Master water first and then paint.

Dismiss thoughts of 'good, bad, right, wrong, success, failure' - be spontaneous.

The great square has no corners and the great implement completes nothing.

Respond to others about your work with equanimity.

Representational painters: place your works in a larger context. Give your work not only breadth but breath. Do not 'copy' what you see outwardly but give it 'spirit.

Playful arising is authorized by both risk and trust in the process and in oneself. To be truly playful and improvisational one must not look for results.

Painting is so close, so personal, so immediate, and so ordinary... It is the ordinary resurrections that define your painting.

Allow the brush to 'wander' above the realm of conventional judgement and practice.

Identify in your work opposites of color, form, compositional arrangements, space, etc.

Representational painters: loosen the grip of inflexibility! Abstract painters: tighten your hold on crafting your images! In both types of painting students need to unlearn what one has acquired.

Reconcile the loss of the painting - no matter how many times it may happen - with the joy of beginning again.

To be loved, is to be immortal.

I have loved you from the moment you opened your eyes, and I will continue to love you long after I close mine. I will always be yours Aurora. I don’t exist without you.

What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over the rim of every cup.

I took only twice a time-out, once, when I was hurt, and a second time, when I much felt I was exhausted out of personal reasons.

The critics slap labels on you and then expect you to talk inside their terms.

Even if security from the cradle to the grave could eliminate [all] the risks of life, it would [still] be a dead hand on the creative spirit of the American people.

I've learned what Trump has taught - we need to put our best foot forward and don't let anybody block us from anything that we wish to do or want to do.

I was a competitive guy growing up.

My father and brothers were coal miners.

I'm working toward a CD that will have all of you dancing like crazy.