There are three nail salons between my apartment and the train. I notice them mostly at night, when their neons glow in darkened windows. The signs seem disconnected from the brightly lit, acetone-scented shops they represent, like secret emblems blazing at all the passersby, or frozen roses reaching toward an empty street. My recent paintings pick up here, inventing new signs to mark the way.

As in all of my work, color drives this series. Point of view and the picture plane are key too. Flowers rain just behind the surface while hands reach in and out. Discarded bouquets radiate at the viewer’s feet. I hope that people find their own connections to this work, as I have done with the signs that inspired it. For me, the ultimate romance pictured here is with painting itself.