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. Mickalene Thomas Read Quote
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. Mickalene Thomas Read Quote
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. Mickalene Thomas Read Quote
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. Mickalene Thomas Read Quote
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. Mickalene Thomas Read Quote
I look to a lot of artists who don’t focus on one medium, who you can’t pigeonhole. Mickalene Thomas Read Quote
I started making art during high school but thought I lacked the talent to become a true artist. Mickalene Thomas Read Quote
I define my work as a feminist act and a political act because I’m black and a woman. You don’t necessarily have to claim that, but the act of making art itself is a political and feminist act when you’re a woman. Mickalene Thomas Read Quote
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. Mickalene Thomas Read Quote
I don’t see myself as a photographer. I still see the photographs and collages as a resource for the painting. Mickalene Thomas Read Quote
