This group of drawings, called NEW MATH, is visual therapy for my angst-ridden relationship with numbers. Remember how bewildering it was when they introduced "New Math" in school? I never got over wondering what happened to "Old Math." Was it sent to an assisted-living facility? Was it put to "sleep" like an unwanted puppy at the pound or buried in a city landfill? And what the hell was wrong with "Old Math"? Why did I have to play with little colored "cuisenaire rods," and how did they possibly relate to real numbers? Why would anyone be emptying a tank at the same time they were filling it? This last "word problem" is what stopped me dead in math class...FOREVER. While taking the math SAT, I filled in the little circles in neat-o patterns. My score was so low that I think I got into college as a freak of nature, a curiosity, if you will, a sideshow example of a living girl with no relationship to numbers. Step right up, folks.

But I digress....

At the same time, I find the visual tangle of hundreds of numbers quite beautiful; the shapes of the numbers bouncing off each other in a cheerful jumble, their values no-more-or-less meaningful than one another. Every now and then one jumps out at you and triggers a thought. "A giant 8, what grade was I in when I was 8? 5? Best birthday party, ever!" As they interact with the figures in each drawing, the numbers are on one level simple shapes and patterns, beautiful marks on a page. But juxtaposed with the human "figures", these numbers stand up to be counted as objects of continuing mystery to me.