"... material is intelligent, more intelligent than meanings I or others might ascribe to my paintings. This was a profound political lesson that has helped me resist all of my many encounters with authoritarians on the right and on the left. Money is completely arbitrary relative to material. Most of my paintings now are material on one side and soak through on the other side. I don’t decide if the paintings are finished. The best ones just stop when they are dry, then hopefully they are animated by being seen."
–Dona Nelson