I have a streak in myself, like, I'm an exhibi- tionist. There's a side of me that really wants to show off and share parts of myself with others. I mean, that's why I live in New York, and that's why I'm an artist who shows 10 times a year.

I have a streak in myself, like, I'm an exhibi- tionist. There's a side of me that really wants to show off and share parts of myself with others. I mean, that's why I live in New York, and that's why I'm an artist who shows 10 times a year.

So rather than someone coming to my stu- dio and saying, like, "Thank you for your time. I'll see you later," and me not knowing why they don't like my work, I understand now why they don't like it.

It's three disparate elements: the stop sign, the stage paintings, and the skeleton paintings. Those are three sharp ideas, although none of them are necessarily good ideas. Tons of artists have made whole careers out of those three ideas.

I made work specifically for them not to like. If you made paintings of flowers and someone says they hate it, it's like, "What do you mean? It's a flower!" But if you make a painting of your name and somebody says they hate it, it's like, "Well, why would you like a painting of my name anyway?"

And the cool kids always had a stop sign in their bedroom. Which means: "I don't care if people die. I want my stop sign." At least the assumption was that they took it down from somewhere and now there are old ladies hitting each other head-on somewhere.

Everything comes from a weird place that I don't understand. I make a piece of art just to prove that I exist in my own way. And I can't make something nice. I have to make something that makes me uncomfortable.