There are many artists whom I deeply admire - from all times and artistic styles. Although the list is too long to name them all, I can say that the strong colors and expressive lines of expressionist painters such as Kirchner, Kokoschka, Schiele, Jawlensky - to name a few - arouse in me a deep feeling of freedom and energy. They have inspired me in the most basic sense of form and color. My paintings, at the beginning, were quite rigid. With the passing of time and through learning more about different artistic movements, I have developed my own pictorial language that I feel more comfortable with. I think I have loosened up a bit.
Another artist I feel related to is Munch. His expressive portrayal of figures often conveys a sense of loneliness and distress difficult to achieve.