WHAT ARE YOUR INFLUENCES AND WHY?

The "why?" of what influences me, I don't know. I wander through a museum or a book and particular pictures just jump in my brain and stay there for life, like Giovanni Bellini's Doge of Venice or Botticelli's Portrait of a Young Man. I can't imagine never coming back to those two.

Other artists whose work that I look at again and again are Cranach, Mantegna, van der Weyden, and Bacon. Francis Bacon is a particular favorite and has been since high school. With Goya, it's the "Caprichos" and the "Disasters of War" that really hit me. I aspireto the sheer excellence of the painting of Degas, Whistler, and Vermeer. I empathize with Joseph Cornell and am a big fan of Kasimir Malevich, Bill Traylor, Rene Magritte, Juan Gris, Van Gogh, and Lucien Freud.

I've stolen a lot from Australian Aboriginal paintings and early Russian and Byzantine icons. I collect old fairy tale books and count them as strong early influences along with the graphic works of Max Klinger, Edward Gorey, and Maurice Sendak (his Grimms Fairy Tales and Higglety Pigglety Pop, in particular). I love Persian and Indian miniatures and collect them when I can afford to.

Balthus is a huge influence for me and I think that those people who have labeled him a pervert ought to sit down and have a long talk with themselves. I'm crazy about Balthus because I can look at his work again and again and keep getting more out of it each time. I think the definition of great art is that it has no expiration date.