Never Still

I don’t plan these paintings.

I start with a mark and follow whatever comes next. Lines turn into shapes. Shapes become faces, eyes, mouths, words, symbols and patterns. I rotate the canvas and find new things hiding inside it. One decision triggers another until the surface is full.

That process feels close to the way my mind actually works: always moving, connecting, repeating, jumping, collecting — and worrying I’ll lose an idea before I can catch it.

It can be exciting. Creative. Almost magnetic.

It can also be exhausting.

There isn’t really an off switch.

I wasn’t originally making these paintings to illustrate ADHD. I was doing this before I ever thought about the work that way. Looking back, I think I was already putting something internal onto the surface without knowing what to call it.

At first, I want them to feel like a lot. Then I want you to keep looking.

Because the longer you look, the more you find.