A painting should first satisfy the artist’s need for discovery, emotional involvement and intellectual stimulation. My fascination with surfaces began several years ago while traveling. As my companions were photographing wonderful scenery, historic buildings or beautiful sunsets, my camera was recording walls, floors, ceilings and doors — the never-ending surfaces that surround us. These surfaces are affected by everyday happenings, transforming them into objects with emotional content. Some are very old, but have a wonderful serenity in their age. Others are more dramatic, perhaps threatening: they are too high, too dark, have no openings in or out. Perhaps there is jagged glass or razor wire across the top. Some are made more beautiful by graffiti or more threatening by gang tags in inappropriate places. Often there are many layers simultaneously covering and uncovering, eroding and exposing. In short they embody the history of this particular surface, in this specific place, at this moment in time. A painting should evoke discovery, emotional involvement and intellectual stimulation. My paintings hint at written messages, but on closer inspection, the letters aren’t real letters, the words not real words. Like the surfaces from which they are inspired, the viewer is invited to sense, experience and interpret.