Chris Lowrance talks to painter Russell Shoemaker on the occasion of the recent exhibition Russell Shoemaker: Cosmic Joke at The Late Show Gallery, Kansas City.

Shoemaker remarks: "… it feels like my process is always oscillating between control, accidents, and momentary decisions. Getting something ‘Right’ to me is treating each painting from an individual standpoint. Sometimes I think that treating the painting like it has a genetic code and I’m just trying there to push it where it needs to go. That may sound overwrought, but my worst paintings are the paintings I force my will onto, instead of listening, looking, and guiding it. Clearly that doesn’t mean I have no control over where the painting goes – I do -it’s what I’m creating. But it’s hard enough to even know myself fully let alone what I create, that's getting it right to me."