Q: What is it that fuels your work?

AP: I wanted to create art that reminded people of what it felt like being alive. Not just the sensual but the visceral. And to be happy about it. I'm not the kind of artist that believes in the merits of suffering.

Q: I noticed you've drank about a gallon of green tea since we've started, is that normal?

AP: I did literally live on this stuff at Roux. Tea fueled all-nighters! Not very debauched, I know, but true.

Q: How did Roux Academy contribute to your growth as an artist?

AP: During my first year, I had been messing around with inks, Sumi inks and blockwash techniques, combined with the tag style I was seeing on the streets. It was very cartoony and figurative. The second year I remember sharing a dorm room with this metal shop dude and he was describing his work to me in these oddball colors. I mean, he was working with steel, but in his mind, it wasn't grey. It was colored by everything around them and he'd get excited by the idea of moving this massive sculpture, we're talking ten feet high, into new spaces, just so he could see how it would take on new colors. And that got me thinking about light and reflectivity in a different way. Over the years, my style has become more and more abstract. Last year, I completed a set of drip paintings [titled Seaward Exit: Brighton Beach] and it really freed me up to do more, I would say, languid work. And I'm getting older. There's only so long that you can do that kind of young, hotheaded stuff.

Q: Any advice for current Roux students?

AP: Don't give up the joy. Once you transition to the real world, the art scene, an office, or something else, there can be a lot of pressure to renounce or forget the wonder that is part of the creative process. Hang on to that. Roux is not a shelter; you can recreate and carry the experience you're having now with you everywhere.