I Feel Sometimes An American Artist Must

I Read Somewhere That Rubens Said Students Should Not Draw From Life, But Draw From All The Great Classic Casts. Then You Really Get The Measure Of Them, You Really Know What To Do. And Then, Put In Your Own Dimples. Isn't That Marvelous!

The Past Does Not Influence Me; I Influence It.

The 'women' Had To Do With The Female Painted Through All Ages, All Those Idols, And Maybe I Was Stuck To A Certain Extent; I Couldn't Go On. It Did One Thing For Me: It Eliminated Composition, Arrangement, Relationships, Light - All This Silly Talk About Line, Colour And Form - Because That Was The Thing I Wanted To Get Hold Of.

I'm Not Interested In 'abstracting' Or Taking Things Out Or Reducing Painting To Design, Form, Line, And Color. I Paint This Way Because I Can Keep Putting More Things In It - Drama, Anger, Pain, Love, A Figure, A Horse, My Ideas About Space. Through Your Eyes It Again Becomes An Emotion Or Idea.

My Interest In Desperation Lies Only In That Sometimes I Find Myself Having Become Desperate. Very Seldom Do I Start Out That Way. I Can See Of Course That, In The Abstract, Thinking And All Activity Is Rather Desperate.