Across an immense, austere field of untouched white paper, a fragile constellation of soft gray forms drifts in gentle disarray—like fragments of vaporous cloud caught in the aftermath of an invisible gust. These delicate, smudged shapes, drawn in faint pencil, range from barely-there wisps that hover ethereally near the surface to slightly denser clumps carrying subtle texture and shadow. Each irregular patch is gently frayed at the edges, dissolving softly into the surrounding blankness rather than ending abruptly.
The forms gather loosely toward the center-right, creating a diffuse, radiating mass that seems to expand outward in slow motion: denser clusters at the core give way to lighter, trailing pieces that scatter farther afield, some solitary and drifting freely into the vast emptiness. This asymmetrical distribution evokes quiet dispersal—neither explosive violence nor rigid order, but a tender unraveling where once-coherent matter yields to separation and silence.
The composition depends wholly on graphite's subtle tonal range: lightest feathery grays fade almost imperceptibly into the white ground, while mid-tones add faint depth and suggestion of volume without ever asserting solidity. Smudging and light pressure create hazy, atmospheric quality; no sharp lines dominate, only organic, cloud-like softness that implies breath, motion, and ephemerality. The surrounding white expanse is not mere negative space—it actively amplifies isolation, fragility, and infinite potential, turning the modest sheet into a contemplative cosmos of near-nothingness.
Notice how the loose clustering pulls the eye toward the center-right nexus, then releases it along trailing wisps that drift toward the edges—creating a rhythmic ebb between gathering and scattering, presence and absence. The marks feel weightless yet haunted, as though capturing the precise instant when form begins to surrender to dispersion.
As with the entire "Tychist Objects" series, this drawing channels tychism—Charles Sanders Peirce's philosophy that absolute chance operates as a real, objective principle in the universe. Algorithmic random-number processes guided key decisions in placement, density, and character, yet every stroke emerged from the artist's hand, blending mechanical indeterminacy with human nuance. The result is a visual poem of fragile emergence and dissolution: the haunting beauty of what briefly coheres before scattering like stardust across the void.
In its understated intensity, the piece quietly invites reflection—how does this tender fragmentation evoke your own sense of impermanence, chance-born beauty, or the poetry of things coming apart?
Technical notes.
Unique drawing. Graphite on paper. Unframed dimensions: 16-5/8” high x 21-3/4” wide. Signed by the artist on the back, dated 2019. Frame not included.
Across an immense, austere field of untouched white paper, a fragile constellation of soft gray forms drifts in gentle disarray—like fragments of vaporous cloud caught in the aftermath of an invisible gust. These delicate, smudged shapes, drawn in faint pencil, range from barely-there wisps that hover ethereally near the surface to slightly denser clumps carrying subtle texture and shadow. Each irregular patch is gently frayed at the edges, dissolving softly into the surrounding blankness rather than ending abruptly.
The forms gather loosely toward the center-right, creating a diffuse, radiating mass that seems to expand outward in slow motion: denser clusters at the core give way to lighter, trailing pieces that scatter farther afield, some solitary and drifting freely into the vast emptiness. This asymmetrical distribution evokes quiet dispersal—neither explosive violence nor rigid order, but a tender unraveling where once-coherent matter yields to separation and silence.
The composition depends wholly on graphite's subtle tonal range: lightest feathery grays fade almost imperceptibly into the white ground, while mid-tones add faint depth and suggestion of volume without ever asserting solidity. Smudging and light pressure create hazy, atmospheric quality; no sharp lines dominate, only organic, cloud-like softness that implies breath, motion, and ephemerality. The surrounding white expanse is not mere negative space—it actively amplifies isolation, fragility, and infinite potential, turning the modest sheet into a contemplative cosmos of near-nothingness.
Notice how the loose clustering pulls the eye toward the center-right nexus, then releases it along trailing wisps that drift toward the edges—creating a rhythmic ebb between gathering and scattering, presence and absence. The marks feel weightless yet haunted, as though capturing the precise instant when form begins to surrender to dispersion.
As with the entire "Tychist Objects" series, this drawing channels tychism—Charles Sanders Peirce's philosophy that absolute chance operates as a real, objective principle in the universe. Algorithmic random-number processes guided key decisions in placement, density, and character, yet every stroke emerged from the artist's hand, blending mechanical indeterminacy with human nuance. The result is a visual poem of fragile emergence and dissolution: the haunting beauty of what briefly coheres before scattering like stardust across the void.
In its understated intensity, the piece quietly invites reflection—how does this tender fragmentation evoke your own sense of impermanence, chance-born beauty, or the poetry of things coming apart?
Technical notes.
Unique drawing. Graphite on paper. Unframed dimensions: 16-5/8” high x 21-3/4” wide. Signed by the artist on the back, dated 2019. Frame not included.
