To make a painting I must first spot something unexpected or compelling from anywhere at all. This part is completely indiscriminate. There simply must be a psycho-visual tickle, and I must get that tickle on the canvas. Of course the initial tickle is typically linked with some aspect of being human which right-away sets the stage for all manner of human--and whatever else--scrubbing-out, adding-on, and building-up. It's a messy process, but all in all it's a totally absorbing visual-cognitive adventure. And I push myself to advent with a double intention: pressure my cognitive envelope to get synapses freshly jumping and come up with an interesting piece.


For my political, visual, and aesthetic philosophies I pull from all manner of Expressionism and some conceptual artists. Artists of most significance include R.B. Kitaj, David Hockney, Francis Bacon, the German Expressionists, Ida Applebroog, Jim Dine, Richard Diebenkorn, Jonathon Borofsky, Joseph Beuys, Thomas Schutte and many many others. Currently the paintings and drawings of Kitaj and the political-philosophical images of DA DA inform me the most.