on being a painter: i don't care where i fit into history or whether i'm part of this or that school. i paint for the simple reason that i have to. i feel a sense of relief after i do it.

***

the most widely held misconception about me is that i'm a mystic. i'm not. i believe in black and white, i believe organically.

***

(completed cite) on his earlier life as a composer:

part of why i stopped doing music was because it was too hard to control the other people i needed to play the stuff and i'd had enough animal training. when it comes to art i have a real streak of fascism. i want it to be exactly the way i conceive it, and if one line is changed it's like: 'hey, the hell with it, i don't need it'.

***

most people are so damned stupid they can't even see what artists are doing, and if they're appreciated at all during their lifetime, it's usually for the wrong reasons.

***

a lot of people don't know this, but i was painting consistently throughout the '60s and '70s, but i never showed my work then (with the exception of the 1972 liverpool, uk exhibition - t.t.) because i didn't feel like it. i'm happy to show it now though, because the art world is providing a better life for me than music did. it helps, not having to deal with fans, and i'm much better off now.

oh, i've had so much fun since i started just painting because now i don't have to worry about somebody else. i did that music thing for twenty years, and i tell you, i was a damn fool.

(on a rare trip to an exhibit of his paintings in southern california last year he was besieged by captain beefheart fans. he graciously signed autographs for hours, but confided afterward that he hated the experience.)

***

in my music days i used to even paint on stage. sometimes during a song, i'd be doing a painting or a drawing. i didn't care if the audience liked it or not. i just wanted to paint.

***

on the process of making a painting:

i usually see the sun and the moon roll around the sky three or four times before going to sleep. i finally hit that point (where sleep is a necessity). but i fight it.

***
on a certain basketball star:

magic johnson - now there's an artist.

***

comparing the blues efforts of the 'rolling stones' with one of their inspirations, howlin' wolf:

they never quite got it right, did they?

***

it's very difficult to discuss in words what you do with a brush. usually you sound like a naive artist, which is not what i am. everything i do is on purpose.

***

on why he called himself 'captain beefheart':

it came from the beef in my heart about people stealing the land and covering it over; from the beef in my heart about the way people treat animals. it's terrible what we do to animals.

***

on his new home on the coast:

i've only seen about three other people since i've lived here. and i'm not kidding. but then i don't get out much.

***

on his influence on other musicians:

there's a lot of guys who copied me, and i think they're crazy. i think it's a dangerous thing not to be who you are, to try to be somebody else. it doesn't flatter me.

i had been painting since i was little bitty baby boy anyhow, but i got waylaid along the way. that music thing waylaid me for twenty years.

***

on 'another rock musician dabbling in art?':

the people didn't get it. well..., they seldom do. they don't have anything to do with my brush anyway.

***

on admiring painters, like van gogh and willem de kooning:

they're not really an influence on me, though. no one is. i just paint like i paint and that's enough influence.

***

on the fine arts knowledge of his parents:

they were sweet people, but they didn't have a clue. they didn't even know who picasso was.

***

on the death - in december 1993 - of frank zappa:

and then he had to go and die on me. he died too young - way, way too young.

***

i don't think about music anymore. i don't have time to think about it. that would just be keeping me away from the brush. and all i really want to do now, is get as much out as i can through the brush.

***

on not been to one of his exhibitions since 1990:

i don't think being seen in public like that adds anything. i think it's just being commercial. it's just that i don't like getting out when i could be painting. (thinks.) and when i'm painting, i don't want anybody else around. that's all. (laughs.)

*

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captain beefheart electricity
as felt by teejo

^