These black paintings are my version of Japanese zen ink paintings, although traditional techniques and materials are largely ignored. They were executed in Black Pearl neighborhood of New Orleans while listening to Nick Cave albums on a loop. Instead of a piece of Japanese paper in a horizontal position as a ground, a stretched cotton canvas is placed on an easel in a vertical position. The entire surface of the canvas is then covered with undiluted sumi ink, and the value changes are created in a reductive method. The lightest areas of the image carry the surface value of the canvas.