“I’ve been painting my whole life. My dad, grandma and aunt were all artists, so it’s in the family. But I didn’t start taking it seriously until 2 years ago when I moved to NYC. Before then it was like, I guess I can paint, but I don’t know if I can make big paintings. Painting on something bigger than a piece of paper was a crazy concept to me. I used to draw on shitty little scraps that I’d find, like the weird paper you find between placemats to absorb moisture. In some ways I didn’t feel as though my work was worth using nice paper for—it took me a while to gain confidence and actually paint properly. Moving to New York City changed that—I was like well, you’re here now, you have to do something. You can’t just live in New York City, hang out and be successful doing nothing. 

There’s definitely an art scene here. I try and stay away from the scene itself, but it’s still important to get out there and meet people. I don’t have a natural tendency to go out and socialize, but I know that I should. I do find it difficult to walk up to people and talk about myself—it feels a bit weird to me.