Floating: Eternal Radiance
This piece is a video work I created to examine concepts of macro, micro, and infinite. The juxtaposed films represent two different scales of experience that both share an infinite boundary. The sound is a recording of my guitar and my voice, processed and slowed down 300%. I processed this audio using a self designed patch in MAX-MSP.
Chemical Abstractions (2019)
Photography / 8” x 10” per (series of 4)
To create this piece, I submerged 4 rolls of expired color film in a chemical solution of soaps, detergents and bleach. The film was left in this solution for roughly five months, and was subsequently shot and developed. The resulting images are chemical abstractions: field conditions that result solely from the chemical relationships between the solution and the color film chemistry. The intention of this piece was to explore the artistic hand of the chemicals themselves. What kind of images do they create if given the opportunity to? The images shown above are a selection of 4 out of a series of 96.
35mm Paintings (2018)
Painting / New Media / Film: Ink on Film / 1-1/2” x 2” per (series of 500)
The images shown above are a selection of pieces from a large series of paintings done on 35mm leader film. I used alcohol ink and numerous fine mark making tools, such as small brushes and metallic objects to create these paintings. Ultimately these pieces were intended to be run through a 35mm film projector and projected as a video, but sadly this intention was never realized due to the price and rarity of such a device. I am interested in analog photographic processes, and thus it was extremely interesting to explore painting as a film photography mode of production. I consider these pieces to be a study of projected light manipulation, much like analog film video. Although I do not have access to a 35mm film projector, I do have access to a 35mm slide projector. When I perform live music, I often bring a slide projector with me in order to project these still images onto the stage. I received a Scholastic Gold Key for this piece in the fall of 2018.
Divergence of Reflection (2018)
Charcoal / 24” x 36” per (series of 2)
This piece explores the Zen concept of unity in opposites. The drawing on the right is a relief, whereas the drawing on the left is additive. The drawing on the left uses dark tones to express shadow, whereas the drawing on the right uses light tones to express shadow. They are mirror images of each other, and could be seen as the same subject from two different perspectives. They reach towards each other striving for a unifying connection.
Enter the Mirror (2018)
Pinhole Photography / 8-1/2” x 9-1/2” per (series of 2)
This piece is a pinhole photograph. In the photograph, a hand is pressed against a mirror. The reflection in the mirror is prominent and viewable, but the body that is casting this reflection has seemingly disappeared. To me, this piece is about entering and converging with the realm of the spiritual. Pictured in the slide is the negative and positive versions of this image.
Eyes Unclouded / Hands of Eternal Flame
This is a video work that examines abstractions of light, form, and body. The work was edited using MAX-MSP and Premiere Pro.
Imaginary Landscapes (2019)
Digital Print (MAX MSP) / 8-1/2” x 11” per (series of 2)
To create these pieces, I utilized a visual coding software called MAX-MSP, within which I designed a photo editing source code. The code was structured on multiple feedback loops, and at numerous points the system was entirely divided by zero. The resulting images are essentially documents of the computer's response to these impossible instructions. Although it was guided by my source code, the nature of the MAX photo editing patch I constructed was to give the computer control over the overall outcome. Thus, these graphics are in a sense an exploration of the computer's artistic hand. In my mind, they represent a documentation of the computer's artistic sentience.
This installation includes two feedback systems. For the video feedback system, a film camera is pointed at its monitoring screen. For the auditory feedback system, a guitar is leaned against its speaker. Each system creates an infinite signal repetition, and establishes a path for the generation of visual and audio stimulus. The only true difference between the visual and auditory feedback shown in this piece is the medium with which the signal is being amplified and displayed. In essence, visual and auditory feedback are the same thing, interpreted differently through two electronic systems. In this installation, I hoped to conflate the visual and the auditory by utilizing an artistic motif and mode of production that both the auditory and the visual can exist within.
Monochromatic Studies (2019)
Watercolor Pencil / 24” x 36” per (series of 2)
This piece is a diptych of two monochromatic studies from life. As an artistic experiment I used one single watercolor pencil for the creation of both pieces.
Vision E’tudes: Physical Abstractions
This piece is a series of visual vignettes that are designed to examine and confront the confines of human sensory experience. Although the visual abstractions in this series seem totally otherworldly and surreal, they all derive from source footage of physical objects and spaces. The edits I applied to this source footage were not extreme, and solely lie within the realm of color manipulation. Thus the visual distortion displayed in the final pieces is completely the result of the physical properties of the filmed material. Because of this, as one watches the film, there is always a certain attachment to the physical. This then forces the viewer to see and understand the physical world in a way which is totally abstracted and reified.
Transience Bodies: Excerpts from Series (2019)
Acrylic on Board / 40” x 24”
As an artist, I often work abstractly. For me, abstraction is both emotional, and conceptual. I believe that by creating work that relinquishes attachment to the physical, one can use art as a spiritual mechanism to envision other dimensions that exist outside of the human sense of perception. Transience Bodies is a series of works that explore the abstracted human figure. In these works, I am attempting to demonstrate a convergence of the spiritual and physical, the other-worldly and the everyday.
The Light that Radiates off of Me Extends into the Infinite (2020)
The Light that Radiates off of Me Extends into the Infinite, is a series of analog darkroom photographic prints. Although produced through a photographic medium, these pieces are not truly photographs; They are chemical paintings, which utilize the darkroom process as a means of abstract artistic production. Instead of submerging the prints in chemical baths, I painted chemicals onto the exposed paper. For these works, I consider the chemical process as a collaborator.
Photons come into being as a result of a fluctuation in their quantum field. This is not unlike ripples in a pond. When a wave propagates the electromagnetic field, a photon is created. Thus, light and its constituent particles do not exist as sole entities, but rather as peaks and valleys in their quantum space. When a photon comes into contact with say, my hand, that image does not cease to exist when that photon gets absorbed into my iris. The image dissipates and loses energy, but its ultimate imprint on the electromagnetic field is permanent and unchangeable. In my mind, these photon trails are the ultimate traces that an individual leaves behind. In The Light that Radiates off of Me Extends into the Infinite, I am attempting to document myself in relation to these trails. The abstracted overlay represents the vast electromagnetic spectrum, and my silhouetted figure merging into this overlay shows that I exist as an ordered version of this beautiful chaos. I made a large series of works to note the infinite versions of myself that exist imprinted on the electromagnetic field.
Fluid Abstractions 2: Resized (2018)
Tempura / 18” x 24” per
These paintings are excerpts from a large body of works that utilize the materiality of the paint itself in order to generate the final imagery. In these works I apply large amounts of watered-down paint to a canvas, which then I mix and control on canvas through the use of palette knives and active movements.
Experiment in Impermanence: Documents of Installation (2019)
Installation / Painting / 1’-6” x 6”
This slide is a documentation of an installation titled "Experiment In Impermanence". The painting shown in the photograph is a completely accidental paint spill, that occurred while I, the artist, was running with a large bucket of mixed paint. While running up a flight of stairs, I tripped, which resulted in my paint bucket flying, and this instant painting occurring roughly 10 feet in front of me. I consider the resulting painting to be a collaborative effort between myself, the laws of physics, and the stairs that caused me to trip. Because this occurred at my high school, I was required to clean up this work relatively immediately after its creation, thus deeming it a practice of understanding impermanence.
Landscape through Minds’ Eye (2018)
Tempura / Glue / 10” x 5-1/2”
No text
Ephemeral Convergence
Tempera on Paper / 20”/7”
For the creation of this piece, I decided to relinquish attachment to concrete conceptually minded art making, and in the process of doing so, open a door into my subconscious and subliminal artistic mind. To create Ephemeral Convergence, I meditated on the word cataclysm, both in its direct definition, and in the effects of a cataclysmic event. I immediately after started working on the shown painting.
When creating this piece, I practiced a detachment from intention, and allowed my hand to travel where it wanted to. Because the word and its meanings were submerged into my being, I allowed the essence of cataclysmic nature into my artistic hand.
By post-rationalizing the piece, I can see its relation to the concept of cataclysm. I see the work as an abstracted landscape, that documents an epic destruction. The red circular forms are reminiscent of planets, and the thin lines of paint crossing the piece seem like comets that almost collide with their surfaces. The work describes a destructive event on the galactic scale, that allows for the emergence of something new and beautiful.
Buried Drawing: Excerpt from Series (2016-2018)
Tempura / Ink / Forest Floor / 18” x 24”
This drawing is an excerpt from a large series of works that I painted, and then buried in the forest. This specific piece was left outside for roughly 2 years before it was recollected. Visible in the left hand corner is two prints of Oak leaves acquired during its long stay underground.
Fluid Abstraction: Excerpt from Series (2018)
Tempura / 18” x 24” per (1 of 10)
This painting is an excerpt from a large body of work that utilizes the materiality of the paint itself in order to generate the final imagery. In these works I apply large amounts of watered-down paint to a canvas, which then I mix and control on canvas through the use of palette knives and active movements.
Abstract Digression (2019)
Charcoal and Graphite on Paper/ 18”/12” each
Shown above is a series of charcoal drawings from life, that through abstraction seek to analyze the shifting boundary between concreteness and intangibility. Through these works, I am attempting to demonstrate a convergence of the spiritual and the physical, the concrete and the abstract, and the other-worldly and the everyday.
In the series, a naturalistic still life slowly descends into formless abstraction. The final image, although clearly related to its predecessors, possesses an unnamable quality that I find to be extremely interesting. I chose to use the traditional artistic motif of the still life to express this concept in order to provide commentary on the purpose of art in modern society. .
Eye Myth (2018)
Photogram / 5” x 9”
This photogram uses collage like techniques in order to generate a graphic visual depiction of my eye abstracted and mythified.
Atomic Visualizations (Raw Footage)
To create this piece, I recorded a very up-close video of a still computer screen. The resulting image is a complex moving abstraction that documents relationships between groups of pixels as they phase in and out of alignment. To me, this video acts to reveal the hidden deepness of a computer and its various systems. Under the veil of web browsing and social media lies a beautiful complex abstracted world of interchanging and phasing forms. The aspect of this concept that I find to be especially interesting is the fact that this phenomenon does not only apply to the digital world. Modern physics has shown that matter on the smallest scales acts extremely strangely, existing in multiple places at once, and succeeding boundaries of space and time. My artistic work shows that digital matter at the smallest scales (in the form of pixels) acts similarly. The title of the piece - Atomic Visualizations, is inspired by that Idea.
Atomic Visualizations (Installed)
This slide is a documentation of the installed version of Atomic Visualizations. In this installed piece there are two sonic elements. The first is a hanging microphone swinging above its speaker, feedbacking rhythmically every time it passes over the speaker cone. The second is a modified guitar that is being resonated by a type of magnet called an Ebow. The sound of the guitar is beautiful and ambient, whereas the sound of the feedbacking microphone is harsh. These choices of sonic quality are relevant to the visual work. From first glance, the static and distorted visuals prevalent in Atomic Visualizations are harsh and abrasive, but with the consideration of concept and the understanding of these images as depictions of the beautiful hidden world of the computer, they take on a new meaning, and begin to represent a sort of beauty and divinity.
Atomic Visualizations (Documents of process)
This slide is a representation of the artistic process of Atomic Visualizations. In this slide I have included footage of raw, unedited video, and also show detail depictions of the sound installation objects.
