I was totally attracted to the combo. Lucas Samaras and Bob Whitman were in my sketch club. And I was simply lucky that Samaras and Whitman were interested in becoming serious artists on their own, and we recognized that. It was weaving the whole thing together, which I've referred to a lot. All the stuff we were talking about.
Every young artist is an outsider.
If you dutifully follow what has just preceded you, if you imitate your admired predecessors, you're doomed to be judged as second rate derivative. Therefore, you damn well better become yourself. Which is what everybody's problem is, everybody, all of us, whether you want to be an artist, art historian, interviewer. Each of us has to decide How do I understand the world that crowds in on me. There's none of us immune to that imperative.