Why do I use candy? How do I use candy? Predictably, these questions arise in most discussions of my work. Candy is my metaphor- my “velvet hammer.” For almost three decades it has been my still-life, landscape, figurative and symbolic orientation. In these common, innocuous, mass produced objects I find the expressive visual equivalences for the intensity, complexity, irony, and subtlety I see in life every day, providing a pervasive and compelling raison d’être for my paintings and drawings.