UV: Tell us about your method.
PJ: I paint very quickly. I do not pay much attention to technique. The most important thing for me is to catch "the moment," to freeze the emotion.

UV: Are you an East Bay native? If not, where did you come from and what drew you here?
PJ: I'm originally from Belgium. Having heard about the hippy movement in Berkeley, I decided in 1969 to come to the U.S. to check out the scene. My God, it is now 2001! I guess I liked it, because I'm still here.

UV: Who or what are your biggest influences?
PJ: Aside from Picasso, of course, the Spanish painter Joan Miro has influenced my work for a long time.

UV: What were you thinking when you made this piece on the cover?
PJ: Woman, Chicken & Soup was part of a series of collage/acrylic paintings. I completed this piece right after a trip to Indonesia. I tried to capture the cultural clash I experienced after returning to the USA. It is a depiction of life's simplicity.

UV: What is art?
PJ: For me, art is three dimensional poetry. It is illusive and at the same time visionary. Like good poetry, art speaks to that part of life which we do not understand.