Shape and color are my two strong things. And by doing this, drawing plants has always led me into my paintings and my sculptures.

Matisse draws what I call the essence of the plants. He leaves a shape open. He'll do a leaf and not close it. Everybody used to say, oh, I got it all from Matisse, and I said, 'Not really.'

One of the first drawings I did in Paris - I wasn't thinking of doing drawings, but somehow or other, I kept drawing - I bought a hyacinth flower with a lot of leaves, just to make me feel like spring.

I always felt that a painted edge between two colors was a depiction somehow.

When I see a white piece of paper, I feel I've got to draw. And drawing, for me, is the beginning of everything.

All my work comes from perceiving. I kept seeing things that were brooding in me. I'm not a geometric artist.