I paint. I can’t imagine my life without painting. The figures in my paintings often appear androgynous, but they are almost always women and are primarily from my imagination. For years, I painted from life, and some of those images are illustrated here, but I prefer to be in the studio alone, no model, no company. Only music. Mostly Bach.

The women often have vulnerable personalities, or perhaps the strength to transport them to other worlds, but they all tell a story, sometimes in a language I don’t even understand, as if my imagination has been hijacked by an alien.

My titles (some of the images don’t have titles because I don’t own them anymore and my record-keeping is hit and miss), are inspired by lines in short stories or news articles which I manipulate to fit my needs. Favorite authors include Faulkner, Cheever, Munroe, Neruda and others, all writers who create pictures with their words.

For years, my paintings were easy, safe – pretty women sitting around in romantic poses – but that became automatic, predictable. Now I’m making what I believe is a more courageous mark, full of renewed commitment.

Some abstracts and nonobjective works are the result of painting over old figurative canvases. I’m not a plein air painter, so the landscapes are memories of my favorite beaches, rivers and streams and forests.

The pendants and assemblages keep me from becoming bored while paint is drying or when my own personal Muse – that illusive Muse, who never reveals herself – is on vacation. I don’t understand muses, but I believe we all have one.

I’ve been a painter for a long time and don’t plan to quit. Ever.