So many things build up in layers - trees and rocks and shells and bones and sheets of ice. From dating archaeological sites to calibrating the carbon-14 clock to investigating the growth and form of extinct animals, biological and geological patterns due to annual climatic variations provide an informative temporal dimension in many studies.

For this reason, it strikes me that Laura Moriarty's work is about time, more than anything else.

An annually laminated sequence whose beginning and end dates are unknown is called a floating chronology. This evocation is appropriate to Moriarty’s oeuvre. She is interested in the kinds of phenomena that occur at boundaries, and she deliberately blurs the border between the figurative and the abstract. In an article posted on her website, she states, "I intentionally make the work less clean, less tied to the ideas I may have started from, so I can retain the amount of fun I have just making things."

The same article provides a brief, tantalizing glimpse into the big questions that keep Moriarty engaged and involved with her works during their production. In addition to suggesting a variety of natural forms, their multilayered nature reveals the time she has invested in their creation. Moriarty's work conveys the sufficiency of a job that someone took pleasure in doing up right.

The Swedish word varv has meanings and connotations including ‘circle,’ ‘revolution’ and ‘layers.' In geology, varves are annual layers of sediments or sedimentary rock. If I had to choose the briefest possible phrase to sum up Moriarty’s art, I would say it is varve poetry.