"Untitled No. 81" Painting

In my compositions I like to experiment with various media and subject matter. I often begin a painting with a general idea of what I want to do. Often this idea is based in reality, such as architecture or the larger urban environment. Other paintings may be based simply on an idea for a color scheme or a geometric composition. Only after a few attempts, however, does the idea become clearer to me. Rather than simply start over on a new canvas or board as the idea develops, I will scrape away old and add new layers of paint on top of prior compositions. I continue with this process until the painting I have been aiming for appears on the surface. The act of scraping away and adding layers will sometimes take my idea in a completely new direction resulting in a painting which only vaguely resembles my original intention. These layers represent my thought process, reveal past versions of the work and ultimately make up the final composition.