Feudal Europe is over, but it found its way into film culture. It found its way into postmodern painting culture, and we're all here talking about it today. It still lives. I don't believe in ghosts, but these are contemporary ghosts.

This is - it's a sociological experiment in many ways. And so you're seeing the results of what happens when you put a lot of boys in a room looking at art history.

On the contrary, my desire is that the viewer sees the background coming forward in the lower portion of the canvas, fighting for space, demanding presence.

At the same time I really enjoy painting flesh.

I think that artists provide questions, not answers. We provide provocations rather than fully formed objects.

You have to bring books to explain your work.

In the end I'm in love with it [Western European easel painting]. And that's where a lot of the influence from the work comes from.