What are the motifs in Why I Am Not a Painter by Frank O'Hara?

Identity is a recurring idea in the poem. O'Hara had worked on and off at the Museum ofModern Art since 1952 and counted many of the famous painters of the day among his friends. With O'Hara being so closely involved with the world of visual art, it was inevitable that he would be questioned as to why he himself was not a painter, especially at a time when painters from the "New York School"—as opposed to poets from the "New York School"—had gained a great amount of attention in the media. Implied, of course, is the question of whether O'Hara might not be somewhat envious of the attention his painter friends were receiving while he, as a poet, was not publicly celebrated to quite the same degree.