Art is a bad word in Hollywood. You use art too many times and they show you the elevator and then your name is taken off the parking lot.
Jimmy [Dean] was the most talented and original actor I ever saw work. He was also a guerrilla artist who attacked all restrictions on his sensibility. Once he pulled a switchblade and threatened to murder his director. I imitated his style in art and in life. It got me in a lot of trouble.
I was always involved in art and when I went under contract at Warner Bros. at 18, it afforded me the possibility of never having to stop painting, never having to stop taking photographs and so on, and to actually live a cultural life.
You know, the history of California art doesn't start until about 1961, and that's when these photographs start. I mean, we have no history out here.
I've always been doing some sort of art. I started off, when I was very young, painting.
