Mutant scribe

In progress versions of "Sum Total of What I Know About Chaos and Us."

Whether it's playing that Beatles record backward or finding the figure of Abe Lincoln on a french fry, our culture has an absurd desire to invest deep meaning in ordinary objects. We do that with words too.

We manipulate and distort language so we can stand out in public and fit in — so we can both imitate others and influence others.

Being "ridiculously literal," artist Lance Winn, 35, has developed a style of drawing and painting in which he repetitively traces an iconic word, such as "flag" or "freedom," until it's distorted beyond recognition, and an accidental image emerges like a picture he didn't plan for.

Winn says, "I always thought the grand gesture of abstract expressionism seemed ridiculous — that somehow your emotions were shooting out of your hand, that the hand is something wonderfully expressive. My art is based on not being able to keep my hand steady."

His words may lose their meaning once hidden in a cloud of graphite or paint, but his art is not meaningless. It's spiritual and hopeful, reminiscent of Islamic art. It's like losing sight of a wall in a mosque, while gazing down rows of arches. It's an infinite space to search for answers in an abstract form.

Winn graduated with an MFA from Cranbrook Art Academy and teaches at the University of Delaware alongside transplanted Detroit painter Peter Williams. He works in drawing, casting, performance, film, video and robotics, but his different methods of production are closely related — he sets up rules and follows them through to their natural conclusions. This idea is based on 1960s conceptualist theory, but Winn's artistic influences are broad, stretching from Jasper Johns to Donna Dewberry (host of PBS' campy hit One Stroke Painting) to folk artists who draw on their unconscious.

"Following Terror"

One of his recent works is based on the words "Islam" and "Christianity." He wrote each in separate corners of the paper and kept tracing around them until the two words met up. "It made this incredibly beautiful pattern that looks like a bouffant," he says. Worlds come together in a hairdo.