Valerie Brennan interviews painter Brian Cypher about his work and studio practice. 

Cypher notes: "On an existential level, it really begins with the impulse to create… the wanting of ideas to be actualized; to see that energy manifest into physical form… In terms of what I do physically, it's all about making marks that echo my thought processes. It's a constant reiterative dance between the idealized and the actual. Some ideas have natural endpoints, where others could stay in a state of perpetual revision."

Cypher's work will be included in the group exhibition All Together Now, curated by Julie Torres at The Coin Locker, on view June 1-3, 2012 as part of the Bushwick Open Studios. Work from the exhibition can be previewed at curatingcontemporary.com.