You Have To Know How To Use

I Wanted Things That I Couldn't At Times Articulate.

Every So Often Every Artist Feels, 'i'll Never Paint Again. The Muse Has Gone Out The Window.' In 1985, I Hardly Painted At All For Three Months, And It Was Agonizing. I Looked At Reproductions. I Stared At Matisse. I Stared At The Old Masters. I Stared At The Quattrocento. And I Thought To Myself - Don't Push It! If You Try Too Hard To Get At Something, You Almost Push It Away.

What Has Made It Work, Or What Makes Certain Paintings Successful Or Not, Has To Do With My Being A Painter And A Thinking, Feeling Person, More Than My Sex, Color, Height, Origin.

What Concerns Me When I Work, Is Not Whether The Picture Is A Landscape, Or Whether It's Pastoral, Or Whether Somebody Will See A Sunset In It. What Concerns Me Is - Did I Make A Beautiful Picture?

I'd Rather Risk An Ugly Surprise Than Rely On Things I Know I Can Do.