Brian Edmonds interviews painter Clayton Colvin whose work is on view in two New York shows: Slow Your Instruments at Launch F18 (through April 26) and Put Down Your Stars at Margaret Thatcher Projects (March 27 – April 26).

Colvin comments: "Patterns are really interesting to me. A lot of my visual language comes from my experience with field vision and the game of soccer or futbol. Players are naturally good or trained to read things in their periphery and anticipate events in space. So, creating space through unlocking patterns and exploiting breaks or lapses is a way I like to think of the technical act of painting… I am interested in how structure and pattern is in place in my day to day experience. And I question these patterns. Usually they break down on their own and new ones arise. For example, one of my kid’s soccer practices will be rained out or daylight savings changes the routine, or someone close to me is born or dies. For a while I was interested in painting the act of willing a change in routine, but more recently I am less aggressive, more interested in how fragile the pattern or structure is -and the paintings hopefully reflect that."