I began as a naturalistic painter. Very quickly I felt the urgent need for a more concise form of expression and an economy of means. I never stopped progressing toward abstraction.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I wanted to be a painter, somewhere between Abstract Expressionism and Pop.
If you're a painter, you don't go, 'Abstract's really selling, so that's what I'm going to do.' If you're really truly an artist, you have to think what you're meant to paint.
The big shock of my life was Abstract Expressionism - Pollock, de Kooning, those guys. It changed my work. I was an academically trained student, and suddenly you could pour paint, smear it on, broom it on!
Abstraction is one of the greatest visionary tools ever invented by human beings to imagine, decipher, and depict the world.
I continue to write essays about art. The visual is always part of my work, and it gives me immense pleasure to make up the words of art and create them verbally rather than build them.
Drawing was a cheap way for me to express myself. It gave a focus to my thinking and my life from a very early age.
I wanted to be an abstract painter, but I was rotten at it.
When I was growing up, nothing unpleasant was shown in the home. And when I was in art school, the only art that was presented to me was Abstract Expressionism. But I was interested in the grim stuff. It seemed more exciting.
I didn't do so well in the academic world, so I think the only way I could express myself was through visual art - anything I could get my hands on, whether it was glassblowing, sculpture, painting, or photography. I always wanted to be a painter. Or a farmer.
I paint landscapes, figuratives. I painted all my life. In fact, I started as a commercial artist.