I am an abstract, expressionist painter working in acrylic, mixed media. My process begins by creating quickly rendered, spontaneous marks often painted while blindfolded. Once surfaces are created, I discover the elusive and symbolic meanings of my apparently random marks, shapes, and gestural renderings. Currently I am focusing on destroying the surface by burning, cutting, tearing, and crunching raw and painted canvas. I build texture and depth with collage elements, found objects, shell casings, feathers, and bark. My current wall sculptures, with no straight edges or boundaries, reflect my efforts to create art that is “outside and box.” I enjoy “making sense of nonsense,” finding meaning (hidden, elusive, symbolic) in haphazard beginnings. This stretches my mind, and pulls me into a discovery, problem-solving mode. I like the intellectual aspect of this part of the process. My work succeeds when I can integrate free experimentation and deep personal expression.