While I’ve spent many years as a semi-professional jazz musician (my other job was reconstructive surgeon), I began making my own paintings only ten years ago. I believe that, like jazz improvisation, it’s better to come to the empty canvas without a rigid plan. I believe that while making a painting is informed by those artists whose work one most admires (Rauschenberg, Johns and Diebenkorn are on my list), it is most essential to make art that is truly one’s own.