You might think Jeff Carson is too fit to be a serious artist, here's another one not abusing his body with the rigors of fast living. A Coffee Bean barrista, hobnobbing with caffeine junkies on Larchmont, dealing up the drug of the day and schmoozing to sell his work.

Why did Jeff become an artist? Simple. Pete told him he should. He began dabbling in photography two years ago and has since discovered his own voice. Taking after the clutter of Rauschenberg, Jeff comically deconstructs Salvation Army art and uses photographs primarily as elements within larger paintings (along with found objects: teaching props, toy weapons) to sculpt an image on the canvas.

He works in the medium of "digital clay," incorporating bits of radios and t.v.'s until one worries if the thing still conforms to FCC regulations. He allows the images to do the work and takes delight in the unostentatious juxtaposition of color and abstract forms. While Pete notates his Fly's body hairs with excerpts from medical texts, Jeff photographs insects through a jeweler's glass and enlarges them to a thousand times original size to reveal the beauty hidden in a cockroach's spiked leg.