I have been painting for over 20 years. I mostly work with acrylic paint on wood. In college, when I was first exposed to block printing, I became so enthralled with the grain of the wood I was carving that I began to use wood as the canvas for my acrylic paintings. I utilize this grain in my images, allowing each piece of wood to add to the painting, choosing carefully which piece will lend itself best to the image I want to convey. Regular canvas has a certain uniform texture that is the same with every painting, and while sometimes I prefer to paint on canvas, the wood offers a more varied approach. I like acrylic paint because it is a fast-drying paint, and I am able to work quickly, infusing emotion into each piece directly as those emotions are running through me. Also, acrylic paint works very well on wood. Recently, I have begun to experiment with both oil paints and watercolor, and have found that these have their own secrets as well.