I needed to create something I could take with me wherever I went.

I've always felt the portrait is an occasion for marks to happen. I've never viewed the portrait as about the sitter. Even when I go to the National Portrait Gallery, I'm not thinking about the sitter; I'm thinking about how the artist chose that color or that highlight. It becomes about the time, place, and context.

It is hard to produce work in New York. You kind of have to center yourself - do some Zen meditation exercises and just focus. It is very distracting, and money, of course, is an issue.

I needed to create something I could take with me wherever I went.

I kept wanting to push my image as validity; I wanted to see my portrait on a wall and know it was okay.

For a while, I was nervous about portraying women because of the objectification that automatically comes with it, whether the artist intends or not.

I moved around a lot when I was a child; two of the houses I grew up in have totally disappeared. One was burnt in a riot, and the other was pulled down.