In 2011, I spent the month of September at the Gullkistan Residency for Creative People in southwest Iceland. I was curious to know how such a radical change in environment might affect the abstract visual content of my paintings. I feel a capacity to be deeply affected by nature and I believe this capacity is linked to my creative impulses. The trip provided a chance to examine this connection more closely. Since returning, I am finding a vocabulary flexible and expressive enough to communicate the excitement of feeling habits and preconceptions challenged by the vivid landscape I encountered in Iceland.