Chris Bly’s Plotter-Based Art

Portland-based Chris Bly started drawing in middle school. In college he began studying architecture, then switched to mathematics and computer science. Eventually, however, he came back to drawing—albeit not in the way he was drawing in his youth:During Covid, I lost my job and rediscovered my love of art in the form of a pen plotter I bought to help fill some of my down time. I immediately became obsessed, and soon after discovered the creative coding community. It was a perfect marriage of my passion for mathematics, art, design, and coding. Since that time, my work has developed into more complex systems. My programs often contain elements of noise and randomness, that allow the computer to make a certain amount of decisions. I call it a collaborative effort. I continually try to challenge myself in my work, while curating the outputs of my programs in compositions I find most compelling. And the pen plotter itself offers its own set of challenges. Surface and tool choice are always a consideration, and while most of my work so far has been monochromatic and paper-based in nature, I’m excited to explore different palettes and materials in the future. Bly points out that his work isn’t AI-based; using his math skills, he writes the code that allows the plotter to bring his sketches and patterns to life.You can see more of his work here.