Having made a recent transition to primarily abstract paintings, I find that this way of painting is much more about presence than my previous work. Because paint begins to dry as soon as it leaves its container, I consider it a very time-based medium. This limitation on time offers an opportunity for instinctual reaction. My relationship with my paintings feels like the kind of relationship water has with land. Each time an ocean wave meets the beach, for example, it takes some of the land away, and then brings some of it back. As the beach changes shape, the ocean's shape is changed as well, its shoreline slowly receding or advancing. I want my paintings to shape me as much as I shape them. I see painting as a very literal collaboration between a human being and the laws of physics that are governing his media, a successful painting reflects this reality.