Statement

Ontology is a central theme throughout my work because it deals with the nature of existence or being by analyzing concepts about location, time, space, and identity. Geology, geography and especially cartography provide me with useful languages to manipulate and transform these ontological concepts into visual metaphors. These physical, temporal, and literal metaphors are often used to convey ideas, feelings or emotions about a place, process, movement or perception.

About Each Series:

Ontological Panopticon (video)

Ontology is the half of metaphysics that studies the origins, history and essence of being. Panopticon comes from Greek...pan, meaning ‘all’ plus optikon or ‘optic’, meaning vision or seeing; combined means "all seeing". The word from the mid 18th century onward refers to a type of telescope. The term was used by prison reformer Jeremy Bentham in 1790 for his design of a circular institutional building, namely a prison or insane asylum. This design allows for total surveillance of prisoners or patients. In Discipline and Punish (1975) Michel Foucault describes the panopticon as an apparatus of power by virtue of the field of visibility it creates.

The Ontological Panopticon series comprises iPhone video “fly-overs” of a hardcopy Rand McNally road atlas of the United States. Manipulated in Photoshop (yes, Photoshop) they present as psychological or emotional impressions of each location the maps represent and stand as a metaphor for my state of being (and perhaps contemporary society too) at the time each video was created.

Ontological Panopticon (photo)

This series of photographs is derived from still images taken from each of the videos in the Ontological Panopticon video series and are titled accordingly. The Ontological Panopticon series comprises iPhone video “fly-overs” of a hardcopy Rand McNally road atlas of the United States. Manipulated in Photoshop (yes, Photoshop) they present as psychological or emotional impressions of each location the maps represent and stand as a metaphor for my state of being (and perhaps contemporary society too) at the time each video was created.

Ontological Surveillance Drone (video)

This video series is derived from iPhone "fly-overs" of my Ontological Road Maps series and other drawings. Ontology, a division of metaphysics, is a central theme throughout my work because it deals with the nature of existence or being by analyzing concepts about essence, substance, time, location, space, and identity. Surveillance implies a sense of watchful supervision from outside as well as from within. It can be attributed to the norms or conventions of existence (or of map reading) that are thrust upon individuals from others and to those rules which individuals (or artists in general) impose upon themselves. And a drone, a stingless male bee who's only job is mating with the queen or a low monotonous audible tone, but in this sense is defined as "an uncrewed aircraft or vessel guided by remote control or onboard computers"…a seemingly anonymous voyeur or attacker.

Ontological Surveillance Drone (photo)

The Ontological Surveillance Drone series of photographs developed out of a video I made with my iPhone of a graphite on paper drawing. It is a more contemporary and technology driven variation on my earlier Ontological Surveillance Map series, which use blown up detail image of the drawing to mimic the “insets” of traditional cartography. The Drone series reflects my interest in and paranoia of both government and corporate surveillance of our private lives.

Oblique Ontological Terrain

The Oblique Ontological Terrain series developed out an oblique map atlas I found on-line published by the USGS in the 1970s. I redrew and enlarged sections of these maps by hand (pen and ink) while looking at them on my iPad. The word oblique means neither perpendicular nor parallel or not straightforward, indirect, obscure, devious or underhanded. Ontology is the half of metaphysics that studies the origins, history and essence of being. And, terrain means a geographic area or the physical features of a tract of land, but, also, a field of knowledge or interest. The definitions of the words in the title and the undulating mountains seemed to intersect perfectly with the isolation of Covid-19 lock-downs and tumultuous social upheaval of our time.

Ontological Surveillance Matrix

A matrix is, as defined by Merriam-Webster, “something within or from which something else originates, develops, or takes form”. These paintings on paper are extreme detail images of the Ontological Road Maps, enlarged in Photoshop, projected and painted. So, they are derived from other work. Ontology, a division of metaphysics, is a central theme throughout my work because it deals with the nature of existence or being by analyzing concepts about essence, substance, time, location, space, and identity. Surveillance implies an ominous sense of watchful supervision from outside as well as from within. It can be attributed to the norms or conventions of existence that are thrust upon individuals from others and to those rules which individuals (or artists in general) impose upon themselves.

7½ Minute Series

Contour lines on a topographic map are imaginary lines connecting points on the map that have the same elevation on the surface of the land above or below mean sea level. These found abstractions taken from the US Geological Survey's 7½ Minute Series reveal natural and man-made shapes and patterns of each landscape at the time each map was drawn. I begin in the top left corner with black and alternate black and white, filling in the space between the contour lines, until I reach the lower right corner. The titles are taken directly from the maps themselves.

Geologic Abstractions (paintings)

In the Geologic Abstractions series I downloaded from the Internet images of historical maps from the 19th and early 20th centuries of geologic structures of the given area of land. Using the colors from the maps themselves and deleting all other information in the maps these painting-like abstractions were revealed. The titles are taken directly from the maps and offer the only hint at the actual location in the maps. These found two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional space are rectified readymades and are snapshots of geologic time.

Geologic Abstractions (prints)

Surface Analysis

Surface Analysis maps are made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which detail surface conditions of North America. These maps are published every three hours of every day. I downloaded high resolution maps from the NOAA website and reduced the images to just the isobar lines and then layered the eight maps published each day. The titles and color of the lines are taken from each map.

Street Views

These gouache on paper paintings are made while looking at “street views” from Google Maps of locations that I have visited or grew up near. They are about memory, nostalgia and a tongue and cheek play on plein air landscape painting.

Plans

Influenced by maps from art history books of ancient settlements and the drawings and observations in Edmund N. Bacon’s Design of Cities the Plans series of fictional neighborhoods developed from a sketchbook made during a period where my time working in the studio was limited. The drawings necessarily needed to be faster and less obsessively detailed than the other drawing series I have been engage in making for the last 18 years. Simply put, the Plans series uses a cartographic-like vernacular as a compositional language. There are only a couple of rules that I generally follow but other than those each drawing is an organic process of action and reaction that begins at a random point on the paper.

Ontological Road Maps

Ontology is a central theme throughout my work because it deals with the nature of existence or being by analyzing concepts about essence, substance, time, location, space, and identity. My work addresses these ideas by building upon physical, temporal, and literal metaphors that are often used to convey ideas about a process as well as a product. For instance, each Ontological Road Map is not only a finished work that represents a fictional place, but it is also a reflection of the hand of the artist, the act of making lines. Each of these drawings involves a labor-intensive process where much time is needed for construction and development. Once the drawing is complete, it is a picture of time. That is, each drawing reveals the time it takes to make a road map and then each finished drawing actually represents that time. All along, there is a literal play on mapping. Each drawing represents a process (of mapmaking, of creating roads) and a place (a representation of existence that can be either real or imagined).

Ontological Surveillance Maps

Like the Ontological Road Maps the Surveillance Maps begin with the order and structure of a New World city grid and gradually "build" outward into the convoluted confusion of the urban sprawl of twenty-first century cities in the United States. Surveillance implies a sense of watchful supervision from outside as well as from within. It can be attributed to the norms or conventions of existence (or of map reading) that are thrust upon individuals from others and to those rules which individuals (or artists in general) impose upon themselves. The Surveillance Maps consist of two panels. One panel an ontological road map (ink on paper) and the other panel is a painting (gouache on paper) of a projected digital detail photograph of the road map. These two panels are then juxtaposed, resulting in the completed diptych.