Currently my work is done in oil paint on panel, using a fairly classic method. I also make drawings in charcoal, adding white chalk for emphasis. Until 1999, I worked primarily in soft pastels, switching to oils in early 2000.

Each still life I build is an odd mixture of careful structure and shoddy improvisation. My pleasure in geometric harmony is counterbalanced by the unpredictability of living things. Despite the effort that goes into constructing the arrangement, the pictures are rarely faithful to the original model. I often alter or invent things as the painting progresses. Nature, as well as my own restlessness, conspires to lead me away from fidelity—things shift, wilt, and rot, making it impossible to paint them without relying on memory and imagination.

Imagination is magical: It is the transforming force that turns fancy into reality and reality into art. A good picture relies on that force for its success. Desire, too, is necessary, since it provides the impetus for making a painting. To paint is to experience a succession of desires, to work out a puzzle, to repeatedly ask: What is worth painting? I hope by satisfying my appetite for the material and sensual to make something which nourishes the intellect and spirit.

Sheldon Tapley, 2001