Residue, my latest complete body of work, references my experiences from childhood days spent in exploration of deserted houses. I maintain a fascination with the residua that people leave behind. The phrase “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure” becomes a defining theme throughout my work. I enter these houses and choose pieces of the past, which I then incorporate as imagery for my paintings. I acquire bits and pieces that I gather from each excavated house that include items such as: wall paper, memorabilia, or significant papers that relate to that house and use them in my paintings. My role is only to find and preserve them in such a way that others can see the beauty in each piece left behind and resurrected. I choose to use wax because it is a preserving agent that alters and impedes the decay of time upon these artifacts. I become a collector and documentarian of the past and my imagery implies a sense of a lost era. In a sense, these pieces tell a story of time, growth, decay, and revival.