In my formation as an artist, I have mostly been conditioned to approach abstract painting as an interior space that blends personal, emotional release with the modernist desire to seek out perfected form. The emphasis is on withdrawal, and perhaps a higher plane of perception and expression. I am using this interior space of the abstract painting to explore elements from the exterior world that are in flux and mundane. The titles, colors, and textures come from sources that are decidedly non-contemplative (convenience food, the clutter of domestic life, the office, etc.). In this work, collage and masking techniques are metaphors for interruption and the collision of competing contexts. I am looking for moments when concerns for the everyday displace the modernist tendency for isolation. I am also looking for moments when the everyday becomes painterly. I want the work to be driven by the play between the exterior and interior forces that drive our lives.