“I am impacted by every single experience I have, from reading an article to something as benign as a walk down the street. There are other times my work might begin with something as ethereal as a dream, but there is a kind of subconscious organization or synthesis that happens in a lucid state that is effortless. I also like to imagine that I'm part of a larger canonical conversation that's been happening for centuries in painting. There are times when I'm interested in what needs to join this larger discourse, what paintings don't exist that should. I tend to be very intentional about what I want to accomplish when I set out to make a work, but I also learn a great deal from the end result.”
—Derek Fordjour
