I use photographs of disaster events or their aftermath as a basis for compositional structure, then overlay imagery exploring landscape spaces. Each disaster image sourced from open media provides access to moments that have not been widely seen before our era of ubiquitous photography. The disaster pictures contain subjects that are beautiful and traumatic, essential and horrific. The imagery provides a painted framework that is both revised and obliterated with my continued painting, a palimpsest that is eventually transformed with new meaning, often with remnants of the original image remaining. This process refers more broadly to the way trauma forces disruption, then creates a framework that can lead to an evolution of renewal and replacement that is built upon it.