My painting is a celebration of the moments when I feel most alive and at-one with my surroundings. Abstraction allows me great freedom in translating the most subtle and varied sensations into the language of paint. Stones, the weather, sounds, bodies of water, the passage of time... all these become present as a new reality.

When beginning a new work, my main focus is the color, which is the mood of the painting. As the work progresses, I concentrate on relating the colors to one another — modulating within the planes, softening a volume, creating subtle movements which lock the forms and background into the entire picture plane.

I am always experimenting with color combinations that create different levels of light. My palette has been described as radiant and quiet at the same time — probably the influence of living in California and Spain, as well as many winters spent in East Hampton, New York, painting and absorbing the much-celebrated light.

I usually work on two or three series concurrently. Some are transcendent, ethereal recollections of atmosphere, composed of thin, luminous veils of color. Others can be very caustic and direct, made up of dense layers of pigment, marble dust and wax. Regardless of style, the feeling of precariousness is a constant in my work. By concentrating on the intervals between objects or events, I develop a space in which the mind can rest. Here, a deeper reality can be felt.

I have learned the most from Rubens (his level of craft and the creation of a fluid three-dimensional space), Cézanne (no areas of unconsciousness, and the opposite of Rubens' space: everything locked in like a puzzle), de Kooning (his energy, painting and drawing at the same time) and Joan Mitchell (color, scale, pure power, a female role model of total commitment and dedication as a painter).

Being an artist has obliged me to become authentic, to evolve and to live beyond the commonplace. I invite the viewer into my paintings, which can be a refuge, an awakening, a spark.