Becoming an artist cannot be taught. A degree and diligence is not a guarantee that one can become an 'artist.

I paint with a language I can call my own... it takes a ruthless honesty with oneself. If one admires or is influenced by anyone else, one is not being true to oneself.

What the artist should be asking is, "Am I being honest? Am I being myself? Am I searching for the truth? Am I reporting my experience of life and the world as I see and experience it?

Let us not forget that group of self-taught, outsider artists who never stepped foot in any classroom and cared less about even exhibiting, and yet ended up with an audience of avid admirers.

The art business is a rarified business and appeals to an audience capable of spending money on a luxury. Too often the atmosphere in a gallery borders on snobbishness.

Self-deceit is a most damaging trait. The remedy, for an artist, is to paint a self-portrait!

The art which speaks to a universal audience concerns itself with the 'big' questions of life and death, and delivers its message with unrelenting and powerful emotion.