Gurdeep, age 28, had been drawing portraits in Central Park for only a few weeks. He wound up with a one-man show in a gallery in lower Manhattan.

I'm really fascinated by different people, different nationalities, different types of faces, different structures, different type of races. It really gives me an idea to work on the portraits to develop my skills.

I like to discover what makes them different, the structure of the faces. That's really interests me. I come here to learn the faces of different nationalities and develop my skills.

I do abstract painting. I recently visited the Whitney Museum, and I saw they were combining abstraction with representation, so it might be helpful someday, to have done the portraits. You never know what you'll have to express in your next situation. It's all about experience. There's a good possibility I can use all this.

Everything adds to your experience. It's not about the money, it's about experiencing and observing.

I've noticed that here in New York the dogs are very small. I think that's because the apartments are so small.

We are living in the age of total information. The world has become so small now. The idea is that it's no longer that representation is abstracted, it's that ideas are abstracted. So things are changing a lot.

When I came here, after just a few days, the other artists were saying hello, how are you doing. I feel that now I'm being accepted. New York has a big heart. And for me, meeting the people is the pay.