“I heard about Herb and Dorothy Vogel from other artists and first met them in the 70s. They started visiting my studio in the 90s. When in the studio they always asked about drawings. I would hang my head and say, ‘I�m a bad artist, I don�t make drawings.’ Herb saw diagrams and notes on scraps of paper that I made for myself, reminders of what to do the next morning. He said, ‘These are drawings.’ I said, ‘No they�re not, Herb. They�re just reminders.’ He kept after me about this for many years. I never could find the notes when I went back to a painting, so when I moved to my new studio on Greenwich Street, on one wall I put a sheet of paper for each painting in progress. I would make my notes on those sheets about my plans for the next day and anything else I thought was relevant for the painting. Those pages turned into these drawings. I owe a lot to the Vogels. I had been drawing all along, but I didn�t know it. I had an academic view of drawing from my training at the Studio School. I thought that I needed to stop and figure out a way of drawing, but I didn�t. I just needed to look at what I was doing.”
From John Yau’s conversation with David Reed in The Brooklyn Rail. Reed just had a solo show at Peter Blum Soho.
This story also really stuck out to me when I read the article. Reed is a very humble and eloquent speaker and he says it all so matter of fact and off the cuff.
James Kalm uploaded a great video of Reed's drawing show and it even includes a brief interview. I'm sure you've already seen it, but I'm going to take a second look.