Randy Ortiz began life as a burrowing freshwater larva. At this stage, he was toothless, with rudimentary eyes, and fed on microorganisms. He transformed into an adult through metamorphosis similar to most amphibians. It involved a radical rearrangement of internal organs, development of eyes and transformation from a mud-dwelling filter feeder into an efficient swimming parasite and sexual tyrannosaur. Randy is a self-taught artist and he illustrates and designs his art by attaching his mouth to a goatfish, secreting an anticoagulant into the host, and drawing with the blood and melted tissue that spills from the gelatinous orifice. Randy draws influence from the dead shells of insect vessels ravaged by parasitic cordyceps, careful not to inhale the deadly strings of ascospores created by the flask-shaped perithecia.
"In a constant reshuffling of matter, particles remain in motion in a small corner of the swirling universe only to reveal an eternally flawed heritage reflecting the deep wounds of time --- scars of corrupt evolutionary practice prevail in the grotesquely provocative landscapes of Randy Ortiz. Primordial steps of progress scale a curling vine of bones which bind and strangle colostomy sacks of deep-fried recessive traits, the immortal vibrations of a coiled piano wire of cackling skeletons haunt habitats of rural depravity and manifest their genetic tyranny in mutant mistakes of an imaginary god. Bloated pillow-sacks of pneumonic larvae infest the cerebral cortex of collective consciousness and proliferate in synapses sailing in parasitic seas of blistered moral membranes. The paddlewheels of an intestinal lasso arrest the souls of mankind and corral their primitive impulses into a fascist rodeo of cloven hoof supremacy and serpentine ventriloquism. Crooked railroad politics engulf the surrounding cosmos --- the final straws of compassion perverted by passing gusts of interplanetary tumbleweeds. Rusty spurs and a calcium wreath are laid by the gravestone of a malignant galaxy, its epitaph a jigsaw of dead skin masks inscribed with expressions reflecting a lifetime of grey skies."