The built environment of a city imposes a stability and order on the natural world that I find intriguing. The horizontal and vertical elements created by industrial structures, domestic dwellings, telephone poles, etc. define the order and rhythm that are comforting and familiar despite their austerity. I intend to examine the austerity by showing the play of light and shadow on the shapes and patterns of the city. I look for unusual views and I approach a new subject by simplifying the details and focusing on the major shapes and patterns of the composition. From this foundation, I build layers of paint, refining at each stepÑbringing some details in and reducing others to abstractions. Although the completed paintings often retain visual cues to the details of a location, I am not concerned with representing the accuracy of a given place; instead, I work to find a balance between the reality of a place and the abstractions of the shapes and patterns.