In 1973, personal computers didn’t exist yet. Neither did the internet. I had only the vaguest notion of what software was.

After an unlikely series of events, in January of 1975 I wound up at the legendary Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, aka PARC.

That was my first exposure to pixels.

superpaint, 1975

After another unlikely series of events, in 1976 I joined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Computer Graphics Lab as its Artist in Residence.

The Graphics Lab’s computers ran exotic software that was always in a state of development. Sometimes bits rearranged themselves.

caligari, 1978

After a while, I started building immersive worlds.

transjovian pipeline, 1979

the faraway, 1986

Next I constructed 3D structures that evolved over time.

polymorph, 1988

The first complex pictures I made with a desktop computer was in 1990 at Apple’s Advanced Technology Group.

the green mask, 1990

A couple years later, I started cobbling together PCs that ran all manner of software.

kalachakra, 2009

The possibilities were endless.

I could sculpt with 3-D pixels.

I could incorporate gravity, wind, and rain into my simulated worlds.

I could produce archival prints of my digital visions.

magi, 2019

Then came the 21st Century.

Hardware and software costs fell off a cliff, the world got wired up to the web, and millions of artists, designers, and filmmakers joined the digital revolution.

Now pixels are woven into every facet of our lives.

The rest is history.