Bob (-) Rick

14 x 11 inches, colored pencil and graphite on paper

We Stare

12 x 9 inches, colored pencil and graphite on paper

Hand Hearts

14 x 11 inches, colored pencil and graphite on paper

thE mAn

14 x 9 inches, colored pencil and graphite on paper

ZERO 2 zero

12.5 x 11 inches, colored pencil and graphite on cut paper

In this drawing, I wanted to explore the idea of entropy through basic mathematical procedures. Starting with zero, I randomly applied a mathematical function to each subsequent number, between 0 and 10. I continued this, starting at the center, until the process reached zero again, and then I started a new set. Each phase is colored differently and the shapes cut out at the edges represent a physical void.

r SIN 1 EATER

14 x 11 inches, colored pencil and graphite on paper

The mirrored lines at the right and left deviate slightly upon comparison, like an off kilter, bi-symmetrical Quija board incantation. Is the sin eater committing a sin by eating a sin?

Jim ÷ Bob

14 x 11 inches, colored pencil and graphite on paper

Steve ≠ Jim

14 x 11 inches, colored pencil and graphite on paper

The Massive Perturber

14 x 11 inches, colored pencil and graphite on paper

Voluntary Involuntary Voluntary

12 x 9 inches, colored pencil and graphite on paper

Cleverbot 1

38½ x 28 inches, colored pencil and graphite on paper

In this piece, I transcribed a series of conversations I had with Cleverbot (an artificial intelligence bot). Unlike other chatterbots, Cleverbot's responses are not programmed. Rather, it "learns" from human input over time – a collective human intelligence through language. When I began my initial conversation with Cleverbot, I spoke to it casually, and stopped abruptly when it threatened me physically – “I’ll punch you in the throat”. After this initial conversation, I began each subsequent one by repeating Cleverbot’s own phrases back to it. I stopped each conversation when the bot said something that seemed either uncanny, or very unhuman.

Night Drawings

Ongoing series of works, each 13 x 19 inches, digital print and colored pencil

I’ve been making these works since 2017. At night, when I go to bed, I place a scrap of paper on my chest and rest a pencil or pen on it. As I fall asleep, the pen makes a line, marking the transition from consciousness into sleep. In the morning, I scan the paper, invert it, and make a print. I then note any dreams I had that night directly on the paper.

*See whole series or works here

Start Chaos, End Order

20 x 16 inches, acrylic on panel

I closed my eyes and attempted to write two oppositional words simultaneously. I then painted these attempts in alternating warm and cool colors.

Memory Questions with Alternate Answers

Colored pencil, graphite, acrylic, collage on paper and panel / dimensions variable

Six

25 x 20 inches, colored pencil and graphite on paper

Thought on this work and its relationship to the Butterfly Drawings: I often make number pieces when I'm stuck. I guess I just like the simplicity of mathematical procedures and the patterns that result. In this one, I had the image of that flower-like form in my head for a while and drew it. I then started integrating into it perfect numbers, which are positive integers whose sums are equal to their proper divisors. The smallest perfect number is 6, which is the sum of 1, 2, and 3... other perfect numbers are 28, 496, and 8,128 and so on... I love the idea of a perfect anything, and these numbers seemed to me to be like the character in the Butterfly works as they are the literal sum of their parts - the character is the sum total of his experiences and could even be divided by them back into an origin point. He IS what he encounters, his experiences Alternately, though, his experiences become so complicated and layered that it's impossible to know what stimulant is causing what action - he's becoming 'imperfect' because of that complexity. Like how when an elderly person is taking so many drugs that the side effects are impossible to differentiate from personality. In the SIX, the perfect numbers are drawn in a way that they are unknowable as a sum total, and only 6 is possible to know as the origin. That was my thinking, convoluted as it is. It's kind of simple but I saw the implication of perfection in this case as very rich - like multiplication as the inevitable and ultimate definer of humanness.

Boy, Girl

22 x 18 inches, acrylic on panel

Spam letter I received paired with a modified letter written by Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas

A1515

10.5 x 9.5 inches, colored pencil and graphite on shaped paper

Lucky Break

30 x 22 inches, colored pencil and graphite on shaped paper

Narrative of individual who plays the lottery on his lunch break from work. He ends up where he began.

9:12

12 x 9 inches, graphite and acrylic on birch panel

For a week, I tested my perception of the correct time, and plotted the difference (my error) on a graph. I then connected this data into a centralized shape.

3:55

12 x 9 inches, graphite and acrylic on birch panel

For a week, I tested my perception of the correct time, and plotted the difference (my error) on a graph. I then connected this data into a centralized shape.

IJKLMN

20.25 x 16 inches, acrylic on birch panel

Second painting in series - To begin, for each letter of the alphabet, I looked up words that are considered the most 1. beautiful, 2. terrible, 3. disgusting - the good, the bad, and the ugly - as voted on by the internet. I tried to use 3 of those words from each letter, in a sentence, and then attempted to string that sentence together with those from each subsequent letter, creating something like a story. I thought of these words as the most evocative and charged in the English language. What does putting them into a narrative do to them - increase their suggestiveness, make them funny, strange, meaningless, or do they negate each other? A legible yet convoluted linguistic formula for meaning and affect.

ABCDEFGH

20.25 x 16 inches, acrylic on birch panel

First painting in series - To begin, for each letter of the alphabet, I looked up words that are considered the most 1. beautiful, 2. terrible, 3. disgusting - the good, the bad, and the ugly - as voted on by the internet. I tried to use 3 of those words from each letter, in a sentence, and then attempted to string that sentence together with those from each subsequent letter, creating something like a story. I thought of these words as the most evocative and charged in the English language. What does putting them into a narrative do to them - increase their suggestiveness, make them funny, strange, meaningless, or do they negate each other? A legible yet convoluted linguistic formula for meaning and affect.

Love Letters (diptych)

9 x 12 inches (each panel), acrylic on birch panels

Left panel “letter” comes from a composite spam email that I received from someone or something named Beyonce. The right panel is my response to Beyonce – an appropriated and modified love letter originally written by Napoleon for Josephine. I replied via email before making the paintings.

Ego Letters (diptych)

9 x 12 inches (each panel), Acrylic on two panels

Left panel “letter” comes from a composite spam email that I received from someone named Dr. Gold. The right panel is my response to Dr. Gold – an appropriated and letter originally written by Abraham Lincoln to lasses S. Grant. I replied via email before making the paintings.

What is Best for Us

24 x 20 inches, Acrylic on Birch Panel

To compile the text for this piece, I combined excerpts from Martin Luther King's "I've Been To The Mountaintop" speech from April 3, 1968, with letters from the Zodiac Killer. I then translated this text into numerous languages (via translation software) approximately 44 times until it created the mutated version of the painting. I then transcribed the hybrid speech onto panel, and painted in contrasting colors around the letters - leaving the text as a negative imprint on the panel's surface.

Twelve

15 x 18 inches, Graphite on Shaped Paper

My personal random numbers (as I intuitively thought of them) created the form and pattern on this drawing. I began in the center and worked my way to the edge of the paper, with a predetermined stopping point.

Seeing Reds

28 x 19 inches, Acrylic Ink, Colored Pencil, and Graphite on Paper

A spliced together text from a Stanford Prison Experiment analysis.

Lucky Number 4

30 x 22.5 inches, colored pencil and graphite on shaped paper

Freud's Language

28 x 22 inches, Pastel, Colored Pencil and Ink on Paper

I translated the sizes of words used by Freud in his text "Chance, Determinism and Superstitious Belief". Each word had a color depending on its size and each word became a block of color - beginning at the right and spiraling toward the center.

July

26 x 17 inches, Colored Pencil on Paper

Jupiter Chart

19 x 14 inches, Pastel, Colored Pencil and Graphite on Paper

Red and Green

12 x 9 inches, Colored Pencil and Graphite on Paper

Miami

12 x 9 inches, Colored Pencil and Graphite on Paper

Lottery Grid 4

12 x 9 inches, Ink on Graph Paper

I "found" these pieces of graph paper which were filled with someone's attempts to predict winning lottery numbers. I couldn't recognize or understand the patterns but was fascinated by what they were - evidence of a person's attempts to understand and predict randomness. In order to simplify them and make the patterns visual, I color-coded them.

Lottery Grid 21

12 x 9 inches, Ink on Graph Paper

I "found" these pieces of graph paper which were filled with someone's attempts to predict winning lottery numbers. I couldn't recognize or understand the patterns but was fascinated by what they were - evidence of a person's attempts to understand and predict randomness. In order to simplify them and make the patterns visual, I color-coded them.

Lottery Grid 11

12 x 9 inches, Ink on Graph Paper

I "found" these pieces of graph paper which were filled with someone's attempts to predict winning lottery numbers. I couldn't recognize or understand the patterns but was fascinated by what they were - evidence of a person's attempts to understand and predict randomness. In order to simplify them and make the patterns visual, I color-coded them.

Lottery Grid 29

12 x 9 inches, Ink on Graph Paper

I "found" these pieces of graph paper which were filled with someone's attempts to predict winning lottery numbers. I couldn't recognize or understand the patterns but was fascinated by what they were - evidence of a person's attempts to understand and predict randomness. In order to simplify them and make the patterns visual, I color-coded them.

Lottery Grid 2

12 x 9 inches, Ink on Graph Paper

I "found" these pieces of graph paper which were filled with someone's attempts to predict winning lottery numbers. I couldn't recognize or understand the patterns but was fascinated by what they were - evidence of a person's attempts to understand and predict randomness. In order to simplify them and make the patterns visual, I color-coded them.

Lottery Grid 22

12 x 9 inches, Ink on Graph Paper

I "found" these pieces of graph paper which were filled with someone's attempts to predict winning lottery numbers. I couldn't recognize or understand the patterns but was fascinated by what they were - evidence of a person's attempts to understand and predict randomness. In order to simplify them and make the patterns visual, I color-coded them.

The Average Monkey

17 x 14 inches, Ink, Pastel, Colored Pencil on Paper

The shapes of two monkeys, layered on top of each other - one was fed a restricted calorie diet and is lean and fit, while the other was allowed to eat what he wanted, when he wanted. He grew old and fat, faster.

Nervous First Spin

22 x 22 inches, Ink, Colored Pencil and Graphite on Paper

I began this work by writing/drawing the word “nervous.” I then translated “nervous” into myriad languages - I translated each subsequent word into the next language. As the translations approximated the initial word and each subsequent word, the language began to morph in new, unexpected ways, all connected in some way to NERVOUS.

Transparent Glass

17 x 17 inches, Acrylic ink, Graphite, Adhesive on paper

ANNFA

22 x 19 inches, Acrylic, Ink, Tracing paper, Cut paper on Board

Confidence Drawing II

30 X 24 inches, Charcoal and Pastel on Paper

For this drawing, the shape was derived from daily statistics from the Gallop poll on people's confidence in the government. I used the numbers as length, width and angle.

Confidence Drawing II

30 x 24 inches, Charcoal and Pastel on Paper

For this drawing, the shape was derived from daily statistics from the Gallop poll on people's confidence in the government. I used the numbers as length, width and angle.

Nervous Temple

9 x 12 inches, Charcoal, Graphite and Colored Pencil on Paper

Time

9 x 134 inches, Acrylic, Ink, Colored Pencil on Paper

Passive

11 x 4 inches, Collage, Ink and Graphite on Paper

Nervous

9 x 13 inches, Collage, Ink and Graphite on Paper

I pulled the English word “nervous” out of a French newspaper text and connected the points into the spaces / patterns.

Masky

Pastel, Colored Pencil and Graphite on Paper

TORAD

18 x 29 inches, Acrylic, Ink, Cut Paper on Board

Dimensions of found paper dictate the text in center of cut-out

Flagship I

12 x 12 inches, Collage, Colored Pencil, and Graphite on Shaped Paper

Switcher

22 x 16 inches, Budweiser, Ink, Acrylic paint, and Graphite on Paper

Electronic negation overplayed on beer stains

Itch (Study)

14 x 9 inches, Ink and Graphite on Paper

Zero

10 x 14 inches, Graphite on Shaped Paper

My own random numbers (as I intuitively thought of them) created the form and pattern on this drawing. I began in the center and worked my way to the edge of the paper, with a predetermined stopping point.

Fourteen

15 x 9 inches, Graphite on shaped Paper

My own random numbers (as I intuitively thought of them) created the form and pattern on this drawing. I began in the center and worked my way to the edge of the paper, with a predetermined stopping point.

Our Road

10 x 10 inches, Acrylic paint, Newspaper on Board

Collaged NY Post headline about a chance disaster on a road that my family drives on regularly.

I Forget

11 x 8.5 inches, Ink and Colored pencil on Printed Paper

Altered speech from George Bush about finding Osama Bin Laden.

Our Lifeline

10 x 10 inches, Acrylic ink on cut, layered paper

Stock Loop

18 x 14 inches, Ink, Watercolor, and Colored Pencil on Paper

The highest and lowest point changes in the stock market's history, connected in a new order.

Blue Brick

9 x 9 inches, Acrylic, Colored Pencil, Charcoal on Paper

Inner Brick IV

9 x 9 inches, Acrylic, Colored Pencil, Graphite on Paper

The Witch

12 x 9 inches, Colored pencil and graphite on paper

Core

6 x 3 inches, Acrylic, Colored Pencil, Graphite on Paper

Inner Brick II

9 x 9 inches, Acrylic, Colored Pencil, Graphite on Paper

Mystery Cure

10 x 10 inches, Acrylic Ink, Colored Pencil, Graphite on Paper

Speculative cure for cancer, modified to emphasize its chemical structure

Coin Toss

14 x 9 inches, Colored Pencil, Graphite on Transparent Graph Paper

Series of coin tosses with the same coins overlayed to articulate randomness through patterns

Coke Zeron

9 x 6 inches, Coke Zero, Colored Pencil, Graphite on Paper

An Average Monkey

14 x 11 inches, Colored Pencil, Graphite on Paper

To create the central structure, I overplayed 2 silhouettes of monkeys, of the same age, from a scientific study on nutrition - one was fed a nutritious diet and was robust, while the other was allowed to eat what he wanted (mostly junk food) and was slumped over, losing his hair, and docile.

Mirrored Vietnam

13 x 9 inches, Ink and Graphite on Paper

Graph of casualties in the Vietnam War that I flipped, connected, and filled as a pattern, giving the abstract information a form.

The Castle

6 x 4 inches, colored pencil, graphite, pastel on paper

Cosmic

22 x 22 inches, colored pencil, ink, graph paper

John Wayne 1

8 x 4 inches, colored pencil, ink, graphite on paper

Word substitution between the 2 John Waynes