Something About Symbols and Numbers is an ongoing series of paintings that explore the ‘space’ in which numbers, symbols and letters exist by entering them into contexts that are foreign to them. While the works may appear surrealistic, in reality they propose a reconceptualization of abstraction in painting and in mathematics. It’s hard to describe the desire here: on the one hand, there is a desire to lend numbers a material and temporal quality, on the other, to lend natural objects something beyond their physical manifestation. As in the Value and Spatialization paintings, I explore systems of logic, mathematics and philosophy in relation to everyday experiences in order to propose that “reality is something for those who can’t handle fantasy”– a notion I first heard in a class with Slavoj Zizek, who was citing Jacques Lacan at the time.