The nonobjective shapes I use in my paintings are usually hard-edged and flat and are almost always explicitly or implicitly biomorphic, suggesting a narrative relationship between them. I work slowly, sometimes spending months on an individual painting. Over the passage of time, I distill the flotsam of the world around me into a sense of order expressed both through color and composition in an individual work. I always begin with a preparatory drawing, although it rarely survives intact by the time the painting is finished: it is the starting point of the conversation, making way for intuition, which favors pure painting over a specific conceptual practice or theory. My paintings are not large because a smaller scale allows for a greater sense of intimacy with the work, both from the point of view of the artist and the viewer. I generally paint with oil on canvas and panel, or with watercolors on paper. The unruliness of watercolor lends itself to improvisation, and its translucence discourages overworking the surface, while oil draws on a more contemplative side of my nature and allows for a gradual modification over time.