Chuck Close on Art

"Why make art? Because I think there's a child's voice in every artist saying: 'I am here. I am somebody. I made this. Won't you look?' The first painting ever was by some artist at Lascaux or Altamira or wherever, who put his hand on the wall and then blew soot through a straw around his hand. What is it about people that since the dawn of time we've wanted to mark our presence so that other people will see it? I man, people always wonder how paintings get made. How do they magically transcend their physicality? How do you take a stick with hairs on it, rub it in colored dirt, wipe it on a piece of cloth wrapped around some wood and make space where it doesn't exist? I am no closer to understanding it today than when I began."