I don't know what a painting is; who knows what sets off even the desire to paint? It might be things, thoughts, a memory, sensations, which have nothing to do directly with painting itself. They can come from anything and anywhere.

His mother supported his artistic inclinations and he often made drawings in a small closet lit by a hanging bulb. Before dropping out of Otis Guston spent a night in the studio making drawings of these figurative plasters scattered all over the studio floor. Vrain Schwankovsky and were introduced to modern European art oriental philosophy theosophy and mystic literature.

Philip Guston (June 27 1913 – June 7 1980) was a painter and printmaker in the New York School which included many of the abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning.