I never want to abandon my roots. I want to give my past and the history of painting the importance it deserves, including the masters like Rembrandt, who built up the surface of the canvas with transparent layers.

I have too much energy, even for myself. I'm lucky to have something that focuses me.

My work is an exploration of the self. I've always been concerned with how I'm living and how that reflects in the painting.

When I was young I was constantly reading walls; I took in everything written on walls, from love messages to political messages. It was my hobby and became my art.

My style also has a lot to do with theater because often I'm imagining I'm a character who is wandering by a wall and leaves a mark. Then I'm someone else, who 10 days later leaves another mark. Someone was angry and did this, and then someone came and painted over it, and then the sun bleached it out and the weather exposed it again.

The walls around us bear witness to lives past and present.

I think artists should define themselves. They should speak about their work and how it relates to society and what's going on in the world.