I compose the shots and pose as the model for my paintings and yet, the people in my finished works are not me. These people are strangers to me, they are emotionally indulgent; they wear their hearts on their sleeves- they are lost in daydreams, playfully biding their time waiting for something to happen. Tied up in the drama of their worlds, they have become so used to performing that they only vaguely acknowledge that they are being watched. They look past us, away or close their eyes in order to avoid eye contact. Meeting the characters in my work differs from the experience of meeting characters in a novel, because you are denied a beginning or an end. You get a moment- and it is not the climax, it is sometime well before or after that. The background patterns slow us down, they are used as a capturing device a diversion that seduces the eye and occupies the mind. It is in search of a resting place that the viewer discovers some semblance of a narrative. Overall, there is inadequate information to know the story, and yet some sense of meaning is revealed. The desired outcome of my work could be described as a highly deliberate type of 'not knowing' in that the viewer must step into the timeless world of these familiar yet unnamable characters, to know what they feel, and in returning into one's own time, remain dissatisfied.