My paintings are based on old found photographs that I treat as starting points for manipulation and abstraction. I often employ abstract marks that display the materialistic qualities of paint alongside photographic modes of representation. My central interest lies in exploring the different functions of a medium like oil paint. On the one hand, it functions as a photographic medium that can be used to view something else, much like a window or a mirror. But on the other hand, it is a purely physical substance that resembles nothing but itself. Watching a medium fluctuate between these two distinct functions—as a virtual medium and as a purely physical substance—reflects my general concern about human identity, as physicalism becomes the dominant perspective in today’s scientific and philosophical circles.