Is there an artwork that you are most proud of? Why?
One of my favourite pieces is Car Ad #2, which is one of my very early iPhone works from 2016. This showed me that the phone could be a serious tool for art making. I love David Hockney, but I think the phone has far more capabilities than acting as a kind of virtual paintbrush. It’s more akin to a sampler to make hip hop and techno, and I treat it that way.
Otherwise, it’s usually whatever I’m working on. I’m always trying to get better and develop new breakthroughs. It’s important to try and do things that are slightly out of your reach because you achieve this goal more often than you might think—maybe 20% of the time—and that’s pretty good.
On most of your art, you use red and yellow paint, what is the story behind your choices?
Those colours happen to work well with a lot of the paintings that I paint over. It’s primarily an aesthetic decision, although sometimes, say in the case of the red Caravaggios, there’s a symbolic overtone.
Who are your biggest influences?
My biggest influences are writers. I wrote my master’s thesis in English literature on J.G. Ballard’s The Atrocity Exhibition, which is an experimental novel. Interestingly, Ballard’s biggest influences were visual artists, primarily the Surrealists, so it’s full-circle in a sense. The psychedelic philosopher Terence McKenna also had a big influence on me—he has a mixed legacy, but he reminds us in a very persuasive and insightful way that we basically have no idea what’s going on. This is very important and something we easily forget.
What is your scariest experience in your professional life?
The sense that you may have screwed up your life. That feeling when you wake up at 3 am and think, “Have I made a huge mistake?” Things have been going well recently, so I don’t have that feeling as often, but sometimes you wonder. Pursuing the artist’s path will test your soul...repeatedly. In a sense, it can be a massive sacrifice of one’s life, depending on how things turn out.
What is your dream project?
I’ve never thought of it before, but doing something in the Vatican, which I consider to be a kind of temple to the mind. That would be the pinnacle.
What is the best piece of advice you can give to an artist just starting out?
Focus on one thing at a time. If you have a part-time job, do your art first before your other work. Be practical—think of who might buy your work from the beginning. This can actually improve your work. And put in the hours — don’t worry about failure — the road to success is paved with failure. The important thing is that you put in the time and stay focused.