Will Cotton

Image of Will Cotton
The goal of art-making in general is communication.
- Will Cotton
Collection: Communication
Image of Will Cotton
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.
- Will Cotton
Collection: Nice
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As an artist, it's possible to get tired of yourself.
- Will Cotton
Collection: Tired
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Smells are so powerful and evocative, sometimes stronger than visual cues.
- Will Cotton
Collection: Powerful
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Failures in art usually lead to something else interesting.
- Will Cotton
Collection: Art
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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.
- Will Cotton
Collection: Thinking
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In a gallery, there's an expectation of high prices and a somewhat elitist atmosphere.
- Will Cotton
Collection: Expectations
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People's love of sweets and guilty feelings about overindulgence are pretty universal.
- Will Cotton
Collection: Sweet
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I can go to parties all the time and not see people I want to work with, but then sometimes I do, and the way I try to describe it is that I like to refer to art history a lot in my paintings, and there are some people who just have a face that feels like art historical. Like they could be in a Tiepolo painting as a person riding through the sky in a chariot, or she could be in a fashion magazine.
- Will Cotton
Collection: Fashion
Image of 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.
- Will Cotton
Collection: Desire