Chris Lowrance interviews painter Kathy Liao about her work.

Liao remarks: "I think of the formal issues of painting, of lines and colors and composition. I think of painting as a medium, as materials, as objects – the texture, the touch and the body of paint, the way it runs, drips, build up, get scraped away. But it is equally important to me that there is a REASON for painting. A reason that this image must exist, why it must be painted, why it came together the way it does. I allow a lot of room for the spontaneous, the unexpected in the making of my work, but often times, that one idea, that one feeling, or that one narrative is my guiding star. The painting could go to hell and back as long as I remember that initial idea. THAT to me is more important than painting a pretty picture, more important than the most formally successful painting, more important than every mark and every color being in the right place. I do not consider myself a 'Conceptual' artist, but to me, it is important to know why I am making the work. I chose painting as my medium to execute my idea."