Collaboration with Ethan Hutchinson @notsopunk81 .24"x48" acrylics on panel. Ethan took absolute control. As I watched, it seemed like he wasn't hyper-engaged. All gestural and careless, I never thought thats how his process would feel but once I got to working on it I was led by every mark he made. I didn't realize how deliberate and important what he had painted was until I jumped in. Ethan brings life. Everywhere he goes is slightly bigger and brighter than it was before he got there. That's what he's done with our painting. Bringing so much life. I wasn't fighting Ethan on this piece, I was trying to keep up, we both agreed we could have spent months on it. You can be vulnerable with Ethan, but never careless.

Collaboration with Darius Airo @daarriius .24"x48" acrylics on panel, I went into this one knowing Darius was going to be a force to be taken seriously. This piece was the only one that we did not work on in the same room, I would work on it in my studio then he would take it to his studio and back and forth. He turned it into something compelling after the first go at it. Lots of gestural marks that didn't have a huge stake in the painting. I painted against those marks to force him to take ownership of his lines. He in turn came back at me with such a permanence to his lines that I needed to rethink my approach. I was reminded of how Darius has an ownership over his lines that is unchallengeable. So I turned those lines into edges, tried to bring some depth and atmosphere to the piece. After spending hours looking and making sketches I tried to close out the piece with the "flower" in the center. He returned with unpredictable and heavy handed abstraction. Bringing into the piece the strange and undeniably compelling style that is Darius. There biggest surprise with this one is realizing that this painting, despite both of us pushing to have a strong and separate voice, ultimately have the same mark making in our blood. There's more similarity than I realized.

Collaboration with Betty Heredia @art_by_betty_heredia . 24"x48" acrylics on panel. Art has total control over Betty, she completely surrenders to where it takes her emotionally. She was as surprised by what she painted as I was. Like a young wizard in training, you don't know what her brush will conjur but it will definitely be some kind of magic. I think she broke my brain a little bit. The paint that she puts down can't hold still, it almost feels like it's moving as I'm working on it. Almost as if we were painting on a balloon, and when I thought I knew what I was looking at she would deflate it and it would wrap around a sculpture that was inside the balloon. She continually turned the painting on its side or upside down, fully immersed in the process. I had to jump in head first to match her energy, to have complete faith in the process as to not take away any of the life she had brought into the work.

Collaboration with Kelly Pelka @kelly_pelka_art 24"x48" acrylics on panel. I had just got to a point with these collaborations that I felt like I had some control, when I remembered Kelly is about to come in and put me in my place. Which she did, and in a bigger way than I expected. I painted on glass over the painting for a while before I committed to the first mark on the actual piece.I needed to plot, to maneuver, if this were a fist fight than Kelly brought a gun. It was already the most finished painting I've ever been part of before I started painting it. How she gets so much meaning and emotion in such wide simple mark making is beyond me Me and Kelly are 2 birds sitting together on the top of a pole that's not big enough for the both of us. She got there first, and staked her claim. I'm elbowing my way onto it, next to her. Pushing up against her trying to find footing. Trying to find that precarious balance that is at the absolute verge of knocking us both off this pole, but not quite. That's the best I can do.

Collaboration with Michelle Graves @gravesmichelle 24"x48" acrylics on panel. Michelle brings an intelligence and coolness to her work that leaves me in awe. I think she did the hard part of the process before she got to my studio. There's so much content in this piece that I still don't know how to enter. We painted at the same time; for hours we were comfortable both in conversation and silence. We talked a lot about the meanings in these works, about death and how life is effected by it's constant moment. Almost like interpreting my intent into a much more subtle and intellectual language. Michelle is playing chess, and I'm playing checkers, but despite how much death and change was part of this piece, it feels overwhelmingly alive.