Tarik Echols works with marks extracted from a single written word or phrase. These words are repeated and abstracted, creating his signature style of layered imagery. A variety of media are employed to give his works a rich, saturated feel. Large fields of painted color alternate with strings of written words. Words applied in crayon or oil pastel set up a resist to subsequent layers of watercolor, resulting in vibrant and increasingly complex relationships between the written portions of the composition and the background space.