I work primarily with acrylic paint and oil sticks.
I never begin with a predetermined image or composition. At first, the canvas is simply layers of paint. There is no sketch to follow and no finished picture in mind.
The painting develops one decision at a time. Every mark changes what I see, and that influences the next decision. I respond by adding, covering, revealing, redefining, and refining until something begins to emerge. My process is closer to sculpture than traditional painting. Rather than executing an idea, I gradually discover the painting through revision.
What eventually appears often surprises me. The finished work isn’t something I planned from the beginning, but something uncovered through the process itself. Many of the passages that become most important aren’t apparent when they first appear. They reveal themselves only through refinement.
Every decision reflects what I am seeing, thinking, and feeling in that exact moment. Because of that, each painting becomes a unique record of its own creation. It could not have been made by anyone else, or even by me at another point in my life. That is why I consider every painting to be a piece of me.
Although my work is abstract, it is not intended to dictate meaning. I leave room for the viewer to bring their own experiences, memories, and emotions to the work. The painting becomes a meeting place between my experience in creating it and the viewer’s experience in interpreting it.
For me, painting is not about reproducing an image. It is about discovering one.