I’ve created a new game for myself. Maybe I should call it a project but I’m kind of thinking of it as a game. I’ve asked the AI to go through the almost 5,000 images of artwork on my website and randomly select some for me to talk/write about. The current plan is that I’ll have it select ten per week and I’ll just respond to them in whatever way occurs to me and then post one each day. Having it choose ten gives me the option to skip some if I want, but we’ll see – it kind of seems like it would be cheating to leave any out – right now, I feel like just going with whatever it picks for me, but I’m not going to make any promises. I like having the AI choose them for me randomly because looking at the first ten, just now, I know that they are pieces that I would have been unlikely to choose myself. So, here goes.

This is an image from the Tidal Wave Sketchbooks. The file name says that it’s from Sketchbook #2 so I’d have to check the dates to know exactly when I drew it. It’s probably from early 1996. It could be late 1995 – I’m not certain. It’s hard to believe though, that this was from 30 years ago, but here we are in 2026 and I guess all that time really has passed by.

The cheesy and slightly flirty rhyming couplet at the top is definitely the kind of thing that I would have written in the sketchbooks back then to amuse myself – and anybody else who happened to see it. 

This isn’t a very good scan but it’s better than nothing. Maybe one of these days I’ll try getting better scans now that technology has advanced. These sketchbooks are one of the first things I scanned back in, I guess 1999 – maybe 1998 –  whenever it was that I got my first scanner and started digitally documenting my artwork. The drawings in these sketchbooks served as studies or inspirations for the Tidal Wave canvases from 1996 and the works on paper from 1997. These drawings were mostly done in the mornings over breakfast at the HOT on Pacific Ave, in Venice, California. I honestly would not have remembered this little drawing had it not been selected for me, but it nevertheless brings back lovely memories of what now seems a simpler time.

Joe, Downtown Los Angeles, 08/31/2026

Update: I’m pleased with myself that I guessed accurately that the Tidal Wave 2 Sketchbook was from the end of 1995 and continued on into early 1996. I just checked the image on the website and it looks like it must have been drawn between February 9th and February 18th, 1996. So, there’s that.

A note on method: Since this is the first of these posts, which I’m categorizing Random Daily, I’ll mention a little about the process. I’m going to use voice typing, and just speak my intial thoughts into the computer and have it transcribe whatever I say. I’ll clean it up for clarity and then schedule it to be posted. I’m going to create some of these ahead of time before I start posting them, just to get the process worked out and to build up a cushion, so I don’t have to feel pressured to keep up with the one-a-day goal.