In my paintings I improvise on a representational image usually from nature. I am simply enamored with the excitement of the visual world...but I never wish to simply copy it. Instead, I seek the essence of an image in its abstract qualities, and I use my own "automatic" gesture to re-create both the structure and the emotion that the image invokes. I paint on canvas or paper and focus on spontaneity and compositional integrity. The flat rectangle is my format and in it I can improvise freely.