Much of my imagery comes from natural or rural places. Landscape paintings are always seen; they are glimpses, images. As such, we separate ourselves as viewers. I care about a different manner of participation, one of inclusion, of being within. As that degree of separation weakens, the distinction of landscape grows unclear, becomes abstracted. Hence, my paintings are, for the most part, abstract. A personal symbolism exists, but it is irrelevant to the audience. Each painting exists independently, creating and inhabiting its own realm, and one meets it at its own terms. Those terms change between person and painting, but a lack of overtly recognizable imagery diverts the initial primary encounter to what’s at hand, not in the mind. This is why the surfaces emphasize physicality. The heaviness of my mark-making grounds the mind so that it can never wander too far from the corporeal. Ideally the body reacts to the work, not only the eye.