I keep many works going at the same time in the painting studio and the drawing studio. In both the paintings and drawings layering is important, what shows from behind, and how the surface is built up. I really can’t predict how long the paintings will take. The drawings are more spontaneous and can be done in one or two sessions. I am searching for the "language" in them and that language is then carried over to the paintings on wood. The drawings are more from my sub-conscience. They are very linear, very craggy. I want the images to be oddly juxtaposed and odd in scale. By "odd" I mean a non-representational use of space, a space that exists all to itself in each painting or drawing. I want a kind of illogic or quirkiness, and I want them to be rough and hand-made. The drawings are usually mixed media. Although what I find in the drawings usually travels to the paintings, the oil stick from the paintings is moving back to the drawings. There is a kind of cross-pollination between the two. I think of the paintings and drawings as a kind of visual reference to a place I have been, a primitive response to that place.

In the past several years I have added collage to the works. It takes me out into the world in search of paper, photos and anything that can add something of a storyline or a literal reference. I want the imagery to be free-associative. Collage has enabled me to make a sharper line and commit to larger simpler shapes.