"I do not know by what mystery or alchemy I was transformed into becoming an artist – painter - when up to the age of eleven years, I wanted above all else to be a musician. However, when I was told in no uncertain terms that I would not be allowed to be one – within a week – I began to draw for the first time in my life – and to this day I never stopped drawing and painting. What makes this event more strange is the fact that from the very beginning I drew as an adult and not as a child. It was people that I wanted to paint – then and now. I was deeply affected not only by our own poverty but by the teeming life around me as well – their haunting faces and their dignity never left me."