I was a weedy kid not like one of those working-class men who can accommodate not being academically clever by physical strength and prowess.

I thought I was gonna be an attorney so I went to Dartmouth and I was a government major and I minored in environmental policy and I didn't do anything academically around the arts.

I also take pleasure in the so-called negative power in Grotjahn's work. That is I love his paintings for what they are not. Unlike much art of the past decade Grotjahn isn't simply working from a prescribed checklist of academically acceptable curator-approved 'isms' and twists.