My eyes, having seen everything, returned to the white chrysanthemum

For me, creativity isn’t born when everything is tidy and separate. It comes from cross-pollination, unexpected combinations, and head-on collisions between things that don’t necessarily go together

But purpose—purpose is a white-hot fire inside of you, a self-delusion that keeps you coming back into the room to work decade after decade, knowing that you'll never get it right, but that the next day might get you a little bit closer...

Creativity is born of limitations, not freedom

My entire philosophy of how I organize myself as a working painter can be summed up by something George Carlin said: “Just keep movin’ straight ahead. Every now and then you find yourself in a different place.”

You hear a lot in art school about how painters must continue to “grow” and “evolve”—but I think those are such bullshit words. There is... See more

All grumbling is tantamount to ‘Oh, why is a lily not an oak?

“The only way to be a painter is to make paintings. That means not doing other stuff.”

“The only way to be a painter is to make paintings. That means not doing other stuff.”

Because art is a lie, he says. 

But art will also save the world. He says that too.