Damian Loeb

“'Star Wars' came out when I was seven. It was so different from anything else, like peeking into the land of Oz. All you wanted to do was see it again and go back and see more of it. That feeling is not easy to reproduce.”

“I read that prior to the advent of color TV, most people dreamed in black and white.”

“Photorealism's goal is to reproduce a photograph. The best photorealism can't beat a printer, and I have a really nice printer.”

“I take a lot of pictures.”

“When I'm not painting, I'm Oujia-boarding with my photos. I'll sort through my pictures, put them in different folders, and come back months later to one in particular and try to figure out why I took it.”

“The vocabulary I use has to reflect the people I'm trying to communicate with.”

“Artists talk in 'art speak.'”

“I don't think I talk to anybody the same way I talk to Moby.”

“I'm interested in visual vocabulary, like Warhol was interested in that vocabulary of advertisements and television and pop culture.”

“I have to assume that everybody interprets a piece of art they're exposed to as if it's already perfect in its wholeness, without knowing any backstory.”

“When we as a society lose the ability to comment on what we see and to have an opinion on what we are exposed to, then we have all lost what makes us unique on this planet.”

“You just can't control your art in the future.”

“I can't work without music.”

“I always thought being an artist was a lazy job. I was wrong.”

“I have always been interested in having people fall into the image and be aware of their reaction first, and then think about the style.”

“I found that if I don't paint for around a week, I get practically suicidal. It took a long time to figure out why I had these mood swings, and I finally figured out it's because I haven't painted.”

“If it weren't for how esoteric the art world likes to be, I would love actually to play the music in the shows, painting the music that influences me most.”

“Our memories are convenient lies we create, cribbing images from others' experiences. We discard the personal specifics which don't conform to the ideal conventional beauty created by art directors and cinematographers.”

“I had no interest in high school besides art.”

“Ironically, my paintings don't photograph well.”