Everything happens at the edges—where land and sea, building and sky, color and shape meet. Abstraction is based in reality, and color is the link I use to connect my work to the world it comes from, conveying a deeper level of visual and emotional experience.

We experience the world on more than one level. There's what we see, and then there's what we feel — the emotional residue that a place or moment leaves behind. My paintings are less about depicting what something looks like and more about capturing what it felt like to be there.

My work is a reflection of my memories and perceptions. When I see the ocean, I see it at different times of day — the microscopic plankton floating in the water, the shells crushed by breaking waves, the coral and fish below the surface. I layer these experiences in my mind's eye, pulling forth not a painting of the ocean, but of my experience of the ocean.

My color palettes are inspired by the natural world and the various places I travel, while my compositions balance spontaneous mark-making with deliberate structural elements. My mixed media approach — combining acrylic paint, oil pastel, crayon, and pencil on unprimed wood panel — creates multilayered pieces that shift and reveal new details with each viewing.

Through experimentation, I discovered that adding layers of unintentional marks allows my subconscious to participate in creation. I frequently turn the board upside down, or close my eyes and make marks without thinking, letting the painting tell me what it needs to become.

"Art is a conversation between intention and surprise. I begin each piece with an emotional impulse, but I allow the materials to guide the journey. The most exciting moments happen when the unexpected emerges."