Pay to Play
84 x 72 inches, graphite and colored pencil on paper
What would winning the lottery feel like? I began this work by sketching and gridding out the main oval shape. I then compiled the winning lottery numbers for the past year’s worth of games from different states across the country. I started with the NY State Lottery and used the last set of 5 winning numbers to generate a new zip code, which then led me to another state. I compiled the winning numbers from that state, and again used the last 5 numbers to generate a new zip code. I continued this until the drawing was finished. To form the central shape’s patterns, I created different color-based “codes” as a way to represent the numbers visually. I changed the color system as the pattern reached the center, creating a strata-like progression in visual complexity – for the outer layer, each color denotes a specific number, while for the innermost layer, colors only signify even or odd numbers. Simultaneously, I translated these same numbers into words. I set up a text-based encoding system based on the alphabet’s numerical equivalents (a=1, b=2, etc.). As each winning set of numbers generated a random set of letters, I then entered these random letters into a pocket dictionary, which searched for the closest approximated word. I then wrote these words around the central form, creating a (sort of) hand-written halo.
You Can’t Win
77.5 x 53.75 inches, acrylic, gesso, charcoal, ink, graphite and color on Paper
I built this work from the bottom to the top. In doing so, I invented ways of translating many different types of information about the lottery – social commentary, winning numbers, losing predictions, odds of winning, etc. into forms, shapes and patterns. My process was additive, incremental and inconsistent. The main conceptual / information-based layers of the work, from bottom to top, are: 1. Incorrect predictions of winning lottery numbers, which I translated into words via a simple system (each number corresponded to a letter – A=1, B=2, etc) 2. Purely random numbers (I translated them into numbers of shapes and patterns, colors, etc.) 3. Representations of religious symbols / crosses – signs of faith 4. Various written descriptions of the social implications of the lottery as described by various sociologists 5. Actual winning numbers for NY lottery 6. Average percentage chance of winning the lottery I thought of the whole thing as my building / drawing of a very unstable tower of sorts, based on the idea and implications of the lottery as a mechanism of social change.
Lenny
65 x 39.5 inches, colored pencil and graphite on paper
This drawing is an offshoot of the Butterfly works. Lenny was a character in one – the kitchen boss in a hospital. I actually knew a Lenny, who was my real-life boss at the Noble Hospital kitchen in Westfield, MA. He always played the lottery. In this drawing I was interested in the ways in which kids learn about how society operates through word-based math problems. My son, who is 9 years old, often brings home these types of problems, which are really convoluted and stretch their narratives to fit the mathematical problems being studied. Because of this, the problem’s stories are often based in everyday life but are very elaborately concocted. In addition, these math problems presume a form of moral behavior based of fairness and equality, usually through the capitalist exchange of money and goods. PROCESS: With this framework in mind, I decided to make my own math problem based on a working-class person’s desire / need to purchase a symbol of the higher class. As Lenny attempts to play the lottery and put his winnings towards the purchase of a new Corvette, his less apparent losses accumulate to negate these winnings. In the end, Lenny is at the same place where he started – his labor was fruitless and overall class stagnation clear. A zero-sum game. Visually, I wanted to pattern to vibrate like a lottery ticket might and to push and pull you optically. Each lottery logo is from different state, which, if connected, would form a map of states associated with the perils of the lottery as a means of class suppression. I think it’s funny but also sad - like tragic humor.
Lucky Break
30 x 22 inches, colored pencil and graphite on shaped paper
Narrative of individual who plays the lottery on his lunch break from work. He ends up where he began.