Creating a painting or drawing is a good vehicle for slowing down and reflecting on the rapid pace at which we now experience images in our world. In an era of instant access, analogue processes such as painting seem well situated for new intersections to develop within contemporary visual expression. Using a collage like sensibility to layout this work, with its fluidity and maneuverability, I seek to represent how both internal and external forces shape relationships between idea and form. I use an interplay of universal shapes on simple grounds to evoke palpable experiences of the horizon, language, and architectural spaces. These, in turn, become metaphorical agents of possibility and surprise, as well as depictions of openness (and closedness) in the visual and social worlds alike. In this way, painting acts as a bridge to the concerns of everyday life.