Saint Helices, 12" x 9", graphite, 1990. Private collection.

This drawing is not numbered as an entry in the Saint Helices series, but was completed in the Florida studio during the production of Saint Helices versions 9 and 10. The distinction it caries as being a rare "numberless" Saint Helices composition is the result of a clerical error on my part. This graphite drawing and the Saint Helices star pattern drawing are the only two original, non-painted, versions of the Saint Helices composition to date.

This is a seminal work in the beginning phases of the series. The star pattern is ordered in the suggestion of an ellipse/halo form which would become a standard motif later in version 14. The polarized, offset modulations of light in the lower two areas of this early composition would reappear in version 38, and again in versions 51, 53, and 54. The suggestion of a highlight reflecting from the bottom of the central area of this composition would reappear in version 15 and ultimately transmuted into edge forms in version 29 and in all Saint Helices compositions to follow.