I am drawn to certain scenes of everyday life — guests at a party dancing and toasting, a bartender serving drinks, women chatting, a toy poodle in a Birkin bag. You could say I’m revisiting the preoccupations of certain impressionists (Manet), but in a thoroughly 21^st century way, after having experienced abstract art. I paint figuratively, but abstract concepts such as color and the tactile aspects of paint dominate my work.

I like to think that my subjects are part of the dynamics of paint itself — its texture, its chromatic power, and its capacity to cover meaning independent of narrative. Color, rather than realistic figures, conveys the emotional content.

My drawings go in another direction. The exaggerated lines and cartoonlike abstraction operate as a shorthand for emotional states.

American cartoons and comics from mid-20^th century have influenced my drawings. Max Beckman, Picasso and abstract expressionists such as my mentor, Sam Gilliam, all inform my paintings.

I am in the midst of inventing a unique dialogue between process and image, by which I hope to create my own personal mythology.