"I was always discouraged,” she says. “Even when I had a fellowship for painting, some of my teachers were very hostile. ‘You’re taking this too seriously. You’re only a girl. Don’t set your heart on art.’ My boyfriends in college stole my brushes and my books, like, ‘We need this more than you do.'"

“I take the position that I do not ask anyone else to do what I myself would not do and using myself as subject . . . as material want to displace the power and separation of the artist from what's made. In the masculine tradition the director, the producer is always outside of the work because he's above it.”

“I never thought I was shocking,” she says. “I say this all the time and it sounds disingenuous, but I always thought, ‘This is something they need. My culture is going to recognize it’s missing something.'”

“The female nude is part of a revered tradition, although she is not to take authority over depictions of her nudity. She is just to be available.”

“My work became a bridge that had to be crossed by young feminists working with their bodies.”

“The art audience is very receptive to what I do. It's a mutual influence.”