Was it one? one, all at once. but a lot happening? a lot happened, yes. how has that experience influenced the way you work and a sort of work you have made in recent months, do you think? first of all, i haven t hardly made any work in the past year at all, because i physically could not stand up. so my paintings are really robust, really physical, i mean, like, really charged up, really full of energy, and it s almost like the life force, all the energy comes through you when you put the paint on, it s notjust like colouring in or whatever, it s real, so i haven t been well enough to do that over the last year and to be honest, i have only just really started working again. i think you said you ve probably said many times that art saved your life. now that science has also saved your life, has that given new meaning to the art? no. science saved my life, definitely, medical science,
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Deranged, screaming banshee. 20 years ago i was accused of being narcissistic, and moaning moaning about myself, when i wasn t. i was and still am making work about rape, making work about abuse, making work about heartbreak, making work about, you know, it s something for everybody to look at and go, oh ,my god, let s talk about this subject, let s open this up, and i ve always been doing this. and i think now because a lot of, like, me too and all these different women, and people have had to start to listen and industry and commerce has had to start to listen as well, and i think more people are looking at my work and going, oh my god, she wasn t moaning, she was. i was actually talking about really serious issues. over the last year or so you have been incredibly ill, you have undergone several operations. one operation.
I think, if i had family and children and everything, my children were at school and stuff, i doubt, i think i d be censored, i d have to self sensor, but i haven t. my whole childhood, i had no barriers, i could do whatever we wanted i didn t have to go to school, i didn t have to brush my teeth, i could do whatever i wanted and it s been like that throughout my life as an artist i have done what i want to do. i have decided, as i m older, if my work isn t going to be hung in the best museums in the world, because it s about rape, or abortion, or it s about taboo subjects, then, so what? it doesn t matter. my art still exists, and i will continue to make it and about the subjects that i think are important, even if they are the subjects that you shouldn t be speaking about or talking about, because they are still there, they are within the ether, and if they re not brought
To the surface, then they implode, and there is an even greater problem. now you are undoubtedly one of the most successful and respected artists in this country, if not the world, but as you ve already acknowledged, you faced derision and abuse for years for the sort of work you made. what drove you on during those times? i have nothing else. that s it. that s all i ve ever done is art. all i ve ever done, nothing else. so it s all i know. so if the rest of the world wanted to desert me, art never did, so i stick with what loves me, and art loves me, so it s good. what s driving you on now to make more work? because it ll help me get well and bring me back to this world, fast. so art, again, is looking after me, taking me forward, and is my friend. and also, i hope love is taking me forward, too, so there s lots to look forward to and so much to look forward to i have never had so much to look forward to in all my life. shame it s only going to be for about another 25 years,