Everything I do is completely original-I made it up when I was a kid.

There's always been a potential erotic possibility with objects.

The art world was very small and the people got together at parties. There was less commercialism.

The sexual is part of everything, and it's highly formalized. I hadn't done figure for a long time. And I thought to myself, "Why not the erotic figure?"

In 1958 I finally found a large enough apartment on the Lower East Side, where I reverted to figure painting. I drew and painted quite a lot of figures and nudes. People would come and pose for me.

I knew I had to take my ambition more seriously, so I enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago. Then, in the fall, I went on a tour of my own. I didn't go to New York because that was too well known for its art scene.

My rule was not to paint things as they were. I wasn't copying; I was remaking them as my own.