Visually through my work, over and over, I'm trying to create characters that are - to some people they may be monstrous, and I hate that word, because I think they're just unique. Misfits. I purposefully want to present something a little different so that whether people are disturbed by it or not, they can wrestle with it.

I need to keep it spontaneous as an artist, so for me to repeat a face would be redundant and boring.

Sometimes I will portray the more normal-looking people as the monsters and then the more distorted - "uniquely formed" is the word I like to use, rather than monstrous - as the sympathetic characters in the painting. It's interesting because some people will get it right away, but a common reaction is to be a little off-put by it. And that is the whole idea. If it grabs somebody in a negative way, that's my intention.

I'm painting so much that I don't listen to much music. Because music is another creative outlet, it's a huge distraction for me when I paint.

Visually through my work, over and over, I'm trying to create characters that are - to some people they may be monstrous, and I hate that word, because I think they're just unique. Misfits. I purposefully want to present something a little different so that whether people are disturbed by it or not, they can wrestle with it.