Talk about art therapy. Brad Pitt is waxing poetic about how his new artistic endeavors are helping him cope with his split from Angelina Jolie. (Celebrities—they’re just like us!) The actor has been learning the ropes from sculptor and close friend Thomas Houseago. Now, he’s speaking publicly for the first time about his foray into fine art.

In a new interview with GQ Style, Pitt says: “I’ve literally been squatting in there [Houseago’s studio] for a month now. I’m taking a shit on their sanctity.” He has become something of a studio rat: “I’m making everything. I’m working with clay, plaster, rebar, wood…”

Brad Pitt, GQ Cover Photos by Ryan McGinley exclusively for GQ Style, 2017.

The cover story is accompanied by a series of photos by the photographer Ryan McGinley, who captures the 53-year old actor against the dramatic backdrop of California’s national parks.

Asked what he has planned for the rest of the afternoon after he leaves the interview, Pitt answers like a true artist: “I’m anxious to get to the studio. I think it was Picasso who talked about the moment of looking at the subject, and paint hitting canvas, and that is where art happens. For me I’m having a moment of getting to feel emotion at my fingertips. But to get that emotion to clay—I just haven’t cracked the surface. And I don’t know what’s coming. Right now I know the manual labor is good for me, getting to know the expansiveness and limitations of the materials. I’ve got to start from the bottom, I’ve got to sweep my floor, I’ve got to wrap up my shit at night, you know?”

Now, if only Hollywood’s paparazzi could combine their powers to provide the public with some photos of Pitt’s handiwork.

Brad Pitt, photographed by Ryan McGinley exclusively for GQ Style, 2017.