Protection Was Good

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Ken Wiatrek

2023

Plotter Drawing

24.5"x29.25"

Description

Ken Wiatrek (aka Kenconsumer) created Protection Was Good during his early experiments using his plotter in conjunction with Processing, a software sketchbook for artists who work with code.

Wiatrek’s practice combines hand-drawing, digital tools, and plotter printing to explore the relationship between human creativity and machine processes. Protection Was Good reflects this through its mix of manual forms and coded variations.

Wiatrek began by finger-drawing shapes on his laptop trackpad, setting them on an irregular grid. He then used Processing to generate further fragments, which he cut and pasted back together in GIMP and Inkscape. A plotter traced the composition with inks and acrylics on archival paper. The resulting work layers uneven parts into a dense whole, reflecting his interest in the gap between how something is made and how it is seen. In Protection Was Good, fragments of vivid color appear orderly at first but reveal irregular seams on closer view, echoing Wiatrek’s interest in the difference between making and seeing.