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.

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.

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

One teacher told me that my work belonged in the trash. That day I ran out of the classroom and ended up in the library, where there happened to be a black and white photography exhibition of Robert Rauschenberg's photographs of the streets of New York. The subject of his photos were exactly what I was painting about.

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.

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