Carl Richards is a Certified Financial Planner, an author and the director of investor education at Buckingham Asset Management. He is also an artist, who seeks to explain the basics of money thru simple diagrams and graphs, in back-of-the-napkin type doodles. Said drawings are on display in the Millstone Gallery at COCA until March 13.  They look like they’re done with a Sharpie and reminiscent of something you’d see in your college Economics textbook. Not gonna lie… when I was walking thru the show, I was thinking, “What the hell? Is this art or a meeting with our financial planner?” But the work grew on me the further removed I became from it.

There is something in the works’ simplicity that make them memorable. Richards’ work demonstrates that some of the most important concepts in money and finance are also the simplest. And once you’ve walked thru the gallery, there is a place for visitors to create their own sketches depicting their view of “goals versus reality.” It’s interesting to see how others tackle this concept.

Ultimately, I’m not going to be hanging these above my sofa anytime soon, but they were way more entertaining than any meeting I’ve ever been to with our financial planner. The exhibit is free, open to the public and runs thru March 13. And yes, the pieces are for sale.

Richards also wrote The Behavior Gap and has the weekly “Sketch Guy” column in the NY Times (which I’d probably know if I ever got past the Styles section).