The starting point for these paintings is an ongoing series of collages that I began making in 2008 as a way to recycle watercolors and other works on paper that I keep in a discard pile in my studio. The collages are made quickly and with the intention to work fast and for quantity; to catch something fresh. The paintings are material and psychological translations of the collages. My aim is to transform the energy and intimacy of the smaller works, but with flexibility to improvise, creating blind spots and using a new vocabulary. I set up strategies to ensure that I can’t gauge the overall direction of the painting as it develops. This works as a catalyst to restrain my ever-present impulse to control the outcome.