I come from a family of farmers, builders, mechanics, seamstresses, knitters and musicians. We are deeply grounded in the material world. It is my nature to attempt to understand the order of things, and how to put them to use. Understanding through observation and active manipulation of materials is my approach to making a painting. Much like building a structure (my father was a home builder), a plan sets the basic format and layout of the painting. After the plan is established, choice of colors, tone, size and "construction" of elements is what creates the image. I spent hours watching my mother knit or sew. The accumulation of stitches is echoed in the accumulation of elements that comprise each painting. No doubt my paintings are inspired by contributions of each of my parents. This work echoes other activities that have been a part of my life at one time or another: the orderly work of plowing or mowing a field, the work of understanding and repairing a machine or improvising a melody over a chord progression. The pictorial elements are reduced to color and simple geometric shapes. Composition is based on the grid. The rigid order of the form slips and gets loose. Individual components are simple, yet the accumulation of bits creates a complex image. The process has something in common with collage and with nature, where simple components, cells, crystals and other elemental forms create fantastically complex organisms and bio- systems. For me these paintings are a quotation of the complexity and beauty found in the material world.