My current series, In the Pod, is an abstract mapping of a personal journey that speaks of the happenings of our world regarding food, and what affect it has on our bodies and the environment. The large oil paintings evolved from an earlier series titled Masses that came from my own experience when both of my parents were diagnosed with masses in the torso’s of their bodies. The meaning of the word mass became an obsession with me as I struggled to define it.  As the word mass is described as a body of matter that forms a whole but has no definable shape, images of biomorphic shapes appear in the work. As the voice from the older work speaks of decay, disease, the fragility of life and the vulnerability of our bodies, the newer work speaks of birth, fruition, and the start of new life.The “Pod” series evolved as I planted a vegetable garden for my father because he could no longer do it. As I watched the garden grow, I became preoccupied with the idea of expectation of the future that disease and planting entail. Emotional strain from what changes disease has on the body and mental worry from what occurs after seeds are planted create an emotional and physical tension. While the inner workings of the body are an area of interest for me, my questions come from a fascination with the process of seeding as in germination and conception, with biology and nature represented.My process consists of three different stages. It starts with the background, reminiscent of a landscape, as the paint is calm, thin and clean. The second as overlay, the most physical part is line formation is the most intentional part of my work. It is a ritual, which is dealt with like a dance because the marking must take place rather quickly, as I work with very wet paint applied to the entire surface. The painting becomes transformed through the manipulation of paint application by pulling and pushing thick and thin paint over my gestural marks and the influence of anatomy and nature is noted. My spontaneous use of veins, roots, bones, branches, or even cracks tend to connect shapes and spaces to each other by pulling and pushing and erasing loose wet paint. These forms are moved into abstraction in shape, color and texture by the treatment of line and paint. The paint is thinner, thicker, wetter and moves in a physical and erratic way. The third and last stage is detail, in which the paint application varies immensely. The articulation of line is specific and mutable adding to the weight and texture of the paint, culminating into the perception of tension, which then in turn is experienced as space within the painted surface.I am interested in exploring the tactile qualities of paint.  This tension is mirrored in the emerging images that are recognizable, maybe just for a moment but then turn into blur and become abstract again. This gives meaning to the details, as the internal workings of the body or nature suddenly tries to transform itself. As the dualities at play create movement but the meaning is never really clear.My work speaks of a world that has been, uncovered, layered, magnified, or reinvented. My painting language is inspired by my emotional relationship to our planet: regarding environmental, political and sexual issues that affect our bodies and world. The changes taking place outside our bodies is predominately related to what is occurring inside of our bodies. Emotional tension caused by disease and environmental decline are so intense that even the unconscious mind cannot escape its consequences.