Mindless Pleasures 29 12” x 9” Mixed media, collage, and transfer on paper 2019 Text (descending, vertical register): H E L L E N D (cropped) O O R N
Drawing & collage as exploration of buried histories, the entropy of place.
#art #abstractart #contemporaryart
Mindless Pleasures 28 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper 2019
Countdown #drawing, film lead and V2 launch.
an old writer—of whose works I possess the only copy extant
John Duff #sculpture installed at #ReenaSpauling’s gallery in NYC. From left to right: White Oracle 2, 1983 Yellow Wall Piece, 1967 (which is not tall and thin) Graphite Curved Wedge, 1983 Untitled, 1967
Thinking of John Duff’s recent exhibition at Reena Spauling’s gallery in NYC.
Tall, thin objects resist narrative by rejecting a cinematic expansion of the space for a picture; they become personages without reaching out into space to interact…
Screenshot from Artsy.com
Text (start of article): The Rise of "Ultra-Vertical" Paintings All works / Contemporary. The start of 2026 has seen a distinct trend emerge across social media and art galleries: the rise of the "ultra-vertical" painting. These long paintings depart from traditional proportions, making them the perfect accent piece for narrow walls, small spaces, and modern interiors. On these elongated canvases, contemporary artists are challenging conventional composition and offering a new, versatile aesthetic for the contemporary home. Below, shop a handpicked selection of works and make the trend your own. (Continues…)
Thanks to Artsy.com for including my work in an article on extremely vertical paintings. I’ve been thinking about my consistent return to that attenuated format, and the influence of artists, like John Duff, with a similar formal exploration.
Gift of William S. Paley
Michelle Stuart, Nazca Lines Star Chart and Nazca Lines Southern Hemisphere Constellation Chart Correlation, 1981-82
https://botfrens.com/collections/14377/contents/1135198
This work was key to also understanding the relation between handwritten script and stenciled text, and how to avoid the influence of Cy Twombly when employing the former…
Mindless Pleasures 27 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper 2019 Text running vertically; Proper right (cursive script): “…alamity” (‘C’ is not drawn. Proper left (cursive script): “…atje” (‘K’ is not drawn) Center/ proper-left (stenciled, reversed): ‘K’ (oversized - 2”)/ ‘… ATJE’ (- 1”)
Drawing as a comparison between characters, looking at deep sources for Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow: Calamity Jane and katje Borgesius.
Mindless Pleasures 26 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper 2019
Revisiting previous information, combining historic dates with a new drawing structure and the allure of the materiality of a “silver screen.”
16.11.36 - ‘The Plainsman’ released
16.12.44 - V2 rocket strike on the Rex cinema
Gavin Newsom smiling creepily
Joker smiling creepily killing Batman's parents.
I mean
Mindless Pleasures 25 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper 2019
Drawing as a study of material & colorfield variation; 35mm film aperture & sprocket holes as the template for color shifts.
Mindless Pleasures 24 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper 2019 Text (ratios) in vertical registers, descending: Proper left: 2.39 x 1 Proper right: 1.37 x 1
Measurement drawing; comparing aspect ratios of film stock.
#art
Mindless Pleasures 23 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper 2019 Crossing text, covered in color: Standard register: CALVARY Vertical register: HICKOK
Text layered to generate a shifting colorfield within the drawing.
Mindless Pleasures 22 12” x 9” Mixed media, collage, and epoxy on paper 2019 Text, in vertical registers: 12.6.’44 (date of rhe V2 rocket strike on the Rex cinema). 11.6.’36 (release date of Cecile B DeMille’s ‘The Plainsman.’) 1.37:1 (aspect ratio)
A drawing of irregular sets: numbers as the generator of abstraction. Dates for the V2 rocket strike on the Rex Cinema & the original release of de Mille’s ‘The Plainsman’; set in comparison to the aspect ratio of the film.
Mindless Pleasures 21 12” x 9” Mixed media and epoxy on paper 2019 Text: cursive, in oil crayon; vertical register, buried in paint & epoxy. “LAT/TTIMER”
Process drawing integrating handwritten text and material signifiers of film. The composition was altered by the misspelling of “Latimer”, and the double-‘T’ correction to lock the surface & echo the abstraction of sprocket holes.
X (stacked).
Found Guyton (sidewalk sculpture).
Mindless Pleasures 20 12” x 9” Mixed media, collage, and epoxy on paper 2019
Drawing as a persona comparison from ‘The Plainsman’: Gary Cooper reads more as “Gary Cooper, cowboy”than as the historic personage of Wild Bill Hickok. By contrast, the villain Lattimer, portrayed by Charles Bickford, is not as iconic.
Zohran Mamdani doing governance, not theatrics. Schools open, workers respected, kids reassured with humor not fear. Competence plus humanity is what leadership looks like. This is how you earn trust, not demand it.
I wanted to experiment with handwriting as a drawn element. I integrated some stencils as a counterpoint, and correction where I had misspelled ‘Lattimer.’
The story is driven by an arms dealer & industry seeking to profit by starting & sustaining a war. Its multiple timelines and distrust of ultimate authority mirror the structure & themes of GR.
Mindless Pleasures 19 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper 2019 Text, running in vertical registers: Proper right: “Plainsman” Proper left: “Lat/ttimer”
This is a turning point for the series (a year later), as I started looking at the foundation of Gravity’s Rainbow. The V2 bombing of the Rex Cinema was a touchstone for Pynchon’s novel; that cinema was playing the Cecil B Demille western ‘The Plainsman.’
The entire series is on a mix of Twinrocker handmade drawing and watercolor papers. This work was notable for being made on unsized paper, but was soaked with so much water that the surface started to fray and separate. I thought this was a nice analogy to the fragility of aging 35mm film stock.
The Mindless Pleasures series continued through several years, mostly being worked on in the summer. This drawing marked a transition between 2018, when I was primarily working with the structure of film, into 2019 when I started digging into Thomas Pynchon’s source material for Gravity’s Rainbow.
Mindless Pleasures 18 12” x 9” Mixed media and epoxy on paper 2019
Continuing a #drawing/ colorfield #painting based on #film as material.
#art
Mindless Pleasures 17 12” x 9” Mixed media and epoxy on paper 2018 Text: on proper right edge, running vertically; .0730” , 1.854mm. Bottom edge (proper orientation): .0780”, 1.981 mm
One of the themes in the #drawing series is duplication and variation; comparing the material and measure of a #film sprocket. Originally the reversal of material to void was embodied in solid epoxy (MP no. 9), this version builds on the actual measurements.
#art
Mindless Pleasures 15 12” x 9” Mixed media and epoxy on paper 2018
Mindless Pleasures 16 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper 2018
Projection film as material and armature for #drawing; drawing turning into colorfield painting. Sprocket holes as organization and index.
#art
On 16 December 1944, at 15:20, a V-2 rocket fired from The Netherlands (Hellendoorn) landed on the roof of the Rex cinema during a showing of The Plainsman. This was (partly) the inspiration for Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.
Mindless Pleasures 14 12” x 9” Mixed media and epoxy on paper 2018 Text (pencil - faint, along the proper right edge): vertical register “Plainsman” Text (stenciled acrylic paint; layered, covered, repainted): 10, 9, 8, 7 … bottom edge of page.
#Drawing as countdown. #Film lead to the start of a film shifts from fiction to the real launch of a V2 rocket.
#art
North Carolina lawmakers have voted to remove all college campus voting sites. Specifically at the largest HBCU in the US NC A&T. They now have to walk 30 minutes to their nearest polling place. Students are protesting this - pls share and support.
www.tiktok.com/t/ZThx29BJ9/
Mindless Pleasures 12 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper 2018
Mindless Pleasures 13 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper 2018
The study of film stock as the source material for gesture and abstraction.
#art #drawing
