Painting, for me, is a form of contact. Often, it has been a way for me to form a material relationship with images and histories that, in some way, aren’t immediately available in the present. The medium’s tactile qualities — its capacity for registering physical touch and for suggesting virtual touch — as well as the close relationship between touch and feeling, drive my work.

Part of this happens through material qualities like surface, porosity, viscosity. Another part happens through process: through the friction of frottage, through the pressure and contact of printmaking, or through the virtual sense of touch that’s activated through rendering.

My paintings using frottage are made subtractively, scraping paint away from the canvas to register an impression of what lies directly beneath: most often either the walls of my studio or the concrete pavement outside, sometimes objects. Frottage is a way of mark-making that depends on friction; outside of drawing, the term also has a sexual meaning. By varying the pressure of scraping, I’m able to create a sense of light and form.