The subjects I have always been most comfortable with are people and flowers. It seems that I have always been drawn to flowers - there is an appeal that has fascinated me since I began to paint. I see both delicacy and strength, grace and vulnerability, darkness and light, the brilliance of color or the absence of it, beauty and decadence, serenity and chaos. In fact, all the cycles of life become tableau on the surface of the canvas. Because I keep repeating the images of flowers, I sense that they have become a metaphor for me. I see things in flowers that I can emphasize or minimize, intensify or elaborate - elements that explore the riddle of life.