You start with a generic body, but I think the first wall you hit with portraiture is comprised of history and storytelling and the nature of characters - whether they are historical or coming from literature or documentation. Those are the references we have to people, besides your family, and the intimacy of portraiture is in the specifics of individuals. For me, it came out of doing things about animals.

In drawing, I often think of things as flying buttresses.

Prints mimic what we are as humans: we are all the same and yet every one is different. I think there's a spiritual power in repetition, a devotional quality, like saying rosaries.

Life really changes. And it gets lighter, for the most part. You tolerate yourself and others better.

I think making things beautiful is important. But often what's first considered ugly is beautiful, too.

As a child I prayed that my calling be revealed - but not with expectation and not with a destination. I became an artist because I didn't know what to do and I thought it was really fun to make things.

I'm in general a nostalgic person, but I don't know if I'm nostalgic for the 80s!