I love everyday objects, and things that show their age. 
So I often paint old bottles and tools, flowers and fruit. My painting is an affirmation
of the importance of looking, of perceiving, of drawing, of composing
and finding a balance between visual drama and stability. Being in love with oil paint
as a material, I tend to obsess over all the technical matters that make 
oil paintings interesting: edges; suggestions of planes, forms, and spaces; tones; impasto; 
and the emotion inherent in chiaroscuro and color. 
But mainly I paint because I have to.
I tried not painting for a long while; it left a hole that nothing else really filled. 

A word on the frames:
many of the newer paintings are mounted in -- and were composed
to fit -- molded frames that were designed by Robert Kulicke
(a wonderful painter in his own right, in addition to being a world-class frame maker).  They were inspired by beautiful frames from
art history -- starting in ancient Egypt and working forward
through centuries of European frames.  Composing paintings to fit these shapes
posed a series of interesting challenges,
but the end result was worth it, and it's great to honor
Kulicke's memory in this way.