When I make abstract mixed media paintings, I allow my materials and  process to lead me. I discover new color combinations or the interplay  of paint over line or paper, working intuitively without a plan or  sketch of the final painting. I build a painting with layers, recording a  history of my process. I work with acrylic paint, mark-making tools  such as graphite, charcoal, or marker. I work on paper that I paint  myself, buy or find in magazines or junk mail.

I have another body of mixed media figurative work that I often work on  concurrently with my abstract work. Because a face is the first thing we  see as infants and the first thing we recognize, it has become so  familiar that we see faces everywhere. As an artist, I can create a  face, pushing it far into abstraction while still recognizable as a face  (or figure). Unlike my process for abstract paintings, I use a  reference photo for these works as a guide to the placement of  highlights and shadows, which I choose to follow, change, or leave out.  As I bring abstract elements into these paintings, they straddle the  abstract world and the real.