I don't paint butter dishes, doilies, or hummingbirds in my garden. It's more raw, I suppose. But it always creates a reaction.
In my work, I explore my own Catholic obsessions.
I think the pairing of your material practice with your subject is something that is the constant concern of every artist for time immemorial.
I just love the whole idea of conversational prints.
When I was a student looking at Leonardo DaVinci and all those guys - Italian, Dutch, or whatever - it's incredible how each piece of the painting fits to the main theme that they want to express.
Cry Baby wasn't necessarily a baby theme but I understand what they're saying. So like, Cry Baby is definitely a remaining character throughout all of my albums.
You can't make a movie about the artist without shooting outdoors.
I would never, ever change the formula of what we would do, but what I want to do is go down somewhere really conceptual. Really artistic. Really theme-oriented. But I don't want to push anything.
Art is always an exaggeration in some sense; in color, in form, even in theme, etc... but it has always been this way. It is the same with the nature of some works by Giotto or Massacio, or the color of life as expressed by Van Gogh.
I paint the American scene.
The more horrible this world (as today, for instance), the more abstract our art, whereas a happy world brings forth an art of the here and now.
Most of my albums have a concept. They all have some kind of theme, some kind of feeling. I really take pride in that.
I am a musician who also does love to explore the world in many ways, so my approaching with my songs, videos, and haikus is: 'Make It Real.'
In my music, my plays, my films, I want to carry always this central idea: to be African.
One cannot set out to make a work that's spiritual. What is a contemporary iconography for the spiritual? Is it some fuzzy space?
I've always had a certain fascination. It's basically paint what you know, and this is what I grew up with.
So much of my work is about children and/or parenting; it's something I'm drawn to without being able to completely articulate why.
I haven't made art about Israel. There's a covert subtext of Jewish identity in my artwork.
Giorgio Morandi's paintings make me think that artists may not totally choose, or even control, their subjects or style.
All my pictures are a kind of revision of my original idea. This is surely very different from the way in which Japanese or Chinese artists work: their themes are pre-ordained, whereas mine are invented at will.
In all my works, light is an important controlling factor.
I think your life informs your art.
I wanna sing about something that's sexy and edgy.
The dignity and importance of the individual. I try to hang on to that in all my films.
Outside' was more of a personal project. This, the 'African Giant', is more of an African project.
