My message for people to not take anything for granted, to respect what they might not understand.
Cindy ShermanI feel I'm anonymous in my work. When I look at the pictures, I never see myself; they aren't self-portraits. Sometimes I disappear.
Cindy ShermanI want[ed] to make a show of really big pictures, because you see male artists doing it all the time. It just seemed like such a big egotistical thing. I thought, 'I don't know that many women that really do that.... Damn it, I'm gonna do that-make this really big picture.'
Cindy ShermanNowadays, with digital printing, it's so easy to make everything perfect, which is not always a good idea. Sometimes the mistakes are really what make a piece.
Cindy ShermanSo many things suddenly made sense for the clowns, for the whole idea. Iโd been going through a struggle, particularly after 9/11; I couldnโt figure out what I wanted to say. I still wanted the work to be the same kind of mixture โ intense, with a nasty side or an ugly side, but also with a real pathos about the characters โ and clowns have an underlying sense of sadness while theyโre trying to cheer people up. Clowns are sad, but theyโre also psychotically, hysterically happy.
Cindy Sherman