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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.

My first influence obviously was Picasso.

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.

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.

Picasso once remarked I do not care who it is that has or does influence me as long as it is not myself.

Most artists never get a chance to be Picasso, but that doesn't mean you would stop painting.

I don't think that I'm over his influence but they probably don't look like Picassos; Picasso himself would probably have thrown up looking at my pictures.

Picasso is a character that has pursued me for a long time and I always rejected. He deserves a lot of respect because I am from Malaga, and I was born four blocks from where he was born.

What a model of an artist was for me was an artist who worked. Picasso was the ultimate model, because the work ethic he had.

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.