Interview

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"I was looking for a new studio for three and a half years before I moved into this one in Hell's Kitchen last December. The studio is on the fourth floor, in a big loft that used to be offices for Moviola. The space is divided into a number of small rooms, all of which I painted in old Louisiana plantation-house colors. I have the yellow conference room, where I keep my orchids and hang little wet paintings. The teal room is another meeting room where I sometimes meditate; it's turning into the Lincoln room, because I paint him a lot. I paint in the large white studio where all my birds are. I have about 25 birds. Then there's the coral-colored bunny room, and the room we call Central America, which is painted mango and houses my butterfly collection and the bowls of Siamese fighting fish. This new studio is one-third smaller than my old one, so I had to give away 10 sofas. Because there were things I literally couldn't get into the building, I saw it as a chance to start over. I've lived in New York since 1973, and I've had only three studios in these years. I usually decorate eclectically, on a large scale, but this time I decided to do it up like a Victorian house." -HUNT SLONEM