Not to be boxed in, to be able to transcend boundaries: for an artist, it's essential.

My whole purpose of taking on miniature painting was to break the tradition, to experiment with it, to find new ways of making meaning, to question the relevance of it.

For me, drawing is a way of navigating the imagination, and it remains the fundamental vehicle of my practice. Drawing allows me to be at my most inventive.

When I first arrived in Houston, I was fascinated with the elaborate styles of cowboy boots and thought they were incredibly exotic. They also seemed to be a central part of a specifically 'Texan' identity, one distinct from being 'American.'

The river is something that can transcend political boundaries.

It's the last frontier. That's absolutely essential to what we do as Americans. We have a tradition of crossing boundaries, challenging frontiers that no other nation has. In the wilderness there are no impossibilities. In that arena you find a really unique, very fierce American perspective.