you aware of how big you are and increase your sense of present-ness in front of the work.”