I've always tried to be very seductive. I want the paintings to draw you in. But I don't want to just glamour you. I want to make an image of the time we live in and reflect it back.
My entire philosophy of teaching is based on the notion that when an artist finds a certain process really effortless, that's probably what he or she should choose to do. So often, students take the opposite tack; they have no use for the skills that come easily to them.
People of my generation are used to collecting the heroic boys. And they're used to paying a lot of money for heroic boys. I don't make a third of what a guy would make.
The thrill of a photo-realist painter is if you get really close to the painting, it looks just like a photograph. Whereas in my case, if you get close to my paintings, they totally fall apart - so I'm about as far from a photo-realist as it gets.
Threads of Rosenquist and Warhol are all through my work. But I'm messier - and wetter. It's the female perspective. I'm not as tidy, and they were both very tidy.
We can't shame women for trying to be beautiful. That's so mean and unfair. But there's a part of me that thinks it's really sad, too. It's very complicated.
When I see an artist whose work I like at a party - I'm old now, so I can do this - I go right over and tell them how much I like their work. Instantly, I'm on their side. The act of saying it takes away the competition. The act of saying it makes me not hate them anymore, because they're good.
When Photoshop came around, I thought I'd died and went to heaven. When I hear artists say, 'Oh, the good old days' or 'I'm old school,' I just want to puke. There's no tool I won't use.
The fashion world tells me how much they love my work, but they don't hire me very often. Tom Ford did, and he hated it. Naturally, he wanted to Photoshop away the imperfections, which is perfectly understandable. They want their vision.
I've always worked from images that already exist in our culture, and I just tweak them - I photograph my vision/interpretation of things that already exist, and I take it to the extreme. And then I make paintings or videos.
I've been supporting Planned Parenthood all my life. I've even used it myself, back when I had no money. It's where I got my birth control. During college, every one of us got support from them.
I work in a studio with lots of young people, most of whom are my former students. We delight in trading YouTube videos! We all stop working to watch them. I'm totally addicted to anything with kittens and puppies, but 'Very Scared Kid' is one of my favorites.
I watched artists who blew up before me become parodies of themselves. I wasn't listening to people when they told me that I had nothing to say, and I can't listen to people now when they tell me I'm the bomb, even though I want to.
I was there when they shut down the Pentagon; I've been going on protest marches my whole life... And now, this fight against controlling and policing women's bodies feels like a war.
I think there's still this huge glass ceiling for women owning sexuality. And especially young women. If you're an old lady like me, I can do anything now.
I think I might be hitting the zeitgeist. All around you, you're looking at beautiful people that have been turned into robots. Maybe the eye is craving a little upper lip fur.
I remember hearing a radio segment, while working in the studio, that detailed how officials were trying to systematically - and quietly - eliminate individual Planned Parenthood centres throughout the country by tweaking state laws so that it'd be harder and harder and harder for them to operate - and it was working. I was incensed.
I don't follow anybody. I just flip through whatever Instagram sends me. I like to keep my algorithm pure, so I only ever like pictures of art. It's a rabbit hole for me because I'm a total voyeur.
I always say, 'Perfection is the flaw. It doesn't exist.' I saw something somewhere about 'porcelain pores' - you're not even allowed to have pores anymore!
