Ed Leeper calls himself a serial artist, in part for his irrational passion for repetitive, statistic-driven work. “I’m really content with art work that takes a lot of time,” he says, and documenting that time means more counting, and more cultivation of his obsessive relationship with numbers. He has counted skulls in the “killing fields” of Cambodia, counted the miscellaneous items he bought for an installation from Last Chance Mercantile for $20 (5,687), and counted how many days he’d been alive (24,108) when he began a self portrait involving 24,108 crumpled up pieces of the New York Times. Below, some other numbers from Leeper’s life help account for how he looks at the world.

32The number of times Leeper dressed as the Grim Reaper and stood at 20 different local freeway turn-outs, overpasses and major intersections with a U.S. flag and a big sign that read “I See Dead Bodies,” demonstrating his opposition to the Iraq War—before it began.

982The pieces of junk mail Leeper received in 1987. As part of one of his earliest works, he spread the total bulk on the roof of a studio and covered big parcels of earth with it.

1,870 The total acts of masturbation in Monterey County March 11-17, 2001, as “calculated” by Leeper (he also “counted” 4,750 incidents of intercourse and 1,691 of oral sex). He then sent the list with a formal letter to all the local city councils and the Board of Supervisors, and posted the numbers as part of a show at his Big Sur gallery.

1,383The number of pages of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace Leeper hung suspended from a wire frame for a piece he appropriately called “War and Peace.” He then wrapped some text from teenage novels around it, “thus mixing the best of Western civilization’s literature with the worst.”

08/31/65The date of a tragic murder of a pregnant Vietnamese civilian by an American G.I., a horrible spectacle that Leeper recreated at his Military Police Sub-Station gallery with a large amount of cow’s blood.

30The number of school chairs Leeper repeatedly arranged in nature as part of “On the Way to Whitney,” stopping at Asilomar, the Salinas Valley, Blackwell’s Corner, Walker Pass and several other spots to document the configurations.

170,764Miles on his 1986 Toyota flatbed pickup, “ I am affectionate to machines,” he says. “It has served me well, a friend when I need it.”

23 Approximate number of military medals Leeper has received, despite very little combat experience, over his 21-1/2-year military career. “And the government keeps sending them to me,” he says. “So does the Republic of South Korea.”

$500The amount of money Leeper has made over the course of his art career (he won second place in a recycled-art competition held by Last Chance Mercantile). He has been able to pursue his art endeavors with the support of his Army pension and his late wife’s significant property holdings.