Will Cotton

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

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.

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

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.