In my quest for the perfect balance between realism and the abstraction in painting, I have come to descibe my work as a kind of " perceptual realism". Although I have painted subject matter such as landscape and human figure for over 30 years, my most satisfying work is that in which the subject is evident, but is transformed into something less tangible but at the same time something more complex and meaningful by the virtue of it's simplification. It is not unlike poetry in that it carries with it an image or an idea surrounded by a vague aura of association. In my most recent paintings, complex shapes emerge from broader areas of colors that have been extracted from my visual reference, whether it be still life, figure or landscape. Some of my work involves the use of collage. I use this media in a structural way. The collage elements become the bones of the painting on which I hang my color. Like a metaphor, collage joins two things which are different and I am attracted to this medium because it allows me to join the tradition of painting with contemporary materials. In a purely plastic sense, it interests me because of the space and light that can be created by using various collage elements with the painted surface. The intellectual considerations are really the result of what comes from working spontaneously with the material.