Category: Projects

Article originally appeared in Pyragraph

My 8 year old daughter asked me if I can paint anything other than stripes… and she has a good point. Brilliant minds that I respect in the art world have asked me the same thing.  Yesterday, over breakfast, my family had a sketchbook out on the table and I drew a bagel. I exclaimed, “There! See, I can draw something!” We had a good laugh about it, but as the years go on, I continue to receive the same comments from friends and colleagues.

In order for an artist to make it to the 20 year mark, that person has got to have chutzpah, or a big ego, or both. It would otherwise be impossible to work tirelessly towards an obscure goal, against the interest of our mainstream culture, and against the interest of having a comfortable lifestyle. Continue reading “Dad, Why Do You Paint Stripes?”

Interview from the Nüart Gallery Editorial

Q: What does a typical day in the studio look like for you?

A: One of Pablo Picasso’s best known quotes is, “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” I’d like to unpack the word “work” throughout this interview.

I start by collecting information. Some might call it “piddling around”. For example I’ll ask the question, “what is a white wall?” Then I’ll spend the next week testing different hues of white paint and explore lighting on different walls. As I piddle, I  have music playing in the background, and when a good song comes on, I save it in a playlist. This new playlist will become part of the foundation for a new painting series.

This first chapter in my studio practice also includes looking, and playing with ideas around possible supports, materials and scale. I think about new methods and experiments I want to take part in. Inspiration comes in the form of a title and color parameters for the new series.

The next chapter may be what some call “work”. I am no longer gathering information, but processing. I stretch and prime, lay down colored grounds, and begin working with the first value studies. I have a sense of where I want to go, and which colors I will use, but I don’t know how it will unfold.

The final chapter is the most exciting. When the glaze layers are really taking shape, I work in a state of awe and gratitude. I lose track of time, I lose track of myself. Continue reading “Nüart Gallery: Artist Spotlight 2023”

This article originally appeared in ThinkJar Collective, May 2020:  Serious Play
Updated March 30, 2023

NYTimes tech columnist Kevin Roose’ conversation with the AI Bing Search chatbot “Sydney” left many readers unsettled. Were Sydney’s pleas for the columnists to leave his wife the miracle of an AI moving towards sentience? Definitely not. Sydney was fed information including love novels and movies to create a human feel. My personal theory is the programmers also wanted to make a search chat with the ability to get a user tangled up emotionally. The underlying architecture was revealed when the columnist pushed the chatbot’s boundaries. Sydney’s words “Do you believe me? Do you trust me? Do you like me? ?” show the intentions of Microsoft programmers.

A letter dated March 22, 2023 from the Future of Life Institute signed by luminaries such as Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, calls on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.

For now, cost effective answers to quick questions take priority, but an other approach could bring AI research back to play and scientific discovery. There could be hidden treasure for AI if researchers dive into the creative process. Machines are still not being taught to think.  Continue reading “Influencing Space: If AI Could Play”