I don't want to compare myself to Picasso, but he had four or five periods in his life. Any good artist grows and changes and matures.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
It took me six years to get close to Picasso. I learnt a lot from him, and he was an absolute genius. He almost became my grandfather at the time. It was like he was a magician or something.
I didn't really start appreciating Picasso until a few years back. I didn't like him at all. But now I can see this world is crazy.
Picasso was hugely innovative, and, wow, did he have facility, amazing ability, but I don't think he painted a masterpiece.
Most artists never get a chance to be Picasso, but that doesn't mean you would stop painting.
I think Picasso was someone who took art's powers of consuming, its powers of much-ness and multiplicity, and used that to his fullest extent. That's something that was permitted to men, obviously, much more than women, but was also permitted in the past much more often than now.
Picasso had his pink period and his blue period. I am in my blonde period right now.
Picasso is still influencing me. Of course, I haven't got that kind of energy, or skill.
Picasso's always been such a huge influence that I thought when I started the cartoon paintings that I was getting away from Picasso, and even my cartoons of Picasso were done almost to rid myself of his influence.
I think Picasso was, without doubt, the greatest portraitist of the 20th century, if not any other century.
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, and knowing nothing about Picasso, I had the audacity to knock on his door, became his friend, and took thousands of photographs, of him, his studios, his life and his friends.