What is your medium now? (oils, acrylic, pastel, watercolor...) What medium have you always wanted to use, but haven't yet? What mediums have you used in the past? Why do you prefer your current medium?

I use watercolor now. I would like to try water soluble oils. There are no odors as with oil paints and various cleaners (turpentine, etc). There is less time to set up and break down of equipment. The watercolor paints dry within 3 to 5 minutes. And if the painting turns out poorly, my only loss is a very small amount of paint and a piece of watercolor paper. I can turn it over and paint on the reverse side.

When do you know a painting is really finished? Or are you always wanting to "tweak" it a bit more?

Percentage wise, I could guess 2 out of 10 paintings I am satisfied with as a finished piece of work. 6 out of 10, I will go back and add a little here, a little there, but not to all 6 paintings. Maybe 3 or 4 out of the 6 get tweaked. I don't have time to tweak all of them. It's best to just leave some alone so that it shows the progress made over the years as to style, technique, development, etc. And then there are 2 or 3 out of 10 that get thrown away.

What time of day are you most creative? Early morning? Afternoon? Early evening? Late at night?

Creativity is an energy, power, force that is innate within us all. It is instilled within the minds and hearts of all mankind. There is also an energy, power, force akin to creativity that flows into and around the earth. These energies that flow into and around the earth and humankind are the greatest in the early morning hour and reaches it's peak at noon, and dissipates as the day comes to an end. There was a time when I would get up early and paint before going to work on my regular job. And on my job, when everyone went to lunch, I would sit at my desk and paint. I didn't eat lunch. I just painted roses. I painted roses every day and sold them to the secretaries at work. Sometimes people would come and just watch me paint while they ate their lunch. Actually I can paint at anytime of the day. I can't always paint in the early morning hours, but I paint several hours a day.

What do you think creates artistic blocks? How do you solve them?

Fear and Doubt-which gives rise to low self esteem. Also drugs and alcohol and stress. These things block the flow of psychic and Spiritual energy. My advice to those who have blocks is to look at some Art books before they paint. This I believe is the fastest way- it stimulates that which is called "Creativity/Inspiration/Imagination" instilled within. There are also other ways to dissolve blockages but that would take another ten pages! We all have stress in our lives that stem from various reasons. I don't have artistic blocks. I can pick up a brush anytime and paint. Do I have stress in my life? On occasion. I would be lying if I said 'no'. I eliminate my stress with meditation. I have been meditating for over 30 years. In fact, I teach meditation one night a week in my studio. I have another Meditation group that meets once a month that was started 30 years ago. Meditation "expands" creativity and imagination.

Do you support yourself from your art? Or do you have another job? Or are you retired? How does this affect your time to paint?

Yes, in part. I am an Ordained Spiritual Minister. I make my living as a Psychic/Medium. I also give "Psychic Readings " over the phone. People call and book time for a reading, then they come over for the appointed time. This really cuts into the time I have to paint.

Though most of us prefer working outdoors, do you prefer a studio where you live or maintaining a separate space? Why?

I didn't like to go outdoors to paint in Tennessee, mainly because of the rattlesnakes. My twin brother didn't mind at all. One time he let a snake crawl right over his foot. But another time he counted five snakes in this one field and decided it would be best if he left. Which he did! I like to paint outdoors with the WSLP members. I feel closer to nature when I paint outside. I used to go out often and take pictures with my Minolta 35 mm camera. Then paint from the photos in my studio. Now, I tend to want to go sit outside and pain

Have you had a personal mentor? If yes, who? and how did he/she help you?

I went to work for the American Auto Association in 1965 as a cartographer. At night I worked across the hall in the graphics dept. I did pen & ink sketches of the various hotels and motels displayed in the AAA Tour books. I only did that for about a year or two. I also hid my name in some of the pen & ink sketches. Soon after my employment, I heard there was another artist on the 5th floor. I went up and introduced myself. He asked me if I liked abstract art and I made fun of it. He just smiled at me and said, "My name is Gene Davis, and I paint stripes". I never heard of him so I said, "Oh! I'd like to see some of your work". He said he'd like to see some of mine also. So the next day we met at break time over coffee. We had many conversations after that and became good friends. He taught me all about Modern Art, Abstract Art. The difference between a hard edge painting and bleedings and drippings and everything else in between. Later he formed a paint group and I joined. One day after class he asked me if I could come in one or two hours before everyone else. I helped him to set up for his paintings. He would roll the unsized canvas cotton duck #10, out on the floor. Then we used a long 2 x 4 to draw the pencil lines on the canvas. Many of the lines were 4" apart. Sometimes he would make a little tic mark and move it over another 4" and draw the pencil lines. He would mark it from the 1/2 way mark down to the bottom. I, on the other side, started from the center and drew the pencil line down to the bottom on my side. Sometimes he would use a measuring stick to mark off 6" or 12" or more. We would then draw our lines together working all the way across the room until we got to the end of the canvas. Then we would put masking tape very carefully along a 2" line, skip a couple, tape a couple, skip a couple, until we got to the end again. He would NOT let me mix the paint. And he would NOT let me apply the paint. Then he would paint in between the two strips of tape. When it was dry, we would peel the tape. That was the fun part for me. Then we would put tape on the ones we had skipped and then he would paint them. After they dried, we would peel off the tape. I helped him at this for about 6-7 months. I was in his "Painters Studio Group" for about two years.

I learned a great deal from my friend, Gene. One day he said, "I need a bigger piece of canvas. Go over and look in that closet and see if there is more in there". I opened the door and there were these really bad paintings of drippings and abstract work. I looked at him and said "Did you paint these?" He turned a little red in the face and said, "I painted those years ago trying to find myself before painting stripes". He said, "Would you like to have them? Take them home if you want". I said, "Thanks, but you keep them. Who knows? Maybe one day someone will buy them". Two weeks later I went in and he said - "Help me get these out and dust them off. Somebody actually wants to buy this crap". He taught me how to stretch canvas. I painted a number of abstracts. I gave them away. (In the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, I painted a series of paintings in oil. They were abstracts. The first was "Segregation", the second was "Integration", the third "Integration w/ Violence"...4th and 5th I can't remember. I gave them to an African American friend named Mr. Toni Daniels. He lived in DC,) After he died I painted a number of strip paintings, but they are not for sale or exhibit.

Another mentor was Rudoph Wendelin. He painted Smokey the Bear. We met through a mutual friend.(The mutual friends were Silva Mind Control graduates who I met as program director for Silva). We had planned to publish a book together on landscapes. I went to his home many times, tape recording our conversations that would form the various chapters of our book. He died suddenly in an automobile accident, so we never finished the book.

My other mentors are actually all the members of WSLP. I love to watch them paint. I even videotaped some of them painting back in 1992-1993.

Where do you find your greatest inspiration?

Looking at a few art books at times. But the one thing I do before I paint is to Meditate quietly, visualizing that energy called "creativity" as a white light flowing down from above, entering through the top of my head, connecting with my mind, my heart, and flowing out of my hands. After two or three minutes I open my eyes and draw or paint. When I finish a painting (and it's dry) I hold it in my hands, close my eyes, take three deep breaths and visualize my "energy", my "vibration", a "part of me", the "I AM of me"going into and becoming one with the painting. Then I frame it.

Any advice for those contemplating life as an artist?

Contemplating is a good choice of words. It is contemplating quietly that leads to meditation, and it is meditation that leads to an awakening of the intuitive senses which flings wide the door to imagination and inspiration and creativity.

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