I love the direct experience of abstract painting with acrylics. Abstract painting allows me to interpret my world through color.  I am always surprised at color relationships as to how colors shift and change on the canvas with layering of color. I use various tools such as the palette knife, combs, trowels, and brushes to achieve a textured surface. I like the contrast of a smooth area with a marked surface. I enjoy the edges where colors and shapes sharply meet or overlap. The story unfolds during the painting process or after the painting is complete. I took classes with Joan Brown and Elmer Bischoff at U C Berkeley in the late seventies and I still am greatly inspired by their work as well as the art of Richard Diebenkorn. People see different things in my paintings such as figures, animals, or architecture. Sometimes I am inspired to create a painting from colors in the sky before a rainfall such as grey, pink and violet.