Machine Made

An early interest in painting has never fully fled, and I see it manifested here. The all over compositions nod to abstract expressionism, particularly the works of Rothko and Pollock. My interests reach beyond those art historical examples however, and lean towards the sculptural implications of drawing.

The Machine Made works in essence are nothing more than the recorded actions of the lo-fi mark making devices I have constructed. I see the process of creating the image as a type of assemblage, a building up of density. Like a reversed form of carving, the continuous adding of media both obscures and reveals as the process runs on, subtracting whiteness from the paper. The patterns and sub patterns that emerge in each image are a result of divisions or obstructions within the wooden flask that limits the movement of the mark making devices.

 The motion of the individual mechanisms is random, but within a finite realm. The motion of the devices is relatable to a variety of natural processes, from the jitter of quarks to the movement of air molecules to the bobbing of debris in the ocean. The residual drawings, saturated and atmospheric, similarly exhibit characteristics of seemingly unrelated forms of networks ranging from flight paths to neurons. Each finished drawing is signed and given a serial number incorporating the date of execution.

 This is an ongoing project and body of work, with more than 150 drawings completed in the past five years, more than 300 total in the series to date. This work has served as the catalyst for various workshops I’ve led on drawing machines including at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, The Frist Museum, The Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design, and upcoming (March 2021) at the Pennsylvania College of Technology as part of my residency and exhibition there. This body of work was also the focus of my week long residency at Northern Illinois University in November 2016 (details below) where I worked with graduate students and faculty in the printmaking area to create a split edition of color lithographs utilizing photo lithography plates created from the same drawing process. A selection of these works are currently on long term loan to the Bucks County Community College for a year long exhibition Marvelous Machines in their “Artmobile” traveling museum.