For as long as I can remember, I have been bewitched by color. What keeps me challenged and constantly driven is the tricky yet magical relationship between colors and the ability of negative space to highlight their differences and unique characteristics. Geometry has become a crucial component of my work as well.
Along with brushes, I work with scrapers, putty and palette knives, and soft-tipped sticks to create my paintings. Experimenting with these tools often helps me discover new directions.
Some of my greatest inspirations are Agnes Martin, Pat Steir, and Louise Bourgeois: Martin for her strength in solitude and belief that the artist must work free of ego; Pat Steir for her profound, continual search for communion, along with her faith in the controlled freedom of her work; and Bourgeois for her ability to transform emotion into mythological, totemic sculptures and delicate but imposing fabric works.
Each painting is part of an ongoing conversation between the new work and the lessons learned from the challenges I encounter resolving previous pieces. They are descendants of each other, whether I like it or not. Every mistake I make and idea that falls flat eventually, meanderingly, leads me to a successful painting. By successful, I mean work that is done in joy and with no expectations other than following where the painting leads.
