I think you do kind of slip into a trance when you look at a painting. At least I do.
A good painting has to do about 12 things at once.
The thing is that the money issue looms so large in art now. And it has absolutely nothing to do with art. If you're painting goes for ten grand or a hundred grand, it doesn't make painting any easier. And it doesn't make the painting any better if it goes for a hundred grand.
Paintings exist in the present tense, yet somehow, because of how it's structured, it can move backwards through time as well.
You have the 20th century wrapping up and everything is moving at this breakneck speed? And then, painting is still walking. It's just a very human activity that takes time.
There's something retro about the pop culture references in the paintings, so I'd imagine it's not as much a pop culture reference as a pop art reference.
Painting has this ability to send the viewer [backward], but it's also this physical object in the room with you. It's always knocking you back into the present moment, which I find very pleasurable.
Technology's always changing. There was a time where oil painting was a new technology. That changed painting.
There are different kinds of concentration required to make a painting, different kinds of being present.
