I stand somewhere between Rembrandt and William DeKooning in terms of my painting. I have a deep abiding love of surfaces, both ancient and modern. I am riveted to the drama and tenebrism of Rembrandt's search for truth.

There is a part of me that is seduced by the interlacing network of paint as it flows in and out of the canvase surfaces of DeKooning or Pousette Dart. Still, another part of me endeavors to speak loudly to a wider audience by adding narrative properties to many of my works.

Deep within me is the real desire to confront the viewer with those cultural, personal, or spiritual things that most people want to avoid. I want to leave the viewer disturbed, challenged, inspired, spiritually aware, to eradicate complacency and the pleasant avoidance of responsibility. I want to make the viewer react and respond to the work. Painting is a responsibility of the artist to his culture– to in some way change the world. To paint is to live, to allow the soul to release.