I'm always taken aback when people ask me to give them art. Usually I dismiss their requests out of mere annoyance, because they just don't understand.

I don't like painting.

It's true, I don't like it. Although, when I'm finished and I look at it as a completed product, I have this sense of excitement; it's a statement saying "HERE I AM. THIS IS PROOF THAT I'M ALIVE". But really, truly, I don't enjoy this labor.

I don't paint because I want to. I paint because I need to.

These people can't figure out that when I paint, it's the only thing keeping me connected with my sanity. Every piece, EVERY SINGLE PIECE is intensely personal and emotional. I don't make something on a whim; I can't pull something spontaneously out of my head.

I shed my tears at the end of a brush.

When I produce something, it comes out because it MUST. Those raw, pure emotions of joy, sadness, love, despair...when they come, they come STRONG.

I hope everyone realizes that I'm not a factory, that my art means something to me, that I refuse to manufacture something thats serves only to decorate their walls.