“My painting process is a mix of traditional brush and palette knife application with a postmodern use of printmaking transfer skills.Not unlike Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Sigmar Polke, Philip Taaffe, Nancy Spero, and others, I work in layers.Layers of visual pattern and imagery create what I call an open narrative.This open narrative allows the viewer personal, emotional and possibly psychological interpretations of my work.My Imagery draws from common everyday life to commercial or popular consumer culture. Painting is an evolved art term now incorporating mixed media and collage.The artists I mentioned earlier epitomize this especially when it comes to the printmaking aspect of their work.Most of them used silkscreen, Taaffe and Spero actually used monoprint and etching on paper later to be collaged on to the painting surface.My work is different here.I developed a way of using a gum arabic transfer method that allows me to use the same oil and alkyd paint mixture I paint with and avoid using inks or other print mediums. The method is simple, a paper is prepared with imagery or pattern then soaked in gum arabic and water creating a resist where the oil paint collects in the imagery and avoids the negative space.When this is ready I simply press the oiled paper onto the painting surface using hand pressure to transfer the imagery.After this is done it is no different than normal oil painting. I can smear it, embellish it with brush or wait for it to dry and paint over it.This is what I call paint layers. The oil and alkyd medium is the same from the bottom layer to the last top painted layer. That is why I describe my work as “Painting” and not mixed media.”