In my work, the line between what is painting and what is digital is perpetually moving. Both activities are quite autonomous in that each requires a particular set of raw materials to construct form: electricity, pixels, photons, silicon, etc. vs. wax, pigments, linseed oil, animal glue, etc. Tools such as the mouse are useless in the process of applying glazes while an ox hair brush cannot wipe away streaks of light. Every creative action thus demands a specific set of operative tools which define the underlying process in these contrary mediums.

The most fundamental difference between an oil painting and a digital product is the underlying aesthetic structure. In this comparison, molecule confronts pixel. Pixels are represented by up to thirty bits of binary information while molecules are identified by an infinite combination of the ninety-two naturally occurring elements and their various isotopes. Every bitmap image viewable on a computer thus contains a fixed number of pixels; a standard one by one inch digital image with a resolution of 72 ppi contains a total of 5,184 pixels (72 pixels wide x 72 pixels high = 5184). The same area coated with a cadmium yellow glaze would return numbers of molecules twenty times higher. Mapped onto a grid, each pixel can be located with a specific Cartesian coordinate. Scientists are developing nanotechnologies to move specific atomic particles within existing structures, however, this process is vaporware at the moment.

Due to the singularity of oil constructions on canvas, painting is considered an analog medium. The act of applying pigment cannot be reduced to a notational system composed of coordinates or characters. Radiating the power of authenticity, autographic works on canvas cannot be reproduced for repeated copying introduces degradation of some variety. Conversely, a musical score is an allographic work which can be copied infinitely without decay. While the code behind these works can be reproduced without ruin, a musical score is brought to life by the actual performance. Likewise, a digital photograph is instantiated by the pulled print that follows the tones or colors specified in the bitmapped image file. The symbols that make up the coding structure of an allographic medium thus remain unchanged although the means of output or display can markedly alter the appearance of the piece.