For 20, maybe 30 years, I made things con - stantly. I also raised four kids. If you ask them who my favorite child was, and put them in separate rooms, they’ll all say the same thing: “Adobe,” as in Photoshop. STEPHEN’S WHY The toughest thing in the world is thinking about WHY. It is an awfully tough problem, and when you start learning about philosophy or read any philos - opher, oh my god, it’s so hard to do. To really do it right, takes so much effort. Whenever I think of the word why, I really don’t do it that often, but I had to do it, because I had to come up with this, I had to do my art statements and what not. So, I came up with two things. One is, If you draw every single day, every single day, even- tually you’ll find yourself . And I think that is such a great feeling because, especially if you study it, because you’re actually learning about history as you go. And you’re really learning about yourself, and the world, and everything around you. Art his - tory is history, and it’s terrific history. It’s so much fun to learn that I encourage everybody, pick up a book, look at the art, enjoy it, ponder not why, but HOW they actually did it. And so that leads to the actual question that I ask myself. Whenever anyone asks me WHY, I always switch it to HOW. It’s so much more fun. Then, I can look at the table and say, How did they get that edge, or I can look at anything and ask, How did it get done. And that is a place where I can actually make progress, and so I would say, you can say WHY, I’ll say HOW.
THE INTERVIEW When I started college, I was set on woodwork - ing. I took woodworking classes through the ed - ucation department, using my independent study credits. Eventually, I ran out of credits, and they told me, You can’t stay here any longer. I asked, “Where should I go?” They pointed me across the street to the Art Department. Art was like woodworking without the wood— way cooler because it opened up endless possi - bilities. You could dive into fantasy or anything you could imagine. It was incredible. So, I asked myself, “If I were successful, what would I want to do with all my time?” The answer was obvious: I wanted to be an artist. But, I had no idea if I could make it work. My dad had a small company, and he was convinced art could not be my career—kind of like Michelangelo’s father. He pushed me to take practical classes. So, I studied accounting, physics, and other subjects. I even mi - nored in architecture, and was ready to pursue a master’s in it. But then my dad said, “I want you to stay home and help me grow the family business. I want one of my four kids to work with me.” So, I stayed. The business was a telephone an - swering service in the early 1980s. By 1988, 800 numbers were released, and I built a call center from scratch. All I ever wanted to do was make things. I got used equipment, set it up, wrote the software, and with a small team, we made it work. The company grew from 10 people in over 40 years to 3,000 employees. I found success on that path. Somewhere around 500 or 600 employees— maybe 700—I started creating art and writing full- time. Not for money, but for love. That’s the best way to be an artist. Doing it for money is a terrible approach.
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