These are not paintings of a photograph; instead, I use numerous photographic references and layered projections, and the composition builds perceptually. Some areas develop in the same way as my conversation with the subjects in them: there is a central thought that guides the idea, the setting, and the pose. Other areas develop by drawing symbolic objects as I remember them and reflect moments when the subjects present themselves spontaneously and without artifice, when the idea and the image evolve unplanned and editing-out is unnecessary. And in other areas still, I add light to fragment forms and deconstruct spaces, reordering their appearance and adding personal meaning. While painting I focus on the material quality of thick, lumpy, grog-like paint continuing to add or subtract excess information.

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