I couldn't stop observing the heavens if my life depended on it.

Often, I find myself on the side of the road staring out my car window and seeing it all in pure strokes of paint. When I am not at my easel, I’m still painting in my head. I’m self-taught and have spent many years studying and creating art.

Currently I work with oil on canvas. I paint landscapes – mostly as portraits, and occasionally, figurative work. To me, my paintings have a narrative or almost allegorical component. Sometimes it’s just a presence I felt from the subject or a thought that it originally evoked in me. My desire is that through use of color, selective lighting and content, I will transport the viewer to an emotional state similar to what I felt during the conception of the image. If a sense of deeper meaning or a story is implied, then all the better. Although open to interpretation, it’s my own personal and spiritual dialogue with the world I express.

The duality and tension of places where the natural and the man-made collide is very interesting to me; I see it as a symbolic balance of dark and light. I see the light and happiness but cannot escape the dark, realizing how tightly they are woven, one cannot truly be experienced without the other. Lately, I like to convey this duality in my work and I consider it most beautiful when near the balancing point, no matter what side of the fulcrum. The strange flora of the desert also embodies this balance for me – sharp, rugged, sometimes poisonous, but always beautiful and mysterious.

Usually, I start with small idea sketches and then look for components in life that work like the sketch. I develop many ideas simultaneously so I am in constant hunt for reference. After observation, I shoot photographs, then I affect the value, colors and composition. I use this manipulated image along with studies and memory as reference for the final work.

Use of strong color in layers and glazes makes my work very reactive to changes in light, so the impression shifts dramatically throughout the day. In the past, I have focused mostly on color; over time, I have become more interested in form and value.

No matter how long I have been an artist, I feel I’m at the beginning of this journey, and my emphasis will continue to come into focus and evolve as I pursue painting.