Painting, for me, is a exploration of my emotional landscape.  I shine lights through my interior caves, immerse myself in pools of my subconscious, climb steep mountainsides of fear.  My paintings are portraits, not particularly of me, but of events that are happening in my life.  I frequently paint moments of self-realization in an attempt to preserve resolutions or inspirations. 

Typically, my landscape paintings are an emotional reaction to the nature around me.  I like to paint outside, with the subject matter in front of me.  Several of my landscapes have granules of dirt in them, when storms rose suddenly on the horizon and blew gusts of wind into my wet paint.

In my portrait paintings, I like to involve some emotional aspect of the  person I'm painting.  I don't paint poses, but people.  I want the portrait to include a person's loves, loves, hobbies, pets, whatever is meaningful to them.  For the viewer, I hope that this added aspect makes them look longer, and more frequently.  Fifty years down the road, they'll know, just by looking at a portrait, what was meaningful to that person.