So when you find out you have an exhibition that’s when you show them to people, do you get nervous?
I guess I get a little bit nervous, but less so lately… So I guess I’m nervous to some extent. But I’m not so attached to these paintingsthat it’slife and death, because then I’m just going to the next one. So yes,I hope people like them. And if they buy them,I think that’s the ultimate expression.

Your paintings look like photographs, how do you start them and who are yoursubjects?
I use found photographs. I take photographs myself. To start the painting it’s very important that I have the right image because I don’t know until I get into it. But I spend a great deal of time laying it out and planning about how it’s going to be placed on the canvas and measuring proportion and so forth. It’s very important that you spend that initial time on your plan. Now once you’ve developed a plan it’s just like war. You know, you can make the best plans in the world but once the action starts, be prepared and be flexible, because you can go anywhere at that point. But I need some sort of a plan to get me started. I can’t just start without an accurate underdrawing, and so forth. But that only enables me to have something to hang the expressiveness or artistry, whatever on, I need that first. I need something to get me started. I can feel thatI have some sort of harness.I’m harnessing the expressiveness. But I’m also not afraid to make a change if I have to. A lot of people say they would like to see a demonstration, I do demos when I teach, but most of the demonstration is very boring, because I’m measuring it, and I’m laying it out. And to get to the fun part, you can’t do that until you get that initial layout down. We were talking last night about people that write novels, and particularly people that write detective stories or to write mystery novels. I imagine they must put together a big chart first on the plot, they plot it out literally on a chart, once they have their plot figured out the prose begins.