Pierre Picot:  Yes, I think it's a relevant question simply because I would like to get out again. I consciously got out and stop showing. I show if I have the opportunity or if someone asks me. But lately I've wanted to show again but I have never liked the process of getting my work shown. I was very lucky from the very beginning. I went to see someone and after that they showed it to somebody else, and that was it. From that moment on it just snowballed, I didn't have to do a thing.

V5- Courtney Gregg : Being good at the other side of it really helps. I find it very uncomfortable also.

PP: Yes, it is really fascinating  how they are teaching people to handle that other side. I have had dealers ask me what I'm teaching them. These students are coming in and demanding this and demanding that. They want a guaranteed article in Art Forum!

V5: It's a much more commercial universe with "Generation X", they are commercial beings.

PP:  I think it is easier dealing with furniture than it is with the art because the furniture has a clear purpose and people respond to that. They view it from a standpoint of how does it look, does it work and can  I sell it, is the price right.

V5: Some people think of their paintings in that way.

PP: I know that they do but I do not. With a piece of furniture; I don't attach to it all the silly stuff that I attach to the art. I should learn from the experience of the furniture and lighten up. Or I will think I can't sell the art that way. It is a timid aspect of me which pulls me right in and takes over, and that's really unfortunate. I also expect the people to see the art right away and get it.

V5: I think Los Angeles is more fickle and specific than other places, there is less variety allowed. In Europe it is not that way.

PP: Very true. But then Los Angeles at a certain level is looking at the scene in the context of the art world and if they are not part of Art Forum or Art America, they are not art. In Paris they take more chances and show different kind of art, but they have their clientele.

V5: Why don't you show in Europe instead of here.

PP: I did my experiment with art in France, but it wasn't well aimed. The day of the opening was also the opening of the International Art Fair in Paris and all the people who might have gone to Brittany, went to Paris. I should have known that or the person running the gallery should have known that, but they didn't think about it. That's okay because it forced me to do these things. But walking in cold to a gallery is really hard. (laughs)

V5: Do you still have one of the benches you made.

PP: Yes, I have one of the benches upstairs called "The bench for lovers" and it really works. (laughs) Actually I made one of those benches in France in a park; it's really wonderful and is used by skate boarders. But getting back to the museum, I felt real confident talking to that lady and said, "I have some photographs of my work, can I make an appointment?" and for some reason it's a barrier that I set up, most likely it's not set up by other people, it's just a barrier that I set up and I don't know how to get over it.

V5: I don't know how one does. (laughs)

PP:  This is a big issue for me, living in a culture that has become and is more and more, driven by style and fashion. Even at Kmart people are style conscious. Art has certainly fallen victim to it and things are forever changing, what is appealing one day is not appealing the next, it is no longer valid. What do you do in the face of these things that change constantly and fashions that change incessantly, how do you maintain a course that is not necessarily constant but that is above the fray. I think the way we can do that is by staying fresh and staying more and more educated and remaining childlike, naïve, I don't care about approach. I know very well that as I am working I am thinking, "How is this going to go over within the context of the latest fad", and then I just keep doing it and tell myself, "Who cares." (laughs)

V5: Thank you.

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