Alex Bacon interviews painter Sylvia Plimack Mangold about her work.

Plimack Mangold comments: "I think I would have never taken on painting a tree like I do now when I was younger because it really is art. And you might think it’s an accomplishment to paint a ruler or a piece of tape or anything that’s flat, but it isn’t. If you want someone to get satisfied, take a piece of wood and try to paint it. It’s not hard. But if you’re trying to make a painting that’s really interesting in terms of how the paint comes together to form the image, to me that is very hard. It should be so that there’s a balance, so that the image isn’t stronger than the paint, but the space should be overall… I try to not have anything I don’t need in those paintings. And I do try to not overdo something. I want it to be something to experience completely as a whole. If I look at something, and it seems to jump out at me, I remove it… I would say that the experience I want the viewer to have is to enter the painting, and then come back to the surface."