For the Love of it
Recent page form a newly broken sketchbook I bound this year, 2026, “Mobiobiobiobius Strip.”
I didn’t really start making art until late in college. After graduation in 1995 I moved to NYC in and that’s where I really took it more ‘seriously’. I still love to draw so much - and my absolute favorite reason to draw is to not have any reason to draw. Total freedom - not for showing people, not for selling, sometimes to understand an idea better, sometimes just to see what it would look like. There’s so much play in drawing. I’ve been making my own sketchbooks since about 1996 and sometimes I scan them in. Here’s one from 2017.
Object Museum in Mexico City
The following is a post I wrote for my friend Paul’s Substack called Conspicuous Consumption. It’s about an amazing museum I visited in December in Mexico City.
A Museum Devoted to Everyday Items/
My family and I recently vacationed in Mexico City. Nestled in the heart of the city’s vibrant Roma Norte neighborhood is a hidden gem that nearly escaped our itinerary: The Object Museum (or MODO, short for Museo del Objeto del Objeto, or “the Object of the Object”).
To be honest, I was initially hesitant to step inside. Having grown up in Wisconsin, I developed a healthy distaste for the cluttered crap heaps featured in the infamous tourist trap the House on the Rock, and I worried that MODO might be more of the same. However, curiosity eventually won out, and I wandered in one afternoon to discover what turned out to be one of the most delightful museum experiences I’ve ever had.
The museum is a dedicated homage to the “object (i.e., the point) of the object,” showcasing vast collections of everyday items. Originally conceived as the private obsession of the mansion’s resident, Bruno Newman, who spent over 40 years collecting packaging and advertising, it has evolved into something of a localized record of material culture. Plus it’s just a well-curated collection of cool stuff.
Here’s a short video that pans around one of the museum’s rooms, which is packed with interesting displays:
Group Show
I’ll be in the group show “A Multi-Scalar Habitat” opening Saturday Feb 28th, 6-8pm at Peep Space in Tarrytown, NY. The show is curated by the great artist Austin Thomas and includes Kristin Cronic, Danielle Dimston, Dahlia Elsayed, Alyssa Fanning, Jeff Feld, Traci Johnson, Ellen Letcher, Sharon Louden, seven seven ceramics, Clintel Steed and Julie Torres.
Below is work I’ll have in the show 👇
Multi-Scalar Habitat brings together twelve artists whose practices build miniature, tactile, exuberant, imagined, and deeply hand-made worlds. Installed in close dialogue, their works form an unexpected community of objects: pastel portals, architectural ceramics, improvised sculptures, biomorphic drawings, hooked-rug terrains, thick abstractions, collage fragments, and intimate painted portraits. The exhibition unfolds across shifting scales, inviting viewers to enter a layered environment made of marks, textures, structures, and gestures. Rooted in the ethos of Pocket Utopia, an artist-run curatorial project grounded in experimentation and community, the exhibition finds a natural home at Peep Space, where intimacy and artist-driven engagement shape the gallery’s identity. As part of the exhibition, Peep Space hosts Draw All Day on April 4, 12 pm to 4 pm, led by artists Alyssa Fanning and Clintel Steed, extending the show beyond the walls and into shared creative experience. A Multi-Scalar Habitat invites visitors to look closely, move slowly, and experience the small worlds artists build through care, curiosity, and attention.
Supreme Court
I wanted to make a Supreme Court firework called 'Supreme Submission' and started planning labels to draw and glue onto it, but now that the structure is underway I might just finish it by covering it in glassine with no labels and adding a big fuse. I prefer the interpretation to be a little more open. A friend told me he thought it looked like The Met Museum, which I thought was pretty funny. It’s engineered in three or four different sections, partly to make it easier to store and transport, and partly because covering every surface in glassine would be nearly impossible if it were all together as one piece. Once it’s finished, it’ll look like one singular object, albeit a large one at 20” x 18” x 15”. It’s built out of a special archival board made for book covers so this thing is rock solid, almost like light-weight wood.
Burn Book 3; finale
Added 8 more smoke bombs to draw with and I think finish this book.
https://www.teplin.com/burn-book-iii
Cowboy (in progress)
I think there’s probably too much going on here. But I’ll treat it as a lesson as I teach myself to do more stuff like this. I’m tempted to (pen &) ink this but I have a feeling it’ll look too comic-booky which I don’t necessarily want - so I might go straight to watercolor and erase the pencil. 22” x 30", graphite.
3 Friends Agree to Make Up After a Fight
Fountain Pen and white-out on paper, 2025. 21” x 15”. Just making it up as I go along. Lately I’ve been interested in drawing cowboys.
