I paint within traditions of abstract expressionism and lyrical abstraction.
Rather than with a plan, my paintings usually begin with a personal feeling
of restlessness and an empty canvas and a brush and tube of paint I pick up
more or less at random. Often in a painting's early stage I'll create an
appealing shape or line or color combination which out of uncertainty I'll
want to save. Strangely, it's only when I sacrifice this attractive area
by painting on or over it that something more original is released, something
which belongs both to the painting's physical presence and my feelings that
are seeking expression. Often through these moments of letting go, enduring
forms are revealed. Perhaps some part of each painting's depth is generated
by the half-visible remainders of earlier stages I've sacrificed. You might
call these remainders the ghosts of those not-quite-beautiful things I've
destroyed.
