On warm off-white paper, a compact, high-tension orb of graphite lines detonates at the center—like a tightly coiled nest of nervous energy suddenly bursting in controlled fury. Thousands of short-to-medium strokes crisscross, hook, zigzag, and collide at sharp, ever-changing angles, creating a restless, angular tangle with almost no straight passages.
Density peaks in the roughly oval core: overlapping marks pile into near-opaque dark gray-black masses, leaving very little breathing room and building textured, almost sculptural depth through relentless layering. From this overloaded nucleus, spiky, irregular tendrils thrust outward asymmetrically—thinning only gradually into lighter, feathered wisps that extend toward an uneven, pulsating boundary before dissolving softly into the surrounding paper.
The overall form is contained yet alive with anxious vibration: no symmetry, no gentle curves, only jagged directional shifts that generate electric friction. Stark tonal range—from crushing velvety blacks to faint silvery traces—amplifies raw urgency against the pale ground.
Notice how the densest central knot pulls the eye inward to maximum pressure and entanglement, then flings it outward along jagged, spiky trails—creating relentless rhythmic tension between implosive accumulation and explosive release, confinement and escape.
Part of the Tychist Objects series, this unique drawing channels tychism—Charles Sanders Peirce’s philosophy that genuine, objective chance is a fundamental creative force. Algorithmic random-number processes guided key decisions in mark placement, direction, and density, yet every jagged stroke was executed by hand, merging mechanical indeterminacy with obsessive human energy. The result: a visual emblem of beauty born from true randomness—restless, anxious order emerging as if by miracle from pure chance.
In its compact, high-voltage intensity, the work invites close looking—how does this tangled graphite explosion against quiet paper stir your sense of contained frenzy, nervous vitality, or the quiet poetry of chaos held just at the brink of unraveling?
Technical notes.
Unique drawing. Graphite on paper. Unframed dimensions: 10-1/4” high x 12-7/8” wide. Signed by the artist on the back, dated 2015. Frame not included. Frame not included.
On warm off-white paper, a compact, high-tension orb of graphite lines detonates at the center—like a tightly coiled nest of nervous energy suddenly bursting in controlled fury. Thousands of short-to-medium strokes crisscross, hook, zigzag, and collide at sharp, ever-changing angles, creating a restless, angular tangle with almost no straight passages.
Density peaks in the roughly oval core: overlapping marks pile into near-opaque dark gray-black masses, leaving very little breathing room and building textured, almost sculptural depth through relentless layering. From this overloaded nucleus, spiky, irregular tendrils thrust outward asymmetrically—thinning only gradually into lighter, feathered wisps that extend toward an uneven, pulsating boundary before dissolving softly into the surrounding paper.
The overall form is contained yet alive with anxious vibration: no symmetry, no gentle curves, only jagged directional shifts that generate electric friction. Stark tonal range—from crushing velvety blacks to faint silvery traces—amplifies raw urgency against the pale ground.
Notice how the densest central knot pulls the eye inward to maximum pressure and entanglement, then flings it outward along jagged, spiky trails—creating relentless rhythmic tension between implosive accumulation and explosive release, confinement and escape.
Part of the Tychist Objects series, this unique drawing channels tychism—Charles Sanders Peirce’s philosophy that genuine, objective chance is a fundamental creative force. Algorithmic random-number processes guided key decisions in mark placement, direction, and density, yet every jagged stroke was executed by hand, merging mechanical indeterminacy with obsessive human energy. The result: a visual emblem of beauty born from true randomness—restless, anxious order emerging as if by miracle from pure chance.
In its compact, high-voltage intensity, the work invites close looking—how does this tangled graphite explosion against quiet paper stir your sense of contained frenzy, nervous vitality, or the quiet poetry of chaos held just at the brink of unraveling?
Technical notes.
Unique drawing. Graphite on paper. Unframed dimensions: 10-1/4” high x 12-7/8” wide. Signed by the artist on the back, dated 2015. Frame not included. Frame not included.
