When you start a new work or project, do you plan what you’re going to create or do you improvise? 

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I typically start with drawing in my sketchbook, creating characters and scenes that I eventually want to bring to life on the canvas. Sometimes I’ll load a sketch into a digital software and will play around with different ideas to give it an edge. With painting, I always improvise. My process is really a continuous cycle of mark-making and building layers that eventually form a visual outcome that’s interesting to me. I find the magic happens when I let go, embrace error, and allow my body to create instinctively. Although it’s difficult for someone who tends to overthink everything.

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Can you highlight some of your influences and discuss how your influences have made an impact on you and your practice?

My influences are endless. Sometimes I pull from art history, mythology, popular culture, philosophical writings, cartoons, an experience, an emotion - the list goes on. Lately I’ve been interested in the idea of deities and blurring the lines between good vs. evil, which was inspired by the complexity of ancient Greek gods and goddesses. Also art. I gravitate towards the works of Philip Guston, Jean DuBuffet (particularly his early paintings and sculptures), Odilon Redon, and the weirdness of artists like Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, and Francis Bacon. Redon’s ‘The Cyclopse’ is an all-time favourite.