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that well again. I assume just because I am not stupid and I've read enough to know that [[strikethrough]] somewhere that [[end strikethrough]] that energy will come back [[strikethrough]] and [[end strikethrough]] I'll probably do something good again, but at the moment I certainly do not feel good about it. How do you like that? You wanted honesty - you got it.
EY: Well, O.K. I'd like to talk about your use of your own image in your work.
MM: Yes...
EY: I think its done very unpretentiously and probably a good deal of criticism comes from the use of a lot of self portraits. Fortrature is usually labled as too self indulgent, and people criticize the superficiality of the image and don't read into it - 
MM: How did you know that? The reviews didn't necessarily deal with that, although there are a couple that pertain to that sort of thing, and I've been accused of that to my face. 
EY: I'm just going on what I've been criticized for.
MM: That's someone elses problem, [[strikethrough]] you know [[end strikethrough]] because I'm the least pretentious person I know. [[strikethrough]] pretty much. [[end strikethrough]] And it annoys me to be said that to and I don't think I'm being terrible if I say that nobody has accused Rembrandt of doing all of those self-portraits. It's a perfectly valid thing to do. If I feel like doing it, I will do it. I will not worry about what someone else thinks about it. I won't think about it psychologically. I'll just do it because I feel like doing it.
EY: Do you feel that painting them, being as personal as your art is, just makes sense using your own image?
MM: Well, it makes sense to me when I feel like doing it. Its gotten to a point where if I don't put myself in the painting, then someone says 'Why didn't you?', which is [[strikethrough]] equally not only [[end strikethrough]] infuriating and startling because I'm criticized for using myself, then [[strikethrough]] why am I [[end strikethrough]] criticized for not using me when I don't feel like using me. I don't always do self-portraits. I spent years and years of painting other people. Sometimes with me, sometimes without me. I have done commission portraits. It never occurred to me to place myself in them, certaintly. Its just a mystery to me why people get so hysterical about the whole idea. [[strikethrough]] It's [[end strikethrough]] At one