Western art has a certain relationship to nature.

Abstraction has always been around, since the drawings in the caves. It exists in all cultures all over the world. I thought for a while that it was going to be the major movement. But people always drift back to realism. I guess there is a certain security in that.

I'm very much involved with Asian art and its theory and practice, mainly Chinese because that was quite sophisticated. I tend to look at that more than I look the Western.

I'm an abstract painter not just for myself, but because I really believe in abstraction.

Western art has a certain relationship to nature.

I smoke pot when I work. I take a couple of tokes before I start. It just loosens you up.

When you're not smoking anymore, you don't have to carry around a pack of cigarettes, a lighter - all this paraphernalia. So you're liberated in a certain sense. It's the same with drinking.