On figurative work:

For me, faces and bodies perform the same function as jazz standards:  
they provide familiar frameworks within which an artist can be creative.  
The interpretation can be tight or loose, and the subject is not as 
important as what is done with it.  Each time I paint a subject, the 
result is different.  While the colors and brushwork in my work are not 
that of traditional portraiture, the familiarity of the format makes the 
work approachable; explorable.

Relationships fascinate me.  The most interesting thing I can paint is a 
person I know.  When someone sits for me, an unusual and asymmetrical 
relationship develops between us as we take on the roles of subject and 
observer.  The subject is always an active participant in the process.  
Sessions are generally under two hours.  These paintings are glimpses of 
what our relationship is in the moments we are together – attitudes, 
thoughts, emotions.  Self-portraits are no different. 

I focus on the undertones I see - nuanced colors created by light and 
movement.  Some paintings are completed in one session.  Other paintings 
are created over multiple sessions, and capture a varied set of “glimpses.”  

Faces and people are inherently loaded with emotional information.  
Painting such rich subject matter leaves me free to focus on aesthetics.  
Decisions that I make are entirely visual – red here, lighter here, cooler 
here.  I start with no idea what I want it to look like.  I paint what I 
see and it starts heading in a direction.  My job at that point is to keep 
it moving forward and know when to stop.  The emotional guts of the work 
come from the visual tension between the subject as a whole and the 
brushwork and colors that are used to create that whole.