influence It would be nice if you could talk about influences... A: OK. When I was a youngster, it was romantic stuff - romantic in the big sense - NC Wyeth, Howard Pyle. Later Monet & Chagall. You can see elements of each of these. But modern artists - especially Robert Rauschenberg & Richard Hamilton changed what I was doing the way that a sledge hammer changes a teacup. Interior II, a piece by Richard Hamilton in particular made me realize - again - that there were no rules. Or that the rules that I had been working by were ones that I made up - or imagined for myself.

Like the Emperor's New Clothes all over again, I suddenly saw that I had been obeying some phantom rules - all the obvious ones-
you have to paint everything. Not true.
You can't use modern technology. Not true.
Everything has to end up as the thing you started it to be. There can't be words, design elements, pop culture. Nope.
You can't work on an old painting and change it competely. Hmmm~! Wanna bet ? Watch this.

When it comes to inspiration, being amused is often more important than being moved. In the case of Art it made me start something, or finish a piece with a tip of the hat to someone like Eduardo Paolozi. I had seen Paolozi's I was a Rich Man's Plaything in the Oxford Companion to 20th Century Art, a reference book that was hanging around my studio. I did I was a Poor Man's Plaything. Years later I saw the real work, rather by accident in the Tate Gallery in London.

"being amused is more inspirational than being moved"

Interior with Circular Argument
2004

racing a CZ400
Klamath Falls Oregon, 2007

Five Short Stories
2002-04

working on a Dial Gauge
2004

versions do you always do multiple versions? A: I don't know - well actually I do know, yes. I just don;t think about it. I start two or three versions at the same time- ya know sort of impulsively without really making a clear decision. And I get pumped up and on a roll about each new thing - and then sometimes I revisit old themes, and messwith them, and I hope with a new ferocity and an open mind.

I don't think I realized it, but there are almost no painting that don't have a sibling or two or three. Two Secrets was a single piece - although, no there were two versions, but the second one got worked to death until, there was literally nothing left but a tattered rag- dark grey- and smoking - I had fought like mad with it - and ended up sanded through the paper AND the canvas and ruined the hell out of it. I think I threw it in the fire.