What is the point of abstract painting? For me it's a response to years of making photographs. A photograph is inherently representational because it is a capture of light bouncing off, or emanating, from a physical form. One can crop, print or otherwise manipulate an image into an abstract representation but there is still a sharp divide between my hand as an artist and the finished piece.

A few years ago I began having dreams in which I was moving and manipulating color directly with my hands. Shortly after that I happened to be at a demonstration of paints, received a small sample bag to take home and here I am. In truth it is a bit of coming home as I grew up in a household with an abstract painter and it feels like I absorbed more of that ethic than I was aware of.

A successful piece is evocative. I want it to draw you in at different times and for different reasons. I want it to suggest or evoke memories and feelings. These will not likely be the same ones I experience. Perhaps they are but at a more primal level. I spend a lot of time involved in rational thought processes. I want my paintings to pull me out of that for a bit.

Some pieces come so rapidly they seem to emerge unbidden. Others are the result of a more laborious birthing process. "How do you know when it's done?" Every piece takes on some sort of character as I lay it out. When I approach it I engage in a sort of internal dialog, an iterative process of making a mark, putting in dome color and seeing what it feels like. Through this comes the form and color and motion. This goes on until eventually there is nothing more to say. Then, like any relationship, it's done.

Finally, I'm skeptical that anyone ever actually reads these sorts of things. If you have please step inside, say hello and disabuse me of this notion.