Painting must be accountable to its time. When I am in the studio, I not only ask myself what is worth saying, but how my voice can be socially responsible. I conceptualize the process of painting as being an equation with formal, conceptual, social, cultural, political, psychological, emotional and other variables relating to each other in order to solve the equation so it feels true and meaningful to me as an individual and in the context of my relationship to the world.
It is a belief, a conviction, an idea, a question, a voice to be heard that drives my painting process. It is an urgency to communicate that makes me shepherd each painting to its conclusion and then start another. I work in series or projects; sometimes I stay with related questions for years, paint one thought, one image after the other. To support the concept, I change whatever is necessary in the configuration of the painting, whether this means materials (oil paints, graphite and ink, artist pens, etc.), the size and support of the work, formal concerns, or entire visual syntax. A new series can start whenever new urgency occurs, although it does not necessitate ending the previous series. I am continuously pursuing concepts and methods whereby drawing and painting is revitalized as a palpable, fluid catalyst in an ever-changing present.
