I consider the "building" phase of my pieces an essential part of their conceptualization so that the layers and structures of the paintings are consequently part of their meanings.
As a theme uniting my current efforts, I've recently focused on the concept of "cages": self-imposed, forced-upon or accidents of nature; of-the-mind and invisible, or concrete and obvious. I'm very interested in the thought that barriers, once constructed, not only keep things in, but keep things out as well. In a world becoming closer, increasingly crowded and competitive for resources, boundaries become delicate, often fiercely contended definitions.

I've been using chicken wire and metal lath, oftentimes the substances of barriers themselves, not only for textural supports on the panel works, but also as stencil drawing tools and actual material incorporations into the works on paper, so that medium plays a dual role between technique and symbol in the "cage" expressions. 

I also find that I am having to reassess the barriers of the paintings themselves- that which keeps the viewer in or out and separates the Art from the Wall - so that edges of the panels are becoming irregular or incomplete, and the works on paper are becoming "composed fragments", putting tension on suppositions about the works own "cages" and confines.