What images or things keep you company in the space where you work?
I don't really work that way where I have a lot of past images of things or objects of sentiment nearby. Whenever I embark on a project, I print out a lot of images and texts constituting the discursive formation around the subject or theme of the project. These are all pinned up on a corkboard or simply put into computer folders on the ready for me to look and relook at. During my breaks, I do like to look up at images of my children and my wife. I do that a lot.
In reflecting back to the beginning of your career, what is the most useful advice you ever received?
Rather than the most useful advice I have ever received, may I respond by stating what is the most useful advice I can offer others, particularly young artists? Making the decision to be an artist is not easy, at least not for me. My mother worked in a sweatshop. My father was a troubled individual who would return home from time to time only to borrow money to feed his severe gambling addiction. By the time I was ten, I think we were evicted three times, including once for a building deemed structurally unsound. Yet, as I mentioned earlier, I liked the idea of art despite not knowing anything about the world of galleries and museums. I know how skewed the art system is in terms of issues of social class. But, I would also say to those thinking of being an artist that if the feelings are deep and unshakable, then the only choice is to heed those feelings. There is no other choice.