It's the unexpected that I find most compelling about painting. Not just a simple surprise or a useful accident, but the fact that I can surprise myself in painting like one does in having elaborate dreams. This is true no matter how familiar the technical processes involved or how much a new painting has in common with previous paintings.

The unexpected is not contrived and thus wholly authentic. This is what I seek most in my paintings and I work until I find it. It is what makes each painting a fresh adventure even after thirty years of painting.

Authenticity is the only thing an artist has that is truly worth sharing with others. Authentic fine art has the power to stir the vague mysteries that lie deep within everyone.

To me, the best paintings, like life, are mysteries and surprises shrouded by the familiar. To be able to make something imbued with real human spirituality out of stuff, sometimes with materials not often called for in many studios, feels like some kind of miracle every time.