When I paint I'm satisfying a strong irrepressible instinct to create something. Painting can be quite exhausting but mostly I find it pleasurable and rewarding. Sometimes what I've created appeals to my sense of beauty or truth. And sometimes it appeals to the viewer.

I choose to paint people and other living beings because I see them as manifestations of a common life force. They are points of reference and identification. I've made too much art not to wholeheartedly identify myself as an artist. So when I paint, I'm simply living out who I am. I'm giving shape and color to my feelings and fantasies and expressing my personality.

I'm both controlled and impulsive and I try to play these two opposing traits against each other in my paintings. The stylized poses and refined outlines of my figures are in direct contrast to my bold colors and emotional brushwork. Appropriately, there have been two distinct influences on my style: the artifice of the Mannerists and the colorful excess of the Expressionists.