The quirky humor of my paintings results from the playful and imaginative process of building with paint. Paint is my versatile building block . . . from the range of paint-body consistencies and hues to the energy of brushwork. I paint wet-on-wet and search for the painting as it develops. I soon begin to define the specifics: the major players, focal points, smells, sounds, time of day, quality of the air, season. Open-ended narratives and allegories emerge as I elaborate on the images that jump out. The process of making these paintings taps into both conscious and unconscious aspects of my psyche; ideas about experiences in daily life, politics, pop culture, and a network of personal associations filter through. The finished paintings depict morphological structures that reflect my reactions to contemporary life. These are images that I have not encountered or envisioned before, and are born through the interaction of performative painting with an open mind and a searching eye.