Painting picture by picture, I followed the impressions my eye took in at heightened moments. I painted only memories, adding nothing, no details that I did not see. Hence the simplicity of the paintings, their emptiness.

Disease, insanity, and death were the angels that attended my cradle, and since then have followed me throughout my life.

Through my art I have tried to explain my life and its meaning. I have also intended to help others to clarify their lives.

I learned early about the misery and dangers of life, and about the afterlife, about the external punishment which awaited the children of sin in Hell.

From the moment of my birth, the angels of anxiety, worry, and death stood at my side, followed me out when I played, followed me in the sun of springtime and in the glories of summer. They stood at my side in the evening when I closed my eyes, and intimidated me with death, hell, and eternal damnation.

The rich man who gives, steals twice over. First he steals the money and then the hearts of men.

For as long as I can remember I have suffered from a deep feeling of anxiety which I have tried to express in my art.