When you’re hell bent on discovery and not simply practicing a honed skill to produceattractive images, painting can be an unsettling experience - with hours of confusionand uncertainty. I often find myself lamenting: “I haven’t a clue!" But ultimately this selfquestioning is productive and the answers come. Skills and past experiences kick inand trigger the spark that allows the paintings to seemingly paint themselves. My work is a combination of caprice and control. Facture - the composition andillustration of the past decisions that led to it - is important. A brush stroke, a patch ofpaint, ghost lines, a drip or scraped surface, can each be as significant as the carefullyrendered. Often I’ll introduce a briefly sketched figure next to one that required hours ofcareful work. When I feel I’m getting too tight I'll crayon over - scribble. My approach might be considered a metaphor for life - what we can control and whatwe cannot. Order and chaos.The unexpected is as rewarding as the anticipated.The practice of adding or subtracting, through painting out, can offer new opportunity ormight ruin the work. The risk evolves the piece and leads to discovery. I am moved by the ocean and the people and objects on and in it. It is mostlyexploration of the paint, though, that motivates me. The viewer should see the paint asmuch as the image. With my water studies I can play with color, line, and texture with less of a focus onform. Yet my work is not pure abstraction; it touches all that we associate with theocean. The images of people serve, on a formal level, to introduce shape and a morecomplicated composition. A mixture of cultures, attitudes, and gestures - not the cliche’surfer and a perfect, giant wave. The surfers in the Launiupoko Series, for example,aren't the type to hoot for attention. Just some long boarders intent on their moment inthe ocean. Larry was born and raised in New Jersey, and has spent his life surfing andexperiencing the beaches of New Jersey, Mexico, California, and Hawaii. Formallyeducated, he received his BFA from Washington University in St. Louis, with concurrentstudies in a university sponsored program in Mexico, and a MFA from RutgersUniversity in New Jersey. He spent twenty five years running his design firm in SouthernCalifornia. His home and studio have been in Maui, Hawaii since 2005.