Going back to that idea that painting sits still and that we give ourselves over to it over time. There's a difference between living with - imagine if this were sitting in your living room for 15 years. You'd probably understand the contours of it.

I believe the artist is capable of contributing to the broader evolution of culture in all of its dimensions.

Just physically, if you looked at the house that I grew up in, my mother created this greenhouse. And surrounded the entire property. And there was, like, trees and sculptures and like - it was, like, this crazy, like, secret garden space.

Painting is situational. And my particular situation exists within gender, race, class, sexuality, nation.

I have been painting white people for much longer in my life than I have done for colored people.

The backgrounds by design are a very key part of the conversation, because I want a kind of fight or pressure to exist between the figure and the background.

How does the artist function as poet-slash-witness-slash-trickster?