Usually when I'm painting something it takes a lot of focus. I have the room I go into called the white room. In my imagination when I'm really focused I go into that white room and all that's there is me, my painting, and my tools. There's no distraction. When I'm really concentrated I like to have it silent but when I'm doing something that doesn't have to be necessarily perfect, I can just go for it.
Painting can be like poetry but as somebody who creates both I feel the necessity for both so they cant be that similar. Sometimes I think it's as basic as not wanting to get dirty.
Drawing or painting allows the artist to know himself as a whole person.
Piano performances by Condoleezza Rice are better than Hitler's paintings.
I liked English and art and did a lot of painting. And for some reason I was good at math, but I wasn't an A student. I really had to work hard to get good grades.
The vast amount of time it takes to make my paintings is very challenging. I have so many exciting ideas I would love to bring to a final painting, but my time-consuming technique limits the number of ideas that get to become a painting.
I had a visit from an artist friend who basically said, "Your paintings are wonderful. Now stop. " It did resonate with me. It hit on the percolating need for change that was already there. I got a little push. I did a group of the paintings early on that were among the best. It was sort of beginner's luck with these.
I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things.
The painter should not paint what he sees, but what will be seen.
Start a painting with fresh ideas, and then let the painting replace your ideas with its ideas.
I've never made a movie to make money. I've never made a painting to make money.
In the end I'm in love with it [Western European easel painting]. And that's where a lot of the influence from the work comes from.
Representational painters: loosen the grip of inflexibility! Abstract painters: tighten your hold on crafting your images! In both types of painting students need to unlearn what one has acquired.
I think, if one is a painter, all you experience does come out when you’re painting.
I think of [my photographs] as found paintings because I don't crop them, I don't manipulate them or anything. So they're like found objects to me.
The ephemeral nature of live performance is the part I love most - it's a monk's sand painting, carefully constructed, then wiped away in an instant.
I work on all parts of my painting at once, improving it very gently until I find that the effect is complete.
If you add something to a painting, never let it be for aesthetic reasons. Only let it be for reasons of expression.
I wanted to dress the woman who lives and works, not the woman in a painting.
Painting is a play of opacities and transparencies.