In recent years, I haven’t had the same leeway to paint in public. There was a greater cultural acceptance of street art when I lived abroad. Painting on walls was seen as beautification in areas where there was much demolition. When I moved back to the US, I started painting on larger canvases, and eventually moved toward spray cans and paint brushes.

Inspired by a project by Kawandeep Virdee, I photoshopped the paintings with motion blur filters, and modified the lighting effects. The result was a creative jumping-off point, enabling me to create a digitally inspired physical painting.

Last year, I started experimenting even more with digitally manipulated images, and their role in inspiring physical paintings. I began creating aesthetically beautiful images by taking classic paintings from the 18th and 19th century and running various photoshop filters over them. I found the color and contrast from these old paintings to be unmatched and beautiful.