Usually I bring very attractive women with me to excite interest. I mean, it's a type of, like, strangers-with-candy situation.

What it is is a type of editorialization, you know? This is self-portraiture. This is what you think about the world we live in.

A realization and a dissection of the canon gave rise to the work. But there's also a sneaking suspicion of the canon.

For me, I wanted to create something that's much more driven by a type of selfishness, a type of decadence.

You know, one of my - one of my best and, I think, most enlightening moments was when I was contacted by Michael Jackson. And he requested that I paint his portrait.

I love being a portraitist.

At age 20 I went to go find my father in Nigeria. And after much toil, I finally figured out exactly where he was. And there's something about seeing your father for the first time - my mother destroyed all pictures of him.