LR: So when you paint, is it all depends on the state of mind you are in and nothing else exists?

LH: No, a lot exists while I’m painting. Sometimes I’m painting over something that wasn’t working. Sometimes I’m trying to make something very specific, like “Red Rain”, which was very Richter-influenced. What I wanted to do is blend the top parts of “Red Rain” to see because the Paris show was more blended and more dreamy and very different than “Free Falling”, which is more confident with exposed brush strokes and a lot of movement. That’s why it’s called “Free Falling” with leaves falling, movement, or water falling. It’s probably more technically specific now. It’s not always like “Oh, I felt an emotion and that’s how I’m going to paint it.” It’s not quite like that anymore. It’s more like I’m taking in everything besides the painting. Where it fits the exhibition, everything has to be cohesive, more thematic.

Also, at the end of painting for “Free Falling” I was under the gun, it was a really hard deadline. Most painters don’t go from a solo show in Paris and after just a few months to a solo show in Italy. It was really rapid and especially with the size that I paint. I’m an oil painter and oil paintings take anywhere between four to six months to dry, so I didn’t even had the dry time for most of them. I had to repair some of them after the install. I think under that pressure I’ve discovered what probably will be my style, which is some of the larger murals. Some of them are in my studio right now that we are going to add when they move “Free Falling”.

LR: Are you going to concentrate on large paintings from now on?

LH: It changes. Even today I was working on 11×14 and then I went back to a really tiny painting that I had just been playing around with and it’s a whole different mindset. I paint like seven at a time. I don’t stay on one painting because while one’s drying I’m working on another. Something is changing and I kind of have an ADD going on in my studio. There’s seven stations in my studio. There’s two 11×14 stations and then there’s five other large mural stations and then there’s some in between. I have almost 2,000 square feet of space. I’m lucky. As an artist I feel really, really lucky. I got to have a strong sponsorship and a lot of people behind me. It’s complicated to paint what I’m painting and to ship what I’m painting. And to redo it, remount it, reset it, reframe it and to install it. It’s very technical. Basically, I’m a muralist.

LR: But you’re not doing it alone.

LH: Yes, there’s a whole crew. In Venezia we had an architect, an installer, a curator. Everybody was Italian. We are still going to use the same installation. I was lucky. I had an installer from Gullco De Gano, which is one of the most famous museums over there, an installer from Peggy Guggenheim, and Palazzo Grassi, so I was definitely very lucky to be surrounded by such a strong team of people.