Creative process:

 

I take a lot of pictures.  Like a ton of pictures. Of all things I like. Some of them spark an idea for a painting.

I mostly use acrylic.  I paint directly on the support with bold shapes of color.  By focusing on shapes, the subject is reduced to its formal element and becomes abstract. I paint all the elements of one color, then all the elements of a second color, etc. Like painting by numbers without a drawing to follow.  By doing so, I provoke distortions, simplifications, overlaps, and omissions.  I enjoy the surprise of that first layer. The painting becomes its own narrative.  Finally, I figure out how to balance beauty and weird, detailed and simple, mastered and raw. 

I think consciously about visual language when I paint: shapes, colors, textures, composition, etc.  I don't think about the meaning of the image during the process.  I trust that the final painting will have enough elements, and enough space in between those elements for the viewer to project his own thoughts and questions onto the painting.

In retrospect, I see the following themes surfacing over and over again: spectacle/spectator, relationships, strength/vulnerability, mortality/memory, transformation/metamorphosis, paranormal/unexplained/mysterious/monsters.