Who's influenced your work?

To be honest, I don't find painters to be very fascinating characters; a lot of them don't inspire me as people, so I'm probably more influenced by people like John Frusciante from the Chili Peppers or Kurt Cobain.

As far as painters go, I was really into Gerhard Richter and photo-realistic approaches; I still love Gottfried Helnwein. But the strongest influences are probably Francis Bacon and L. Freud. I love expressive stuff a lot more: Jenny Saville and Paula Rego are good.

Who or what most inspires you?

Life, I guess. Sometimes very random things might get me inspired, like a documentary about penguins. Mostly stuff that touches me in some way: music and people like Frusciante are definitely inspiring.

Are you working on any projects or pieces at the moment?

Painting is my one constant big project, so I haven't got time for anything else, really.

And what projects have you worked on or helped with in the past?

I don't think I'm the kind of a person who gets involved in group activities, unless we are talking about organizing exhibitions or something similar. I don't like projects. I just try to do stuff. Too much organizing turns me into a dork.

Can you tell us a bit about your previous shows?

Most of them have been in Estonia. I've had six or seven solo exhibits there and only one group show here in Cambridge. Some old exhibits in Estonia sold quite well. Haven't shown any of my recent stuff, though. I'd like to but I need to get more organized for it.

And how would you describe your work?

I'm not so much interested in painting as such, for me it seems to be inevitably the best tool of expression or communication. It provides me with the ability to see at all. I'm quite interested in human nature and our relations with others around us. Conceptually most of it has to do with what goes on in my life. Sexuality, contradictions between instincts and common sense. The visual side is just my taste, how I prefer to see things. I get to a place where I get in contact with what I can only call "beauty" and it doesn't have anything to do with aesthetics. A lot of the visual side is my attempt to get to that place again and maintain it.