Your paintings feel like scenes from a film what stories are you telling through them?
I'd like the stories told by my paintings to be more ambiguous than specific, like when we wake from a dream and have forgotten the plot but remember the mood. Someone who bought a painting wrote to me, "Your work is strangely nostalgic and dreamy and a little melancholic, and also makes me want to go on a never ending road trip." That was lovely to hear as it matches what I often feel about the subjects I invent.
​How does emotion guide your brush or composition?
It's very important to me that a painting begins with an emotion, that the commitment to that feeling continues through the act of painting and finally is conveyed to the viewer. I'm not held by a painting, whether it's mine or by another artist, that doesn't provoke a feeling in me.

​What makes an image cinematic to you?
A cinematic image tells a dramatic story, rather than presenting purely "formal" visual information. For me, cinematic compositions have a big scope, and orchestrate figures and settings into the sweep of an epic narrative. This kind of image can be thrilling (for example, Gericault's "Raft of the Medusa", or any big Caravaggio). But I don't think painting needs to be cinematic to be powerful. Sometimes a much more modest approach, evena few still life objects or the head of a model, can make a big impact if seen and rendered with sensitivity.

​Do you see your work as part of a larger narrative, or as single frames of feeling?
I paint in "larger narratives", exploring one visual idea over the course of multiple paintings. Thesesequences can take years to develop, and I'll have a few going at a time. Right now in my studio, I'm working on a number of series, and I enjoy moving back and forth between them. One is inspired by casitas (little houses with simple, elegant designs) in Santa Fe, where I spend some time every winter. My "Road" paintings are views of streets and highways that lead usthrough a colorful, hyper-real landscape. The "Family History" series features the relationships of figures grouped in domestic settings. And I've just begun "In Time", large canvasses based on memories of childhood. These varying narratives are united by a similar approach to how I use color and composition.

​How do light, texture, and silence play into your process?
I'm very engaged with light and silence, and hardly ever think about texture.

​Which filmmakers or visual artists influence your world?
I love filmmakers who tell their stories visually, frame their shots as carefully as a painter would, and trust their audience to stay engaged with a character-driven approach to storytelling. A few of the many films that have stuck with me over the years are Fellini's "Amarcord", Satyajit Ray's "Apu Trilogy", "The Royal Tenenbaums" by Wes Anderson, and Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia". They each are beautifully shot, tell stories with a touch of fantasy about real people, and have a good and generous heart at their center.
I've learned from so many painters--especially those who emphasize color, and use strong, graphic shapes in their compositions: the Early Italian school of Giotto and Duccio, Renaissance master Piero Della Francesca, and on up to Cezanne, Matisse, Hopper, and Richard Diebenkorn.

​Is there a particular memory or mood you return to when you paint?
I have strong memories of the feelings particular places gave me as a child. The dark woods at the back of our family home or the median strip in front that filled with daisies in spring were some of the everyday places made magical by my imagination. I try to recapture with my painting some of that sense of how the ordinary can be made extraordinary by the way we see it.

​What role does mystery play in your art?
A major role, as I'd like my paintings to reflect reality--and I think reality is one big mystery.

​How do you want the viewer to feel like a witness, a dreamer, or a character?
I'd be happy with any, or all, of those!

​If your work were a film, what would its title be?
"The Long Road Home and Back Again"