Piotr, 1996
DS: Do you think one would be sadder if they made a life of painting other things besides people?
EP: No. Artists find how they look at the world. I know people who look at the world as more defined by space. I don't think there is any better or worse.
DS: Your figures aren't much in the way of space - they're more in their own space.
EP: In my head, I like to know where they are. I'm not so interested in just heads. It's their body and their face and their eyes, and I'm interested in the backs of people sometimes - their left shoulder or other things about them. A lot of the drawings have more space.
(EP and DS check out a few new drawings)
EP: I like to keep my own work.
DS: Rather than sell it?
EP: Yeah, when I can. Some things are especially important to me, and I really try to keep them. But most of the times when something's really personal to you, it's great to think of it being in some stranger's bedroom.
DS: That's somehow what it's all about - in the end, being on someone else's wall.
EP: It completes the cycle.
DS: Do you shoot the pictures for your paintings?
EP: When I was doing stuff with musicians, I wasn't. But now, I'm mostly working with people I know, so I mostly use my own pictures.
DS: Do you consider your photography an art? Would you show it?
EP: Well yeah, but painting is very different. Photographs are more random - I do take them pretty seriously - show them sometimes, make books out of them, but, I don't make a big deal out of them - I just stare at them.