Every painting I make should encourage a driving wonder and imagination about what the image says. I try to awaken the part of us that sees patterns and recognizable objects in other things. For example, trash on the ground that looks like something completely different from trash because of the shape or pattern it has, or the texture on a tree which resembles something it is not; something we recognize without being 100% able to say what it is. The figures each tell their own stories, but also need to be seen together in a larger context (the whole painting). My titles fit what I have painted, but it wouldn’t be wrong if the viewer had their own title for the message they feel the painting conveys.

My workflow always starts with a monochrome background color. A color that I have thought about and chewed on, a color that I can feel and then I adjust as I start to mix the color. The abstract figures come in a stream as the whole picture begins to develop inside my head. For me, the empty space around the abstract figures is important, as it gives them room to be analyzed without being distracted by the neighboring figure.