My mixed-media paintings evolve through many layers of color and texture. Art is an outlet for my defiant, irreverent inner self, the essential self from before I was taught how to act, how to be. In painting, anything is possible. I explore strong emotion through primitive, abstract faces or strange creatures. I’m drawn to all kinds of visceral expression, from cave paintings to outsider art to tribal masks to graffiti. My art is born of the same primal need for expression, with themes ranging from humor to vulnerability, spirituality, and otherness. I hope that viewers will recognize something familiar, something common to all of us, and that sharing that experience means that we are somehow less alone.