I knew I wanted to be an artist, but I didn't really know what it was I wanted to say.

To be a truly conscientious artist, you have to look at what's not working and challenge it. You riff on things.

I've seen people glaze over when they're confronted with racism, and there's nothing more, you know, damning and demeaning to having any kind of ideology than people just walking the walk and saying what they're supposed to say and nodding, and nobody feels anything.

I really love to make sweeping historical gestures that are like little illustrations of novels.

My work is really abject and self-effacing sometimes. I mean, it's big and overwrought, but it's just paper dolls, and it's kind of silly.

I was making big paintings with mythological themes. When I started painting black figures, the white professors were relieved, and the black students were like, 'She's on our side.' These are the kinds of issues that a white male artist just doesn't have to deal with.