0:00:13.910,0:00:20.061
I think I care about beauty, but I don't go for it.

0:00:20.627,0:00:24.093
I hope it sometimes might be in there.

0:00:24.093,0:00:31.561
I think maybe more in terms of a beautiful moment than trying to figure out what beauty is.

0:00:34.294,0:00:39.095
I hope that my paintings can be emotional moments for people.

0:00:43.294,0:00:49.727
I just know that it takes a certain emotion to lock in for me to commit to a painting.

0:00:50.142,0:00:56.200
And a certain timidity at first, and then the second painting, and then I might go back to the first painting,

0:00:56.200,0:00:58.317
And force more bravery on it.

0:00:58.317,0:01:01.851
Oh, this is okay. You can handle this.

0:01:06.016,0:01:10.100
I have given myself full range of the painting.

0:01:11.784,0:01:19.092
I don't limit myself in anyway. I know I'm not a landscape painter. I know that. I know that's sombody else's job.

0:01:19.092,0:01:21.808
And I don't think I'm a still life painter.

0:01:21.808,0:01:28.283
But I would like to think that I can paint portraits, which I have not successfully done.

0:01:28.784,0:01:34.151
I like to think that the whole thing is wide open and then I don't have to abide by any rules, anymore.

0:01:34.151,0:01:41.083
But I was happy too, when I was young, because it looked like a very radical world.

0:01:41.083,0:01:44.555
And I really wanted to be part of it.

0:01:47.211,0:01:53.022
We had to put that dog down, because she was in kidney failure.

0:01:53.472,0:02:01.506
And I was holding her before the doctor did that, and I wanted to make a painting about it.

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How it felt, to remember her by.

0:02:04.295,0:02:12.599
And I've had the arm everywhere you see this darker tone. I've had the arm there. [chuckles]

0:02:12.599,0:02:16.882
I had it like this, like this, then I could not figure out how my feet should be,

0:02:16.882,0:02:21.766
Then, I could not figure out where the arm might be coming of the body.

0:02:21.766,0:02:25.966
And finally, I decided to stop worrying about it. All I wanted was that dog held there,

0:02:25.966,0:02:30.299
And my sneakers grounding the bottom of the painting.

0:02:30.947,0:02:42.150
I just felt so sad, and so... I felt the loss of this dog quite a lot. So I just try to recover her for a moment in the painting.

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It's completely personal.

0:02:48.152,0:02:53.033
And I could see that the hand's not painted well... That one is, that one isn't.

0:02:53.033,0:02:54.782
Woman: Which one?

0:02:54.782,0:02:57.970
ROTHENBERG: The left hand is just fine. It's doing what it needs to do.

0:02:57.970,0:03:00.021
This one is blobby. [laughs]

0:03:00.021,0:03:06.887
It needs some wristbones, and some fingernails, and some definition.

0:03:08.801,0:03:13.368
In the paintings, it's there, the tenderness. I work for it.

0:03:13.368,0:03:19.800
I'm not afraid of it. If I could put my bleeding f**king heart in there, I would. [chuckles]

0:03:19.984,0:03:25.091
But as it is, it's her and my arms and my shoes.

0:03:25.125,0:03:30.091
You know, in the most all-embracing kind of send-off I could give her.