Could you paint in black and white? 

No. 

Absolutely? 

Yes, definitely. At first I tried. Some people told me to do something with more earthy tones or black and white. I tried, but it didn’t feel right. Colour is much more dangerous because you can cross over to being tacky and psychedelic or being naive. But I try to look for work with character, that have a certain darkness. 

Yes, I notice that it is not “sunshine and rainbows”… 

Yes, there is always a dark side, even if there are a lot of colors. There is aggression, there are deep looks. I’m a naturally positive person but the truth is I hate “Mr Wonderful” and all that. There is a dark side of life that we have to live and we can learn a lot from it. 

I think that wouldn’t be honest. 

Yes, it wouldn’t be honest and it would be horrible to neglect this dark side. A world of plastic and coloring is not real. 

I compare you – in the formal sense and relatively speaking – with Andy Warhol. He also painted using a lot of colours and male models and was a filmmaker. Do you feel any connection there? 

In the formal sense, yes, but as an artist he doesn’t call out to me. He exploded into the pop world, but I don’t like his principles. I don’t like his energy. I always separate the artist and his or her work; but in Warhol’s case, I don’t. He went into a deterioration of fundamental principles, which I don’t like so much. I feel a much stronger connection to David Lynch, for example; he’s also a painter and filmmaker. He does very dark things and in his book “Catching the Big Fish” (Reservoir Books, second edition 2021) he says that art should not be sought from the decaying place of people. Decay does not automatically identify with artistic darkness. I think so too; you don’t have to be a debauchee to be a genius. From serenity and light there can be more vision of humanity. Instead, from self-destruction and decay, you look at yourself more selfishly. I like this point of view more.