It can be daunting at times to enter into a pure white unblemished canvas. At times like these I begin by leaning on the words of masters like Tennyson, who easily inspires me with the dense imagery of his poems. I fill the whole canvas with words. The words may or may not be visible on the finished piece. It doesn't matter. The end result will be words transformed into emotions, energy, color, and pigment. Great poetry has a tendency to change us. Alfred Tennyson's poetry has always felt to me just like a painting, only he used glorious pigments of words assembled together. The words are imbued with meaning that arouses all the senses. The interesting thing about poetry is that words may mean something completely different for each of us depending on our perspective. And perspective is ever changing and erratic. For each of these paintings, the process starts with a stanza of Tennyson's poetry, which I write over and over across the canvas in every direction. Then come the many layers of paint. I cover the whole canvas many times, sometimes digging back down to expose a previous layer, but it is all infused and bound together with the rich emotions Tennyson's poetry evokes in me. At times I use a towel or a brush, but much of the time I am touching the paint, digging for treasure, searching for something beautiful to unearth. I paint with my brush. I paint with my fingernails. I paint with Tennyson. Most of these pieces are square, but for some I deviated from that pattern.