Mickalene Thomas

I look to a lot of artists who don't focus on one medium, who you can't pigeonhole.

I grew up with a lot of brothers, and I don't have any sisters, so for me it's really important to develop my sisterhood. It's something I've always coveted.

The first painting I remember selling was 'Panthera.' I made it while I was in residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the museum actually purchased it directly from me.

My artistic decision to cast my mother's objects into bronze moves beyond the notions of memorializing her. I've been fascinated for some time with the idea of monumentality and what it means to memorialize. Both of these notions are relevant historically, artistically, and culturally.

I would have loved to paint Eartha Kitt, but she's no longer here. I'm so glad I had the chance to meet her.

The mirror is a powerful tool because it forces you to deal with yourself on a deeper level. Conceptually, paintings are like mirrors. They're an expression from the artist: 'This is how I view the world - I'm presenting it to you.'

There's a greater power and charisma when a woman is aware of her sexual prowess when it's not necessarily about victimization or someone else's pleasure but her own feeling about her own body and understanding and loving herself.

I used to listen to a lot of music in my studio - all the time. But as far as the music that interplays with my work, what I've done and still do is keep a lyric book and song title. The material typically comes from Eartha Kitt, Betty Davis, Donna Summer, Whitney Houston.

When I decided to go to art school, it wasn't necessarily something I thought I needed. No one talked about graduate school when I was an undergrad. I went on to a residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and that transition from Yale to the Studio Museum, that was the real beginning of my professional career.

When I started at Pratt, Spike Lee had his 40 Acres and A Mule studios down the street. You'd see Rosie Perez walking around going to Mike's Coffee Shop. So it was this black bohemian.

I'm a black American, and I'm proud to represent who and where I'm from - unapologetically. There's no shame in my game.

I've always enjoyed film, but I'm a little afraid of it because I think it is very powerful as a medium. You have the visuals, the sound, the colors, all of these things coming at you, and they transport you physically so it becomes this surround sound, virtual reality.

What's always intriguing to me is transforming my subjects into a character from another era.

You know, the emotion - it comes in my art. The kind of person I am, I can deal with things, and I do and I can, but I'm not a crier.

When you look at death, it makes you understand the importance of the moment when you have life and death in front of you, and you witness seeing someone deteriorating in front of you - it's an overwhelming experience. If you don't learn from that, I don't know what else you're gonna learn.

Beauty has always been an element of discussion for black women, whether or not we were the ones having the conversation.

Sometimes I think it's the responsibility of the artist to reveal a little more of themselves.

I don't think an artist should always know why they gravitate toward something or someone. You are just drawn to things, and that's OK.

I don't see myself as a photographer. I still see the photographs and collages as a resource for the painting.

All of my experiences modeling, acting, doing theater, it's all in the work now. And the work freed me to transform myself.