Unplain Air: Notes from a Portable Forest continues the tradition of plein air painting using mixed reality technology. I paint landscapes based on a conjured virtual environment while wearing augmented reality glasses. The goal is to establish a connection between the real and imagined by interpreting this portable dreamscape. The open spaces of the room are populated by an array of hypernatural forms - tree barks patterned, natural forms assuming unnatural colors. This immersive approach increases the probability of achieving a vitality and vividness sometimes lacking in work from secondary sources. As the artist, I control every feature of this virtual world. The mixed reality framework synthesizes the spontaneity of plein air painting with the advantages of a mutable virtual landscape. I see this as a bridge between the physical and virtual.

Moltmode is a comprehensive, speculative fashion house exploring the intersection of technology and creativity. Through the power of generative models, a fleshed-out vision was made possible. The images on the site are the result of thousands of iterations – drawings, designs, and variations building upon those initial concepts. A great deal of research went into the selection of material, pattern, and fabric – all virtual, hypothetical, and aspirational for now.

This project highlights the ability of these models to promote ideation and real-time creativity. It allows the externalization of imagined ideas even if one lacks the capacity, training, or budget to traditionally realize them. The process of imagining and inventing is central to the experience. While these designs may never see the light of day, the ability to conjure, iterate, and develop them in full color and detail – even with the limitations of earlier generative models – proved a worthwhile exercise. https://www.moltmode.com/

Alternate Currents visualizes repetitive body movements associated with autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions, sometimes termed "stimming." Using motion capture and 3D modeling, I distill the movements into virtual particles and frameworks, highlighting inherent rhythms and patterns. Aesthetic choices relate participant perspectives on the feeling of stimming. The goal is to reframe conversations and make the invisible visible by giving form to these often-misunderstood movements. For this project I collaborated with Dr. Dan Kennedy, Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences, and a neurodiverse group of friends, students, and community members.

This project aims to provide personalized feedback by integrating GPT-4 with computer vision technologies. It is designed to facilitate the evolution of one’s visual language through interactive critique sessions, a personalized feedback loop, style adaptation features, and a privacy-centric design. The technical framework utilizes the PyTorch framework for its flexibility and comprehensive library support. Implementation involves training models on diverse datasets, integrating natural language processing with visual analysis, and developing a user-friendly interface. The project also addresses challenges such as diverse artistic styles, feedback complexity, and balancing model generalization with personalization. The beta version of this tool is scheduled for public release in fall 2024, offering artists a new way to engage with their work, hone their vision, and Strengthen aptitude for critically situating creative production within layered theoretical, social and art historical frameworks.

“Varsouviana was a dramatic indie rock, dark cabaret, gypsy-folk music group known for playing frenzied live shows in Indiana and the midwestern United States. They recorded only a handful of songs but are remembered for playing long sets filled with unpredictable chord shifts, abrupt tempo changes, skittering vocals, and elaborate percussion. The lyrics in their songs touch on subjects ranging from a tale about spouse-swapping aliens to a song about baroness who goes to gruesome lengths to maintain her voice and appearance. In one song, the artist envisions a dystopian future where a popular reality TV show features rival gangs of thieves competing against each other. The contestants engage in increasingly audacious acts of racketeering, swindling, and general mischief-making to win the adoration and support of viewers. Think American Idol, but for criminals. This satirical premise is characteristic of the groups fascination with sensationalism and the blurring lines between entertainment and morality in a media-driven world.“ - Shine, UK

Pure Magic: From Parlor Tricks to Prophecy, AI and the Unimaginable” is a written work that blends magical realism, speculative nonfiction, and a diaristic approach to storytelling. It follows a narrator (an exaggerated version of me) as he explores themes of technology, AI, and the implications of rapid scientific advancement. The main character experiences awe and unease as AI capabilities blur the line between magic and science. The text publication is set to appear in an upcoming issue of Half and One magazine, but I have added a link below to a free audio version of the preprint.

In this series of drawings, including "Pecking Order" and "Prospectors Prospecting," I explore themes of social hierarchy, competition, and the pursuit of resources. The elaborate, clownish clothing of the figures, reminiscent of various historical periods, comments on the absurdities and superficiality often accompanying the pursuit of power.

The distorted figures and exaggerated hands and arms convey individuals jostling for status, with elongated limbs and grasping motions suggesting a constant striving for control. The characters' clothing and postures reference how the search for power shapes interactions, influenced by gender norms, stereotypes, and hierarchical structures.

The layered compositions, intertwined figures, and recurring presence of grasping hands and arms mirror the complexity of social structures and reinforce themes of competition, manipulation, and the struggle for control.

Night For Days is a music project in which my collaborators and I use outdated, broken, and repaired obsolete musical equipment and instruments, including cracked organs, defective Russian Cold War-era microphones, and water-damaged guitars. The track linked here is from a collection of songs about sacrifice and the transience of the human experience.

For a long time, painters—even those of us who see inherent virtue in depicting nature and the world around us—have declined to pursue landscape painting as a primary focus. This reluctance stems from the genre's controversial history in the Western tradition, which has been associated with colonialism, the romanticization of nature, and the exclusion of certain perspectives. As a result, the art world has largely moved away from traditional landscape painting, favoring more conceptual, socially engaged, and diverse forms of art-making.

I recognize the reasons behind the shift and confine my engagement with landscape painting to something of a side project—an activity, a means of recalibrating how I look and what I see. Painting from the motif offers a way to organize my thoughts and enjoy the process of negotiating a translation of the 3D world to the 2D world of the picture plane. It's an opportunity to experiment with different ways of conveying the same idea, such as depicting the same leaf using various shorthands and marks. These paintings are not grand statements or attempts at persuasion; they are personal explorations, a way to engage with the natural world and the process of painting itself. By approaching landscape painting as a means of observation and experimentation, I can engage with the genre while acknowledging its complex history.

While my primary studio work typically involves busy compositions, varied surfaces, and flat figures, I have been painting and drawing strange faces. "Peepers and Ponderers" is a collection of head studies of imagined characters pieced together from stolen glances and observations. I'm drawn to unusual features and quirks, combining elements to create distinctive personalities. The "Peepers" have arresting eyes, while the "Ponderers" seem lost in thought. These studies allow me to hone my skills, explore the human face intimately, and let my imagination play a significant role, ultimately enriching my larger studio practice.

This series of dye sublimation prints on aluminum presents the imagined collections and contraptions of an archivist, naturalist, mystic, and hypnotist who has assembled pictures, notes, captions, creatures real and concocted, defunct devices, neon signs, wishes, complaints, promises, and occasional secrets into communication devices for sending mystical messages.

I begin with digitized photographs from my object collections, 3D models sculpted in ZBrush, and renders completed in Cinema 4D. I use these sources as foundations for training and fine-tuning image AI software that I then use for iterating upon, embellishing, and reformulating my foundational vision. By volleying between photography, 3D modeling, neural network manipulation, and compositing in Photoshop, I alternately relinquish and regain control in the hopes of realizing composites that are unpredictable, perplexing, uncanny, and quasi-spiritual.

DescriIn "Flotsam and Brimstone," the combination of carved foam, found objects, and fabric treated with acrylic, flashe, and oil paints builds a narrative around the debris of the sea. This series isn't about the convergence of different mediums; rather, these mediums are tools that shape a depiction of marine life entwined with human detritus.

The works offer a visual commentary on what the tides relinquish—maritime elements interspersed with traces of human existence. It's a straightforward representation of the ocean's ability to both claim and reveal, prompting contemplation on the cycles of nature and the imprints of human activity.ption goes here