"We all have a style-a habit of making marks, a visual language, a way of using color… [and it’s matter over time.] I am a gestural painter. I don’t stay in the lines. I don’t have a plan beforehand that I work from. I take hundreds of photographs. I do sketches and a lot of collages. But when I face that white canvas, it’s a mystery [leaving me with] a frightening blank stare. Then, I start in. My first job is to mess up that canvas and that’s where I start."~ALLISON STEWART