I think it is important to recognise if you are artist or not. Build a life and a career that accommodates your being an artist instead of trying to be an artist. It’s either something that’s in you or it’s not, and you cannot fake it. I would say to not worry about being an artist or trying to make art, just kind of make whatever you have to make, and then build a life around that. I think that one of the biggest breakthroughs for me, just realising….because I went through a period where I was just trying to make art, and consequently I made things that were really imitative. There was no real model or precedent for what I liked to do, but when you realise that you just have to do what you do and not worry about whether or not it fits the mold or model of what art is, then you’re truly making innovative or breakthrough – and at the very least honest – work.

Inside the Painter’s Studio, Joe Fig, Princeton Architectural Press, 2009