The main reason for the colossal objects is the obvious one, to expand and intensify the presence of the vessel - the object.

I went back to the Art Institute, then spent the summer at the Ox-Bow School in Saugatuck, Michigan. That's what really awakened me. I made a lot of oil paintings and my first performance.

I got a little studio in Chicago and practiced. I realized I had to earn some money. So I went to work for an advertising agency where my job was mostly drawing insects for a company that sold an insecticide spray.

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

The thing about the ray gun is, you pick up anything you see on the street that's the shape of a gun.

Ox-Bow was a very free place, very open. You could do whatever you wanted to do.

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.