My family moved to Hawaii when I was 11 years old. I remember falling in love with this place that was so new. I wanted to learn the slang and the games of the neighborhood kids. Haole is the word for white person or literally foreigner. For some reason I felt oddly comfortable with this term and spent subsequent years being a Haole in other parts of the world. I have spent extended periods in Germany, London, Greece and even the East Coast and now California. Living in a foreign country means emptying yourself and being open and listening to others. I spent a lot of time observing. I have recently begun to think that all that listening has made its way into painting. It has created a silence within me and I want to fill it with paint. I love the paint itself. Its sensuousness has developed into a personal language. I want to allow it to speak. My work is largely figurative. I feel I am now a bystander to this internal world.