"Read the folklore masters. Go to galleries. Walk in the woods. That's what you need to be an artist ..." — Terri Windling

I'm working on a very long series of paintings based on desert folklore.

I have a great respect for the academics who are working with the source material. My hat's off to them.

But for me, really, the written word is always stronger than film.

We've always lived in dark times. There has always been a range of human experience from the sublime to the brutal, and stories reflect it. It's no less brutal now; each age has its horrors.