Oil  48″ x 58″ *

The uninitiated sometimes ask how I choose what to put in my paintings, aside from

the women. Are the objects symbolic?

I don’t plan my paintings in sketches beforehand, preferring to decide only where the subjects will be placed on the canvas. I set myself up for problem solving: how the hell am I going to fill up the rest of the blank space? To me, knowing everything about a painting in advance is akin to painting by numbers.

Sometimes I’ll fill the space with landscape, or patterns from the era in which my subjects lived, and according to what the women tell me, I’ll have them holding

something in their hands, or doing something that seems to fit. For the most part, these decisions have nothing to do with the original photo.

In the case of “Eve Redux”, I had just received a shipment of Florida citrus, had tulips from the corner store, and set up the camera on timer to include Chris and me. I happened to be eating an apple. Thus we have the Eve theme; note the serpent above the couch. But what do the flying eggs mean?