ARTIST STATEMENT: For me, painting is like blushing. The subjects derive from a particular circumstance—a particular emotion—and the painting begins instinctively. Although impetus for the work is abstract and formless, the painted result is based in reality—specifically the body. I am amazed and intrigued by the uncanny resemblance between a smear of warm, pink paint and the cartilage of an ear. I explore tensions in this relationship—between illusion and truth, the concrete and the abstract—as I paint a constructed reality that is familiar, yet entirely different.