I'm Aware That Success Can Overwhelm You.

When I Was Painting In Art School - And I Think Many Painters In The 1980s Worked Similarly - A Finished Painting Would Often Be Constructed From Lots Of Other Paintings Underneath. Some Of These Individual Layers Of Painting Were Better Than Others, But That Was Something That You Would Often Only Realise Retrospectively.

Sometimes, As I Feel A Door Or An Exit Point In My Work Is Closing, I'll Try To Create An Opening So As Not To Stifle The Creative Process, Which I See As A Process That's Never-ending.

When I Left The Royal College, I Decided I Would Only Make Paintings That I Would Want To Look At Myself, That Felt Close To My Life.

Often I Think Changes Within My Work Have Been Seen As Sudden Changes Or Sharp Changes, But For Me They're Not That Sudden. They Have Been There In The Studio, But Not So Much In Public.

I Was Listening To A Lot Of Hip Hop, Music Like Public Enemy That Was About Raising Consciousness, And I Realised I Could Feed That Directly Into My Work, Using Images In A Way That Was A Bit Like Sampling - Taking Images From Diverse Places, Exploring The Contradictions Without Trying To Hide The Seams.