YO: When did you first feel like an artist?

TB: Well, I have tried not to think of myself as an artist – particularly the older I got, because it sounds kind of pretentious. I admired some artists who called themselves whatever medium they worked in. Like, “I’m a painter,” or “I’m a sculptor” more than “I’m an artist.” I always did like to draw, and other people thought of me as an artist when I was 9 or 10. I guess I really thought I was an artist when I started painting with paints – that was like, okay, you’re doing what the big boys did. [laughing]

YO: About your process – I know that you often take a photograph and kind of collage it…

TB: Yeah, usually I work from a photo – and various degrees of collaging stuff – you know collided on the poor painting. For computer illustrations, I work on the computer. I do a sketch out of ink by hand , and then scan it and the Illustrator program traces it and then I basically fill it in. It is basically paint-by-numbers. You just apply colors to the white areas – they are different blending techniques – it gets kind of sophisticated – but it is still picking a place and putting a color in there, so it’s very similar to raw painting with a brush, without any real technique [laughing]. That’s what I like about the computer stuff – it’s pretty easy and it goes a lot quicker than…oil painting, which is tedious and time consuming.

YO: When you’re painting is it something that you really want to or need to do, or is it just fun, or maybe relaxing?

TB: No, it’s a chore. I have to go: “Now I’m gonna paint. I’m gonna get out the brushes. I’m gonna do it.” You know? And the reason is because in my life now the time I get to paint is between 8:30 and 9 at night. So it’s like, “Most of America is doing what they should be doing – watching Heroes or Lost or whatever – you know, they’re doing it, and here I am, getting out some paints….”

A group of painters I like are the Pre-Raphaelite painters – British Arts and Crafts and they were all so tortured and painted in this realistic way and they would say, our goal is to go out and for one day to paint something the size of a quarter. You know, spend all day on it, just try to capture the reality, and so I thought that was absurd. But now that’s usually my goal, is to “Okay, paint something at least the size of a quarter.” [laughing] Can’t go to bed until it’s done.

Once I’ve started, once I’m mixing paint, it’s fine, but then just getting up and doing it and turning on the light… That’s why I like the computer – it’s so much more convenient. When you’re done: Off! Don’t like it? Control Z!

YO: Why do you do it then, if it’s hard work?

TB: Cause I like the end product. There’s a power in, when it’s done, in going “There it is.” And its oil paint and it’s tedious but boy I can do it, so boy I better do it.

YO: So do you think it’s a need or more of a wish…to paint?

TB: I don’t know if I need to, but I like to – I wish to do it. I can be happy just working in the garden, but well I take that back. I will be working in the garden, and I’ll just get inspirations, like, oh, I gotta make that, I gotta paint that, I gotta do that. So I do get inspired, and I have to follow that through, to see if it’s a good idea. So I do get that impulse.