NKR. How would you describe the relationship you had with Andy?
MS. Casual... close I guess, many times alone with him, but generally I hung around with the staff, the entourage and coteries out and about. Andy did give me a lot a attention. He was always extremely gracious and friendly to me. He would always take my calls at the factory no matter what was going on... meetings, portraits, paintings, once he was painting with Jean Michel and he put him on the phone with me. As we know, Andy loved to talk on the phone. I taped a few conversations. he always wanted to know about personal and sexual things. He would stay on so long... meaning you would always be the one going “well, Andy ... I have to get going”. A few rare times I would have him alone, like walking or in a cab. Once he picked me up in a cab to go to dinner for example ... then at the dinner he would be swallowed up by the all the people at the dinner party. He was so so sweet... kept me at his side and always gracious introducing me to everyone, “this is my friend Mark a photographer from Colorado”. Once at the Factory, he introduced me to the powerful art dealer, Bruno Bischofberger, saying "this is a wonderful photographer” and he should look at his work. Bruno turned and looked at me up and down and said come see me I would love to see ... I was frozen. I think that was one of the moments that made me want to make serious art again ... I had left art school in pursuit of more commercial work in NY ... this and Andy were one of the big reasons I changed back to artist again. That and all my friends were/are artists. So I had a mission ... and soon I was an artist again and got a show, one man show in Soho.

NKR. What are the most significant memories you have of those years u spent in NYC?
MS. I had a zillion amazing, amazing experiences. Being in NY during the 1980's and me in my mid-twenties ... it was the bomb! All the hanging out with the celebs and stuff, of course, was surreal and exciting but... the little things, like walking to and from work ... just walking with new yorkers, feeling I was a part of the city ... feeling that I had made it there, it was so exciting. Ego things, of course, like my first NY solo art show at the Sharp gallery. Seeing your covers of magazines on the stands, being asked by museum curators in other countries to exhibit ... Still, it all falls back to the more simple things ... making friends with really amazing people that I am still close with today.. Riding my bike around the city.

NKR. How much did the "Andy Warhol experience" influence your work as an artist/photographer?
MS. Well, Andy was my super hero when I was in school... but after I got to know him he opened all sorts of mental doors in artist growth for me. He was such a hard worker and he always told me to work hard. He always remembered exactly what I was working on and would follow up with interest how it was going. He was asking for and seeking ideas ... constantly. The couple of years before his death, I pulled back a lot from the factory for reasons cause I wanted Andy to really get excited by something I was doing. >>>


I didn’t want to be just another hanger on, or get trapped being a slave at the factory. I would come by spontaneously.Briged Berlin would be at the desk knitting with her dogs... she would smile and wave me right up ... while sometimes celebs were waiting - that was such a wonderful feeling. He reviewed my work often, looked very closely at i t ... and always said very interesting things. He did not like my soft dreamy Diana camera images ... he thought they were to “old” looking and that I needed to be more modern and sharp. He loved my light painting technique with Polaroid’s and wanted me to do them "all the time" at the factory. When I asked if he would buy the film he said "oh no ... I have to many mouths to feed as it is". If I had it to do my life then over ... I would have hung at the factory everyday ... hanger on ... slave what ever, just to be around him. When Andy died a big part of my life died there too. I moved back to Colorado a couple years later.

NKR. After Andy's death, did you keep in touch with any of the Factory's staff?
MS. Oh yes, Chris Makos is one of my best friends, he comes to visit me in Colorado often and vice versa ... And I have stayed in touch with, and done several projects, Gerard Melanga - he was Andy's printer since the early 60's. Fred Hughes, a hero to me ... he was a major mentor and friend with me till his death in 2001. I miss Fred, he championed my projects, you know, he was who really made Andy Warhol the icon he is. Vincent Fremont I see around at museum functions. I cross paths with Jane Holtzer from time to time.


NKR. Do you have any plans of publishing these photographs?
MS. I would like to do a book someday. For now, I am just getting going, getting some of the images out into the market and with my art dealers, and agents like Corbis. They have never been in the public domain. If a publisher is interested, please contact, noknockroom or myself. I have been working on cataloging/ publishing my family. I have been working on books on my great grandfather, James L. Breese, the photographer in NY in the 1800's... I just finished a little film on my father (Charles Sink), life work as a modernist architect. And a website of my mothers paintings, Ann White, I am letting my gallery go… which has been very hard, but exciting for me to be an artist again. I have re-branded myself.