About the Zillionaire: Orders of Magnitude series

These works are acrylic paint on 6 x 24-inch wood panels. I start with an irridescent pearl ground that sets the stage for a feeling of preciousness and glam. On this ground, the primary composition is a series of zeros and commas conveying orders of magnitude of wealth. For example, one billion is donated in compositional notation with three groupings of zeros separated by commas. “Zillionaire” is donated by groupings of zeros stamped from one of the panels to the other without defining the precise quantity, but implying a quality, or feeling, of a lot. Composition, color, and quality of the stamped numbers and commas converse with texture, layers, drippings, and smears to create conceptual portraits of exponential wealth and related themes. 

In this series, Illiionaire uses the comma as red pock marks to imply a disease, the disease of greed. Boots uses numerous smaller zeros arranged in classic infantry formations, with the larger zeros forming the single frontline, implying that the illusion of two opposing sides is united in a single beneficiary wealth class, and raises the question of who really wins? New Gilded Age uses gold paint over blood red and black zeros to imply the cost of excessive decadence. Progressive Tax and Regressive Tax refer to tax systems that discourage or encourage the accumulation of wealth.

This series is an ongoing exploration of societal structures in a fiscal code of value exchange. I don’t have a set number of panels to complete. I will continue creating new ones as the inspiration arises. I would love to create enough to install them in a continuous horizontal row along one long wall or around three to four walls of a gallery space.