I have been painting for over twenty years, more seriously since 2007, and nearly daily since 2010. Committing to a daily painting has caused a great maturation in my technique; my decision-making process has become intuitive and automatic, to the point where my efficiency has reached epic proportions. My influences have been literary, spiritual, personal and artistic. I read voraciously, fiction and non, and prefer visual writers and poetry. John Singer Sargent’s brushstrokes caught my eye through their tangible translation of the sense of touch in a brushstroke, and Alice Neel’s psychological portraits have demonstrated how to explain personality through the use of contrast and color. Of course, Vincent VanGogh’s hysterical and wise use of textured and energetic line have encouraged me since childhood. A piece is successful for me when I want to keep looking at it. When I have truly captured the essence of the animal in a portrait or the deep purple tones of the shadows in a street scene, I am in awe of myself. That is when I feel I am being an instrument of the art itself. The work exists somewhere - I am simply translating the vision.