Know the Instrument
In order to be in a good position as an artist, you have to know the instrument. And so craft to me was very important. Most people just start painting. But I think one needs to really study, the craft, let's say, of sculpture, know all the aspects, how to make sculpture. Because once you know the craft, you know you can make anything with your mind. It synthesizes. Often, people make things and they don't hold up, or it doesn't last well. It is not structurally sound. And as I have studied architecture, I always wanted to do larger things, and large objects have to be safe. It has to hold up in hundred-mile-an-hour winds with a few inches of ice attached to it.
 Ode to Charles Mingus, stainless steel, 168" x 84" x 60", 2006 |
When you're successful, you make a sculpture in bronze. When you're not successful, you make it in cardboard. It doesn't matter, it's the same sculpture. Except [that] one you can't leave out in the rain and one will be permanent.
Public Works
I have large sculptures sitting in the centers of plazas. People drive around, get to see it. And a lot of people who don't know about art, or are not interested in art, if they see it, they can build an interaction. Whether people have an appreciation or a dislike of it, either is fine. But at least there is some kind of interaction. And a lot of it is accidental. With a private work, in the house or outside of the house, the person has that passion, and they, I assume, they have disposable income; to buy art is pretty expensive. You have to have a few cars and refrigerators and enough color TVs in the household in order to buy art. These are passionate people, so you do something very scary, something one or two people may like. Which is very different from public work, where you have committees, you have to make presentations in a town for a board, or it is open to the public. It gets quite passionate: "I think this is disgusting," or, "I think this is magic, I think this is just what our town needs, this will bring tourism to the town." You know, they have all kinds of reasons. Often, towns will do it to get some attention, differentiate itself from the next town.
The Hamptons
I found a dilapidated farm [in Sagoponack]. It was completely overgrown, so I was able to get an incredible buy. About a dozen little buildings on it, kind of a horse farm. But the horses had eaten everything. Everything was in pretty bad shape. Nobody wanted it. So for me, it was a jewel. We'd been fixing it up for several years and now all the buildings are functional, and we each have studios. People come and they get a big kick out of it. Most people come [to the Hamptons] in the summer, and the place will swell from 20,000 to 100,000. It's fascinating and busy. But everybody comes here in their Ferraris from New York, or from anywhere in the world, to party for two and a half days. Then they go back and make their millions. Very different from Upstate. Upstate, everybody works hard. There's not as much extravagance. But we have our space on our little piece of land doing our thing. I work the same way I worked Upstate.