John Cotton's Quotes

If you pinch the sea of its liberty, though it be walls of stone or brass, it will beat them down.

As an artist, it's possible to get tired of yourself.

In a gallery, there's an expectation of high prices and a somewhat elitist atmosphere.

People's love of sweets and guilty feelings about overindulgence are pretty universal.

Smells are so powerful and evocative, sometimes stronger than visual cues.

The goal of art-making in general is communication.

In terms of the class structure that you see so much in European portraiture, I don't think one feels that in America in the 21st century. But we have these other kinds of social structures now, like celebrity, who establish new hierarchies.

There's something of a painting of a woman that represents all women - and by extension, all of humanity - that I just find very exciting. It's a nice distillation, I think, of what it means to be alive.

When I first started painting candyland imagery, I was looking for the best possible metaphor for everything that is pleasure, desire and insatiability.