Please talk about the relationship between materials and message in your work. What I mean is, your use of the styrofoam packing (polysty- rene) in particular. Which came first, the idea or the object? Were you looking for a way to get sculptural/abstract after years of being known for figurative, narrative paintings and drawings? Or did the formal qualities of the material start the conceptual fire? I guess what I’m asking is, please describe the moment of inspiration that first prompted you to make this change several years ago. I first began using the polystyrene packing material very innocently. I WAS looking for a way out of this very narrative, overtly political work that I had been doing. I had been extremely angry and frustrated. When the Administration shifted to a more hopeful position with the entry of Obama to the presidency, I sort of had a big moment of relief. I was looking for a new, more hopeful direction. The use of the material came first. I had bought a parabolic heater from Costco and the packing material was so interesting. The “heater” was just this utilitarian thing I needed but the PACKING MATERIAL! I immediately started painting on it. I was really just doing it for my own pleasure; I never planned to show it. I remember thinking, ‘I can’t believe I am decorating Styrofoam (I now call it polystyrene as Styrofoam is a brand name). But I remembered a graduate professor telling the class that the work you do “in-the-closet” is the important work that you should pay attention to. As I kept working on the forms, and I only worked with black Flashe paint at the time, I realized that, intrinsically, the material held everything I had been trying to say in my narrative work.
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