I paint within traditions of abstract expressionism and lyrical abstraction. Rather than with a plan, my paintings usually begin with a personal feeling of restlessness and an empty canvas and a brush and tube of paint I pick up more or less at random. Often in a painting's early stage I'll create an appealing shape or line or color combination which out of uncertainty I'll want to save. Strangely, it's only when I sacrifice this attractive area by painting on or over it that something more original is released, something which belongs both to the painting's physical presence and my feelings that are seeking expression. Often through these moments of letting go, enduring forms are revealed. Perhaps some part of each painting's depth is generated by the half-visible remainders of earlier stages I've sacrificed. You might call these remainders the ghosts of those not-quite-beautiful things I've destroyed.