As a child I often felt like an outsider. Though what people said may have had one meaning, I observed that their gestures and movements sometimes indicated other meanings. Fascinated, I watched the conventional interactions between people, as expressed through their body language. In my paintings the people are unrestricted, exposed, and accessible to each other. My goal is to portray figures manifesting honest, vulnerable emotions through their actions. The convention in European paintings from the Renaissance on, has been to present the female nude coquettishly flirting with the spectator, or patron, outside of the picture. In my paintings, the figures encompass each other.

I paint figures in watercolor, guiding my hired models through various improvisational sequences and scenarios. Many photographs are taken as they progress. I draw from those photos that catch my eye, and when a drawing has the cradle of an idea I begin to paint on the watercolor paper. I don’t pre-mix the colors, but apply them directly to the paper and allow them to mix on the paper. The watercolor paint separates into different areas as it dries creating rivulets of color.