Lenny

65 X 39.5 inches, colored pencil and graphite on paper

This drawing is an offshoot of the Butterfly works. Lenny was a character in one—the kitchen boss in a hospital. I actually knew a Lenny, who was my real-life boss at the Noble Hospital kitchen in Westfield, MA. He always played the lottery. In this drawing, I was interested in the ways in which children learn about societal operations through word-based math problems. My son, who was nine years old at the time, often brought home these types of problems, which are convoluted and stretch their narratives to fit the mathematical problems being studied. Because of this, the stories in these problems are often based in everyday life but are elaborately concocted. These math problems also embed themes of morality in their formulation, usually through the capitalist exchange of money and goods.

With this framework in mind, I decided to create my own math problem based on a working-class person’s desire/need to purchase an object signifying upward class movement. Lenny plays the lottery and puts his winnings towards the purchase of a new Corvette. As he wins, his losses accumulate, negating these winnings. In the end, Lenny is at the same place he started—his labor was fruitless, and overall class stagnation is clear: he was playing a zero-sum game. Visually, I wanted the pattern to vibrate like a lottery ticket might, optically pulsating. Each lottery logo is sourced from a different state, which, if connected, would form a map of states (those with the most aggressive lottery programs) associated with the perils of the lottery as a means of class suppression.