From: San Francisco | Medium: Painting & drawing I was born in San Francisco and educated at Stanford University. My work is greatly influenced by my experience as a Californian, and by the affinity I feel for the Bay Area Figurative painters. My paintings are about silence, solitude, space, and shadows—about the moments between actions. I paint people waiting, or gazing, or pausing, or moving from one place to another. The surface of the painting is as important to me as the image. I am always experimenting with surfaces and textures. I explore color relationships and the unexpected juxtapositions that happen while painting: the surface of the painting and layers of paint must be rich and exotic, the colors luminous and mysterious. I pull colors up– push them one against the other and look for places where the colors make the most of each other. I never know where a painting will end up. The backgrounds and moods emerge and change as the work progresses. My goal is to create paintings that are challenging and provocative. My hope is that people who see my work are moved to bring their own history to the painting and to tell their own stories.