I've been playing piano my whole life, but I'd never tried to understand how compositions are made, really. Try to imagine if you'd loved paintings your whole life but had never painted one. My aspiration now is just to understand.

I had a visit from an artist friend who basically said, "Your paintings are wonderful. Now stop." It did resonate with me. It hit on the percolating need for change that was already there. I got a little push. I did a group of the paintings early on that were among the best. It was sort of beginner's luck with these.

My uniform is sweatpants, so crusted over with dried paint that they're as hard as a table. I wear T-shirts that are also covered in paint, and Crocs.

All my siblings became artists. One's a novelist, my brother is a painter, my sister was a costume designer.

I'm not such an artist type that I can't handle the real world. I read the financial pages, because most people don't talk about art.

Most days, I practice piano in the mornings and I spend the rest of the day painting.

The world of painting has nothing to do with the art world.