This is from the first series of squares that I worked on. I think it’s probably from 2019 but I’m not certain. After the AI chose this image for me I went over to the website to check it out. I remembered the group it was from but not this specific piece right away. The Gallery page on the website told me that the entire group ranged from 2019-2020. This image is number 29 B from the series, which suggests to me it was probably from 2019 rather than 2020. 

The real mystery is that this group is called 100 squares but when I look at the website it doesn’t seem like there are actually a hundred images in the group. I didn’t look too closely but there’s one large image on the top then 24 rows of four (96 images) and then two images on the bottom and so that’s only 99. I didn’t check to see if the big image on the top was also repeated in the ones below but I’ll have to look into that. if the group says 100 squares I feel a bit of an obligation to include 100 squares right?

Interestingly, this image is the middle of three related images. There are three states of square number 29 which is what led me to count the rest of the squares. I wondered whether I had counted those three as separate images, or three states of the same one. I’ll have to look through the originals and see what’s up with the numbering system – It’s definitely a mystery to me. The three states are interesting because while they’re all somewhat non-objective, they seem to progress from still life to figurative. I’m sure at the time that I was making these I was toying with the edge between recognizable and non-recognizable elements. I would have drawn this on my iPad 2 In the Autodesk Sketchbook app. These days most of the digital drawing that I do is on an iPad Mini with an Apple Pencil Pro in Procreate. But these, if I recall accurately, were probably done with my finger (maybe I had a pencil style stylus for these) on my old iPad 2 which was remarkable technology in its day, but even by 2019 it was getting a little outdated. By today’s standards it’s pretty archaic – and low resolution.

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.