As a young teenager I focused my artistic energy on experimenting with new mediums. I drove one teacher crazy for a couple of weeks while I tossed powdered tempera on black construction paper I had primed with watered down library paste. Very Jackson Pollack. He was so alarmed by the mess the first time I tried it, he brought a big cardboard box for me to do it in. And then I found out about Robert Rauschenberg.