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EY: It's the particular way that you use them. 
MM: I believe in strong painting. If I want to make a strong statement it doesn't matter if its a landscape or a person or whatever. I'm certainly not going to be a weak kneed ninny just because somebody is upset [[strikethrough]] because their [[/strikethrough]] by being confronted with this person, whether its me or somebody else. That's their problem. People would love to have paintings they don't have to look at. 
EY: And it's so upsetting to look at them sometimes, in a good way. 
MM: That's good. 
EY: You are confronting us the viewers, in making us participate. 
MM: Well, that's what art is all about. 
EY: Well, I think generally speaking, that might be a good deal of the problem in the interpretation. People can't transcend the image and are just stuck on a superficial level. 
MM: Yes, but it's how culture is built;[[strikethrough]] on [[/strikethrough]] pretending that you're not doing what you're doing. I hate to use my Mother as an example but I think its [[strikethrough]] not so bad [[/strikethrough]] apt. She went through almost an hysterical denounciation of Virginia Wade when she [[strikethrough]] was so happy about winning [[/strikethrough]] won Wimbledon a few years ago. [[strikethrough]] She [[/strikethrough]] Wade said, 'I'm so happy the queen was here, I won, and I've been wanting to win for five years.' or however many years she wanted to win- and she finally won. To me this is the perfectly honest statement, of course, she wanted to win. Why else is she playing tennis? You don't want to lose. It's idiotic; That's not why you do something and to me that's a perfectly healthy attitude. [[strikethrough]] to want to win. [[/strikethrough]] If you're in something in which [[strikethrough]] that's what's [[/strikethrough]] winning is at stake. In [[strikethrough]] a [[/strikethrough]] painting there's not that kind of competitive situation but if that's what you're [[strikethrough]] using [[/strikethrough]] doing- I mean, first of all to be an artist, you have to have a certain amount of self-confidence because who needs [[strikethrough]] one [[/strikethrough]] a painting? [[strikethrough]] Or who needs it? [[/strikethrough]] The fact is that it serves [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] a purpose for those people who are sensitive to art to remind people of what the human being is capable of, which has nothing to do with subject matter because you can get just as freaked out standing in front of a fantastic abstract painting as you can in