#001 - James Nolan Gandy

I want you to check out this artist’s Instagram profile. But, before you do, you need some context to understand what makes his art so remarkable.

While the majority of pen plot artists look at their drawing machine as a tool—a necessary prerequisite for transforming digital art into print, albeit in a unique way—James Nolan Gandy views drawing machines as art in and of themselves.

Gandy doesn’t just create plotter art, he builds the whole damn system.

With more than 20 years of experience crafting custom furniture and subsequently transitioning to metalwork, Gandy has a visceral connection to the mechanical and mathematical substrates that underpin the art of pen plotting.

What is perhaps most amazing to me about Gandy is that his drawing machines are completely analog. Other than the occasional electric motor, Gandy’s machines are comprised of pulleys and gears which can be configured to draw a variety of geometric patterns.

Apart from the fact that Gandy builds his own machines, there are a few other characteristics that make his work distinct:

• The art is not, strictly speaking, generative art: there is no element of randomness inherent in the process (I’m sure this point could be endlessly debated, however).

• Gandy’s machines don’t have a mechanism for lifting the pen, which results in continuous line drawings.

• Due to the inherent—and intentional—mechanical limitations of his machines, his art is often considered spirographic, though with a much higher degree of complexity.

gandyworks

198K followers

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One of the reasons Gandy’s work is so unique—and valuable—is that there isn’t a digital version of his art. In order to reproduce a piece, he has to reset his machine to its original physical state and the rerun the process.

Despite the painstaking amount of time and attention that go into each piece, Gandy’s art is quite affordable compared to other plotter artists. Most of his older work is already sold out, so if you’re an art collector, or simply a fan of his work, don’t drag your feet. (This is the drawing I recently purchased.)

Final Thoughts

Most pen plot artists neither have the time nor skill to replicate Gandy’s process.

Nonetheless, there’s a valuable lesson here for artists who want to sell their work: your story matters.

Gandy’s art is impressive. However, much of it could be approximately reproduced in code and plotted with a digital plotter. The art, itself, isn’t what’s truly distinct. It’s the story, the methodology and even the mystery (Gandy seems to keep a fairly low profile despite having nearly 200k IG followers).

If you’re an artist or art collector, you need to think about what your art represents outside of its physical form. What story would someone tell about your art? It isn’t enough to say that it’s intricate or one-of-a-kind. It needs to embody some metaphysical quality that resonates with the beholder.

Unless, that is, you’re just having fun, which is perfectly fine too ✌️