Painting transforms every representation into an opaque object. The subjects in my work are drawn from a collective memory, rooted in a mediated version of American history and iconography. I am interested in what happens when American archetypes are cast into doubt. Overlapping identities, symbols, and narratives try to cohere but cannot hold. Ultimately, these figures are made from the humility and hubris of paint. The historical visual language of painting is employed in contradictory ways. Figures and spaces are rendered, abstracted, and rendered again: structure versus gesture, form versus flatness, illusion versus materiality. This cycle continues until I am satisfied that I have done both, and neither.