Attention and respect don't change anything and whatever you get paid attention for is never the stuff that you think is important about yourself anyway. - David Foster Wallace

Whenever someone compliments something I've created, especially a painting or illustration, a twisting dark seed usually appears in the back of my mind whispering that they've got it all wrong. It's not that I don't believe them when they say the work is good. I think the feeling stems more from my desire to be seen and I rarely think my work reaches the level of being an avenue into my own inner life. Honestly, I'm aware that the quality of the connection that a person has with a piece of art has very little to do with the artist in the first place. Nevertheless, it's important to me that one day I create something that elicits in my audience the same feelings of enchantment and awe that I have felt in the presence of paintings by the likes of Wyeth and Bouguereau.