I draw and paint with oilsticks and graphite on paper. Walking the streets of Seattle every day, I am inspired by graffiti—its informality, quickness, spontaneous gesture, multitextured surfaces and unexpected color. With today’s world as it is, this type of urban painting embodies the collective moment. Surrounded by the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, Puget Sound, rainforests, and the rich countryside of the Pacific Northwest, landscape imagery has a strong presence in my work. I grew up in Minnesota on the east side of a lake; sunsets were always changing, never the same, offering every color combination imaginable. Today, anything is possible in a natural landscape— it emboldens my painting process. Imagery and media coalesce: the struggle doesn’t overwhelm me. I plan to continue exploring these spontaneous landscapes. Every day in the city or country provides countless starting points for new compositions. The intrigue is between the first marks on paper and the final resolution, where things come together in unanticipated ways.