Painting has never been something that I have been comfortable with. I began this discipline in the summer of '80. Prior to that, I didn't know anything really......about ART, fine or otherwise. The first works were spraypainted (obviously) and crudely rendered. Of course there is a huge difference between making illegal work in the street or subway and working on a canvas or some other medium in a studio or abandoned building. I found my paintings to be innocent and experimental. There was no figurative content and no political implications, there was COLOUR, and I became an abstract expressionist??????

The introduction to the influential and artistic downtown scene is met with skepticism and eyes in the back of my head. The crowd is lively and extremely social, suddenly we have gone from total anonymity to some recognizable position, and there's always a CATHCH22 aftereffect.

Searching for a particular style and trying to separate myself from the rest of the field has always been a personal motivation, and in so doing, I continue to make work. After a few shows and 4 or 5 paintings to my credit, I stumble through the process of learning how to paint. I remain very critical of my own work and looking back some many years, I don't have any favorites of that early era. Lacking direction and filling spaces, I was attempting to discover a new medium in painting and myself. Always working alone and careful to guard the secrets of my techniques, I still found it difficult to create new work for the growing number of shows which will consume the next 4 or 5 years.

Like being asked to complete a homework assignment, painting became something that had to get done. I have always disliked the restrictions of the ARTWORLD. I understand now, that being THAT type of an artist, one who works within the gallery structure, to attempt to exhibit and sell work is NOT something that I really WANT to do. Perhaps the pressures to create were in fact too much for the rest of the spraycan community as well. Coupled with the overkill and overexposure with dozens of exhibitions worldwide...........yes, I'm quite sure this contributed to the demise of the movement on that level.

Something happened, that's it. I pick up the painting from the floor. I always work upside down, or at least the spraycan is. In this position the can acts crazily...I accidently discovered this and some other interesting things while clearing my nozzles one day. The secret is knowing when to stop.....even abstract work has a top and bottom. Many of my paintings/images have been hung/photographed in the wrong sense, and I can understand how, still for me, I need to have a strong bottom on my work, not just to define it's viewable direction, but to also give weight to the piece.