(slow rock music) - The desire to paint actually probably started when I was in high school and I had an art teacher, Mr. Gray.

And he painted weird things, like he would have a monkey smoking a banana so it was surrealism, but Mr. Gray was a big influence.

He painted and I liked the idea.

So I took his art class.

I bet I took his class every year I was in high school.

And he just allowed me to set up an easel and paint.

I'm currently in the painting realm.

I'm trying to be a little more open with my brushwork.

You know, define open.

It's, instead of zeroing in on your brush and ch-ch-ching, which I don't do much of that, but rather seeing the bigger picture, and then you start to weave the brushwork into it.

And I really like that.

And what I love about it, and this may sound kind of, you know, hippie-ish, but I love the smell of the fumes and things.

Not to the point where I'm gonna be spider-legged when I walk out here, but rather it's just so, you know, hands-on.

People who do things on a tablet and do all that, and no offense, I've seen great artwork come off of those things, but I love the feel, I love the smell.

You know, and that's where I go with my paintings.

My subjects are references, but I love still life.

And I plug things in.

And this piece that I've got started now is gonna be a very simple form that will eventually evolve into whatever I want to sprinkle into it.

You know, and that's where I'm at with my oils.

To paint something with the idea that I know what it's gonna look like when it's finished, I have no idea.

And so when I roll into a painting, I have a basic idea for what my focal point's gonna be, whether it's a person or a teapot or whatever it is.

And then after I get that kinda roughed in, it's like, oh, my gosh, there's a huge dead space here.

And I feel like I have to fill it.

I can't let it just be open, and I don't know what it's gonna be until it's over.

And I feel like I've ruined a lot of paintings with that process.

But at the same time, it's more fun in the process of doing that.

And I'll have a lot of clunkers, but once in a while there'll be a really stellar piece that is just purity, old, whatever.

(chuckles) And as I put together these seemingly unrelated parts that all have to do with the flow, the visual flow of the painting, the movement, the unity with the end, as that happens, I'm finding that the things I incorporate are probably, you know, if you wanna interpret what the artist was thinking, you know, but I don't think you can make any interpretations off that, except it's just things I like.

Sculpture is kind of a later thing.

I never really liked three-dimensional art.

But when I finally started appreciating just like in my paintings texture, and form, and all that, that's when sculpture kind of soaked in.

It's like, I really enjoy the process of aging in wood, and in metal, and, you know, with the rust, and all that stuff.

And then just tinkering and putting things together, and doing like the sheet metal sculpture with the wire armature.

And that just was really fascinating.

The crow piece, that was one of my early sculptures, and it starts with a wire armature.

And again, it's the form.

And I just love crows.

There's something magical about a crow.

And so as I'm, you know, liking crows, I'm like, "I'm gonna make a crow."

And so I do this wire armature and just form this thing.

And then originally that was gonna be where it stopped, just kind of an armature.

And I have rusted sheet metal from a barn that totally collapsed, and I harvested all the lumber I could off of it.

And I started seeing in the sheet metal, this amazing patina whether it was rust, whether it was spotted with rust, whatever.

And that, I started saving.

I've got stacks of it from that barn.

And you don't even have to cut it, you just wiggle it, and a csh, a piece comes off.

And so in the crow sculpture, it was perfect.

And it really enhanced the piece, just because it was rusty.

But it was a great enhancement just from, again, found objects and so forth.

I love integrating that.

Twist on its own because I had the features here.

I think if I was gonna suggest anybody who wanted to be an artist, just be an artist.

Don't try to be an artist.

You know, just be.

And you're, you know, living it out and actually doing this thing is so much more gratifying than talking about it and playing the part of an artist.

I think just be.