From Blackboard to Canvas: John Keaton's Artistic Journey

Rich Bennett 0:00
As most of you know I run Harford County living dot com and for years. Well first of all when I started 2012 it was hard to find good positive answers. It's still hard to find good positive news. That's why I don't put any negative news on there. I always feature an artist of the week, a Restaurant of the Week, Business of the Week, and the nonprofit of the week. And lately, it's been hard to find an Artist of the week because I always want to. One of the things I like is when they have a website because you have the about section, it makes it a lot easier to write up the article. And when you not everybody has social media. So when I wrote the article on my Web site, you can't really pull a lot of stuff off of social media, whether it be photos, you know, you know all that stuff. So I had this gentleman contact me. He emailed me and I'm looking at his website. I'm like, Holy cow, what does he do? He does everything. So I have John Keating on, who is a former Air Force. He's an artist. He's an author. He's a musician. He's a songwriter. He's a designer as well. Right. What don't you do? 

John Keaton 1:19
Never late for dinner. 

I love it. 

Rich Bennett 1:24
Well, he's not a podcaster yet. No. Yeah, that might be the next thing. 

John Keaton 1:28
That's my next thing. Right. 

Rich Bennett 1:30
So. Well, first of all, welcome, John. 

John Keaton 1:32
Thank you so much. 

Rich Bennett 1:33
How did you get into, I guess, the arts? When did it start? 

John Keaton 1:38
Well, I'll tell you, I was I was about five years old. Okay. And I was so often my in and of mind would babysit me, would take care of me when my parents were working or whatever. And I. I stayed at her house and of course, she couldn't speak or communicate or hear even. So I was about five. So we arranged to have a blackboard in the kitchen, and whenever I wanted to communicate something with her, I would simply draw it on the blackboard. Okay. So there was like a little step store, and I would step up there with the chalkboard and sort of like, for example, I wanted a glass of Hawaiian punch. You know, we would write, you know, typical of her five year old. So I would draw the can of Hawaiian punch and a glass to explain to her what I wanted. Right. And that was my way of communicating with her interest. So I enjoyed doing this so much that I was nonstop drawing on the blackboard. And then they all sort of caught wind of that, and then they got me colored chalk. So then I would be doing color. And ever since that was my first exposure to, I guess, visual communication. Right. So, you know, that's how I basically got into art is through communicating with my my handicap and well, that's a wonderful story and it's true. And I tell everyone, you know, that everyone has an inner artist's right inside of them. And I like to teach art and painting. I thrive on that. I always say I aspire to inspire and so I'm always looking for the inner artist in everyone. And I try and sort of pull that out of that, right. And so they can understand the joy of creativity. 

Rich Bennett 3:32
You're right. And everybody's got it. I just had a guest on not too long ago and they said, because we are talking about how the brain works, right? And he said, if you keep saying you can't do it, you're not going to be able to. That's right. If you say you can, the brain believes it and then you're going to be able to write. That's one thing I would because I used to love drawing. Right. And I need to get back to doing it. But first, I'm in the process of writing my books. I got I got to do that first and then the drawing. So. So that was it. Five. 

John Keaton 4:05
That was a five. Okay. And now 64 years old now. So I. You really I've been doing this my whole life. Pretty much. Yeah. I it's it's more than a obsession. It's more than a passion. It's. It's like my whole life. Okay. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 4:19
So elementary school, I tell you, you're still doing your art. Oh, yeah. Now, when you're. 

John Keaton 4:23
Up in to high school. Yes. 

Rich Bennett 4:24
Okay, So when you were in high school. 

John Keaton 4:26
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 4:27
What was your plan? What did you want to do after high school? 

John Keaton 4:31
While I was in high school, I would take the train. I'm from Pennsylvania County originally, so. Yes, I'm a transplant here in Oregon, but I would go to Philadelphia College of Art at nighttime on the train. I was an art major in in high school, but I would go to night classes and painting at the Philadelphia College of Art on the train at nighttime. 

Rich Bennett 4:57
Wow. 

John Keaton 4:58
And then I loved it, you know? And so we had life drawing. We had, like, you know, live models, painting. And that was, of course, a very exciting thing at the time. And then I children's book illustration, interestingly enough, and I had a drawing, so, you know, wow, that was my. But I was a fine art major. Okay. Which, you know, it's kind of there's not a lot of bright futures for that. But, you know, it's sort of like I made it happen. You got to make it happen. Life you have to make happen. Yeah. It doesn't fall upon you like some magical thing. 

Rich Bennett 5:31
Yeah. Now, I take it. Now this is your full time job. 

John Keaton 5:35
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Okay, well, I consider myself sort of retired, but I. I never stop. So you're like me? Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 5:42
You never going to retire? 

John Keaton 5:43
Like doing what? Like I spend. I have very strange sleeping habits. Like, I'll sleep for three and a half hours a night, like. Or in a in a in a stretch. Okay. I'll wake up and I'll paint and varnish or frame or do my artwork for like four or 5 hours. Maybe eat something and write, go back to sleep again and do the same thing over and over and over. Wow. That's all I do. That's all I do. I don't. I never sleep for 8 hours. Never. 

Rich Bennett 6:10
Interesting. Yeah. You're probably like me because there's. I mean, I go to bed, but it used to be because when I used to watch the news, I don't watch anything negative anymore. Yeah. You get those bad dreams or whatever. 

John Keaton 6:23
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 6:24
Now it's the opposite. I'll be dreaming and I'll have a good thought in my dream. Then I gotta get up and go write it down. Then we'll be able to get back to sleep because I'm focused on that right instead. So you went to college? No. You're going to college at night. During high school. Did you go it into college ready after high school? Did you go into the military first? 

John Keaton 6:43
I went into the military. Okay. Yeah, because I was only took the courses at Philadelphia, you know, at the nighttime. I never went there during the day. And because I always wanted to see the world. So I joined the Air Force. I saw the commercials, you know, the ra the Halls of Montezuma, you know. 

Rich Bennett 7:01
So you go into the Air Force for years, I take it. All right, All right. What did you do in the air? 

John Keaton 7:05
I was an I was a fireman. I drove fire trucks and I worked on the flight line and the control tower for the fire department. 

Rich Bennett 7:15
All right, wait a minute. So when you went to the recruiter. 

John Keaton 7:19
I told him I wanted to be graphic. Of course, you know. Okay, back in those days, you could not choose. Right? Was not like a, you know. Yeah. You. You. You got what? You got what they told you. And that was designed according to your aptitude test, right? So, you know, so you see, I'm a fireman and they and they and I submit myself, why over all these years I like why I never wanted to be in the fire department. Yeah, I loved it. I had a great experience. Well, I don't regret it by any stretch of the imagination, but I never it wasn't my goal. Yeah. And I just sort of went with the flow and said, Oh, you know, I'll just do this for, for now. And but I loved I went to Germany, I saw I lived in Germany for three years, I speak fluent German and I lived in Germany actually beyond my military time. I worked for the Air Force. Well, for my service was for years. I came back one year in California, Georgia Air Force Base. Then I went back as a civilian and worked for the Army as a food serve. 

Rich Bennett 8:22
Germany. 

John Keaton 8:23
In Germany? Yeah, as a food service worker on the base. On the air base. 

Rich Bennett 8:28
All right. So when you were in Germany. Yeah, because sure, like me, I love food. 

John Keaton 8:33
Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 8:34
You know, if I go to other countries, even other states or whatever, you got to try the food. Yeah, but if you be an artist when you're in Germany, I'm sure you went to the museums and everything. 

John Keaton 8:45
Oh, yeah? Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 8:46
How was the art over there? Say, compared to here? 

John Keaton 8:52
Well, of course, it's steeped in tradition, right? I mean, the history is just, you know, overwhelmingly deep. Yeah. I mean, it's because you're you're talking. America is like a couple of hundred years old, right? And Europe is thousands of years. Yeah. So, you know, you'd be walking down the street, you see a building, it's a couple thousand years old, next to a modern high sky rise, you know, whereas here and those buildings were built to last, right? You know, whereas here in America, everything is a little bit more, uh, temporary, a more kind of. It's not built for that. 

Rich Bennett 9:26
Built. 

John Keaton 9:26
It's not built to last. Yeah, but. 

Rich Bennett 9:28
It's not now. 

John Keaton 9:29
Right. But, you know, there's a great spirit in America. And America is a beautiful is is the most beautiful concept 

they could ever be. Because you can come here as an immigrant and you can make your own way if you work hard. And it really is true that there is the American dream. Yes. And there's nothing quite like that in Europe. So but Europe has the beauty, the culture, the history, all of that, the romance, it's just great. But, you know, there are two very separate worlds, you know. 

Rich Bennett 10:06
That's. Yeah, because I've always been fascinated by art and everything and all the different countries. Yeah. And it's so another friend of mine who I had on, he owns an Empire Dojo. Mm hmm. Well, they learn. I'm going to get it. Sorry, Louis. If I get that, I'm not even going to try to pronounce what you call it. But the Japanese writing, which is an art. 

John Keaton 10:31
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 10:32
And him and Sidney, who also is a sensei, they learned it. But just if you watch them do it, that's one thing which is very beautiful to watch somebody do. Yeah. Then whoever thought that writing would be beautiful. 

John Keaton 10:46
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 10:47
But it is. It's an art. At least the Japanese, right? Mm hmm. And then when I was over in Japan, just the art in general was amazing. You don't see anything like that here in the States? 

John Keaton 11:00
No. 

Rich Bennett 11:01
So. All right, so you started off as an, I guess you could say, as an illustrator. 

John Keaton 11:06
Illustrator. 

Rich Bennett 11:07
Drawn on the chalkboard. Your and then I guess from there you went into painting or painting? 

John Keaton 11:12
Yes, I started with oil painting. Okay. Which is actually the most difficult budget. Well, it's the most difficult of the mediums because it takes a long time to dry. Oh, okay. It just has a whole other texture and working capability. That acrylic say. So now I try. I did that for many, many years. I love I love oil painting, but it's more of a procedure. There's a lot more involved than painting in acrylic. Painting is acrylic. Does that plop the paint down, add some water? You know, they're. Yeah, but oil paint is really got to be more of a chemist kind of where you mixing linseed oil and turpentine and then you've got two different colors that are all ground really. Yeah. So it's a little bit more involved. 

Rich Bennett 11:59
Yeah. I didn't realize all that went into that. 

John Keaton 12:01
Yeah, sure. And the oil paints are much more expensive too. Yeah. On the, on the mark. 

Rich Bennett 12:06
Holy cow. You know, so I tricky to find somebody that does oil paintings. Probably rare now. 

John Keaton 12:13
But. Well there's, there's quite a few but I would say that you know I once asked my high school art teacher, I said what is you know, the how oil paints the last four hundreds and hundreds of bright obviously. Right. So how about acrylics? Do they last? I said, well, it's too soon to tell, but yeah, because they're a fairly recent invention. Yeah. The plastic or, you know, the acrylic paints they were embedded in like the fifties, sixties, you know, So that's when they first came out. 

Rich Bennett 12:43
Well, what I see a lot of people doing watercolors. 

John Keaton 12:46
Watercolors is a whole other world. Whole other world. 

Rich Bennett 12:49
I would think that that wouldn't last as long. 

John Keaton 12:51
Well, they're just watercolors, a whole other 

talent unto itself, because, okay, you have to paint very quickly and the amount of water is going to determine the transparency. Oh, so it's not like adding white and creating a lighter color. It's adding more water to lighten up a darker color. 

Rich Bennett 13:14
Okay. 

John Keaton 13:15
So you got a lot of transparency going on. Yeah, a lot more technique involved and it takes a lot more practice. And once if you make a mistake in watercolor, it's it's more difficult to cover it up and fix it than it is, let's say acrylic. Really. Right. Or oil. Yeah. Now, do. 

Rich Bennett 13:33
You do all three? 

John Keaton 13:34
I do all three, but I don't do many. 

Rich Bennett 13:36
Watercolors, as you say. So what's your favorite to do? Oil? 

John Keaton 13:40
I would say it's sort of a tossup, but I kind of lean towards acrylics more, really, because I'm so used to them. Yeah. And but from time to time, I'll return to oil for that sort of that classic vibe. Right. You know, and you can get a lot more color range and depth in oil that you can't really get with the acrylics. Okay. 

Rich Bennett 14:03
Yeah, I see. 

John Keaton 14:04
I see a lot of times where I try and do ridges. I'll try and fool people by doing a painting that looks like it's done in oil, but it's actually in acrylic. Yeah, okay. It's also a question of transparency, right? Opaque, transparent colors, making things look. 

It's sort of an illusion, you know, where you can get a lot of transparency in oil because you're mixing chemicals, basically oil and linseed oil, and that's creating the layers. You create layers in oil, whereas in acrylic, you might create some layers, but not quite as many as you would like. Mona Lisa has about 30 layers of paint on it. Really? Oh, yeah. It took about 30 years to paint from Leonardo da Vinci. I had no idea. Wow. 

Rich Bennett 14:53
So three layers of paint. That woman that's looking at everybody. 

John Keaton 14:57
And 30 layers. 30 layers of paint. The scientists have dissected it. You know, the expert said, well, and that's why it has this incredible, you know, okay, so you have the enigmatic smile. But if you look at the landscape behind the Mona Lisa, the depth and the clarity of the of the background is what is really astounding. Hmm. So take a look at the background some. 

Rich Bennett 15:27
Time with the eye. So one of my favorite artists was always Thomas Kinkade. What did he use to, you know, he. 

John Keaton 15:33
He was the oil. He was oil. Okay. Yeah. Okay. He did the cottages and then. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 15:39
What do you what they call him the Artist of Light. 

John Keaton 15:41
Yeah, the artist. Yeah, that's right. 

Rich Bennett 15:43
Yeah. Yeah. Got. I wish I had some of this stuff now. You and you actually teach classes, right? 

John Keaton 15:48
I teach classes for children starting age five or so. Okay. But actually, I teach more young adults and older, older, older folk, and there's two hour sessions. I teach acrylic primarily. Okay. And there's like a 50 minute break in between. But it's very casual. And so you. 

Rich Bennett 16:09
Don't go into depth about how. Yeah, everything to add and all that. 

John Keaton 16:14
Well if I get it, if they let me, okay, I get a chance. Yeah. I'll talk their ear off. But I like it has to be fun. Yeah. If it's not fun, people are not going to do it, you know? I mean, they're there to learn, but they want to have fun doing it. So I try to make it fun and I try and concentrate on what they want to paint. Okay. So I say initially there's a conversation. What would you like to paint? What what are your goals and aspirations as a as a budding artist? Right. And so they'll tell me outright what they what they see themselves doing. And so I sort of pick that from that and decide. But I have lesson plans that I've developed over the years. Okay. So I have my own sort of curriculum and I have my own method and style of teaching. It's individual teaching. I teach on an individual basis. So one on one I get tutoring, but I also teach classes, group classes. Okay, As an exception. 

Rich Bennett 17:13
Have you ever thought about going to the college and teaching? 

John Keaton 17:15
I I'm more recently. I wasn't thinking of doing that. I was thinking of doing it remotely, actually, because I'm just too lazy to drive and 

I like this remote thing. Yeah, Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 17:27
It does make a big. 

John Keaton 17:28
Sort of Get out of bed. Turn. Oh, Peter, there you are. 

Rich Bennett 17:31
Yeah, It'd be like John. Professor John, while you're in your pajamas. 

John Keaton 17:34
Yeah. Have another cup of coffee. 

Rich Bennett 17:37
Well, that's savvy. Realize all that about the oils and the acrylics and all. Yeah. 

John Keaton 17:42
Oh, yeah. It's. There's a lot to. 

Rich Bennett 17:44
So it's not just an art. It's a science. 

John Keaton 17:47
I always say. Especially oil paints. Yeah. Yeah. And the. The myriad of colors are so many colors to choose from. Well, you know, oil paints are made from minerals. They're ground stones. So, you know, way back in the 16th, 17th century, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, they didn't go to Michael's and buy tubes. Well, yeah, that's true. They they they had to make these colors. Wow. So they were like alchemists. They were like scientists as well. 

Rich Bennett 18:16
You know, I never thought about it like that. 

John Keaton 18:18
They didn't sell the tubes of paint. You know, back then, it was a new invention. 

Oh, wow. Yeah. So when I'm teaching, I like to throw in historical sayings, things about art history. 

Rich Bennett 18:33
Yeah, I love. 

John Keaton 18:34
So it's an all income passing sort of class when you're with me. 

Rich Bennett 18:39
Well, to me, I think it would give the student a 

more. They would appreciate it a lot more the art a lot more. 

John Keaton 18:49
Right. 

Rich Bennett 18:49
Because if you I mean you know the history about what goes into it to me. Yeah it makes it that much better. 

John Keaton 18:57
Yeah. And there's always stories Zimbabwe paintings and Yeah. And we particular artists and if you know a lot about artists in the artists lives, then it makes it really easy to make that interesting for someone else. Right. You know, like I'll say, Oh, what that looks like, you know, Honoré Matisse, you know, who's like, who would specialize in juxtaposition of different patterns and things, you know, textile patterns, for example. And they'll say, Oh, yeah, that's right. You know, so they'll they'll start to think along those lines, too. Yeah. And they'll put two and two together and then they'll say, Yeah, that's kind of like much. So they're learning art history, they're learning about composition, theory, design, principles, perspective, drawing all these things wrapped into one. But it all happens in a two hour session. 

Rich Bennett 19:49
Wow. You know. All right, So when you go to the art museum, you always see the art. 

John Keaton 19:53
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 19:54
Do you know of any museum where where? Like maybe you have one of Van Gogh's brushes or something like that? 

John Keaton 20:02
Well. 

Rich Bennett 20:03
I think that would be neat. 

John Keaton 20:04
Well, see, I seen they had the palette, his palettes like. 

Rich Bennett 20:08
Oh, really? 

John Keaton 20:08
Yeah, They up in the Netherlands would be things like that because that's where he was from. 

Rich Bennett 20:13
So I just think that would I mean, to, to be able to see something like, oh my God, look, this is what Michelangelo used to watch. Yeah. To see that stuff just to me. 

John Keaton 20:25
It's just adds. 

Rich Bennett 20:26
More to. 

John Keaton 20:27
It. Yeah. Well there's so much. 

Rich Bennett 20:28
There because you can see what they did with. 

John Keaton 20:30
Yeah. Which was not, you know, not. 

Rich Bennett 20:33
Not like what you're getting today. 

John Keaton 20:34
At Michael's yesterday. Right. No, this episode. 

Rich Bennett 20:37
Is not sponsored by Google. 

John Keaton 20:39
Or Hobby Lobby yet. Oh I forgot about that one. Oh oh, oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 20:44
Wow. That's amazing. I didn't I. 

John Keaton 20:47
Yeah, I. 

Rich Bennett 20:48
Didn't realize. 

John Keaton 20:48
So. So children, you know, people really enjoy my classes because I tailor it to what they want to do. Right. You know, and because there's no point in forcing, you know, okay, we're going to pay this today. You know, up there like a kind of a dictator, Right? I know. 

Rich Bennett 21:07
Now your classes are in person right now. Oh, they're. 

John Keaton 21:09
In-Person. Oh, they're all in-person. Okay. There. Where I live, you know, they have degrees at your house. Well, I'm renting a studio, okay. And they go in the studio. 

Rich Bennett 21:19
Have you actually thought about because I'm your art from what I saw from your website. Amazing. Thank you. Have you ever thought about doing virtual classes for like, if somebody from England or Germany wants to take a class? 

John Keaton 21:31
Well, you know, I'm a great admirer of Bob Ross. I like Bob Ross. 

Rich Bennett 21:36
I like his coloring book. That's an adult coloring book. Yep. Okay. 

John Keaton 21:40
I love Bob Ross and I love everything. He was just the most wonderful guy. I mean, of course, the hair, I don't know. But that was back then. 

Rich Bennett 21:49
I wish I had that hair. 

John Keaton 21:50
But, you know, he he was very, very sincere about what he was doing. And he he loved nature and he loved life itself. And that that shows through. Yeah. In his in his programs. And I like to do that. I would like to do that. I would like to sort of be the next Bob Ross if I were granted the privilege. You know, I'm not I'm a little bit more versatile than he is and yeah, of themes and but my excitement does not wane when it comes to painting. 

Rich Bennett 22:20
Kelly Jorah if you're listening, I think Harvard TV needs like an artist. Surely it could be painting with John Keaton. 

John Keaton 22:29
There we. 

Rich Bennett 22:29
Go, singing. 

John Keaton 22:30
Step by step painting. 

Rich Bennett 22:31
Actually, my father, I think that's how my father learned to paint, really. He was always watching Bob Ross, and then he started dabbling a. 

John Keaton 22:38
Lot with the Bob Ross thing. So, you know, their time told classic things. They still hold true. I mean, you use certain brushes for certain techniques. 

Rich Bennett 22:47
And the knives. 

John Keaton 22:49
The nut, the palette knives or whatever, or you have you have flat brushes, you have round brushes, you have liners and sable brushes and all this and or a, you know, a fan brush. It will be used for, let's say for college imagery. Right. Or the feathers on a bird, you know, so you know the different uses of these brushes. So once you know that you really have got to me because and that's one thing I teach my my students as well right. Is they this brushes for this, this brushes for that. These colors work together. Well, these do not okay, you know, like complementary colors basically how to mix colors, how to make colors. For example, if you take you had a black color. Okay. So a lot of people say, oh, well, I have black I have black paint. You know, if you take black and you add, let's say, ultramarine blue to it or like a fallow blue, you can make it more intense black. So there's all these little nuances and all these things that I have learned over the years that make my classes valuable, right? Because that little bit of information can change the entire scenario of the painting, right? 

Rich Bennett 24:02
Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. So who were actually three of your favorite artists? 

John Keaton 24:10
My painters. 

Rich Bennett 24:11
Painters? Painters. 

John Keaton 24:12
Yeah. And, well, we've talked about, you know, Michelangelo, right? Would definitely be one. Okay, Leonardo, They're way up there. You know, I also like Peter Paul Rubens a lot who's more of a Flemish painter from. Okay, but a brilliant, brilliant painter, you know, I like some of the modern art, too, even though it's a little bit more manufactured. You know, I get a kick out of, let's say, Andy Warhol things with a marilyn Monroe. I get a kick out of it. You know, I don't take it quite as seriously. But I, I admire the humor in it. And yeah, the social commentary, because art is about is about social commentary. You know, I mean, when you're making a statement, right, when you design something, you are saying something, right? You're saying, hey, this is a beautiful tree, this is a beautiful sunset. Is it a sunrise or is it a sunset? Is the glass half full or half empty? That all is up to you, right? I mean, so your attitude determines your attitude. If you decide it's a sunrise, then it's a sunrise. It's a sunrise. Yeah. But it could just as easily be a sunset. Right? 

Rich Bennett 25:28
Interesting. 

John Keaton 25:28
Yeah. So it's all, I guess. 

Rich Bennett 25:29
It depends on what wall it's hanging up on, right. Whether the east wall or to us. 

John Keaton 25:33
That to that too. But it's all in your attitude. Yeah. It's all in 

positivity 

spreads more positive. 

Rich Bennett 25:43
Right. You know the law of attraction. Yeah. So I then you you you've done books. How many books have you done? 

John Keaton 25:51
I wrote four books about my paintings. Course. Okay. If there's four volumes, The first one was called Joy and Sorrow. The second one is called Rich React. The third one is called Sunset Dreams, and the fourth one was called Serenity. And each of them are a collection of 56 paintings of mine, and they're available at Amazon. There's books. And then I started recently, I wrote a children's book. Okay. And that's my that's my first children's book. 

And it's about a giraffe named Gigi, who flies to Paris in a plane, in a prop plane. And it's very exciting. And it took me many years to do the illustrations. It's done in sort of a Disney retro style, right? And everything is done, excuse me, by hand. So it's not a computer generated book I wanted it to had that sort of Walt Disney look from the year old feel. Yeah, the retro look. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 26:50
So with the art books, is it just your paintings or do you also talk about the paintings in it? 

John Keaton 26:56
Oh, yeah, I talk about the paintings. Okay. The way it's the way that one is laid out, which is it'll say it. It talks about the origin of the painting. My inspiration for doing the painting where the painting is now certain design factors or certain historical information about the painting. Okay. My whole purpose of wanting to paint it is contain their good. And then on the adjacent page you see the painting, and then there's a quotation from a famous might be an artist or statesman or a politician that applies to the painting and gives you sort of a food for thought, right? So it is all sort of linked together. Okay, So you have 56 of those. So it's kind of an interesting concept there. 

Rich Bennett 27:43
And what year did you release the first one? 

John Keaton 27:45
The first one was 2011. 

Rich Bennett 27:47
2011. Yeah. Okay. So because I don't know of many artists that really do that because and I've always told my my cousin's a photographer, a phenomenal photographer. Right? And I've always told him he should do that. Mm. Would you don't see a lot of photographers do that either. What would you do with putting your art in a book like that. Has it helped with more people I guess, noticing your art? 

John Keaton 28:13
Well, I would say the first I wrote four books about my paintings. It never stopped me from painting. Right. But it got to the point where I was sort of cataloging my own work that way. Okay. Yeah. And I sort of it was very tiresome after a while, and because I really just wanted to paint, right? So I just started after the fourth book. I said, Well, I'm not going to do that for a while because they take a long time to produce these books. So I said, I'm going to take more time and just paint, okay? And then I'll catch up later on. But now it's like overwhelming to catch up because I painted so many in the meantime. Yeah. That hundreds. Hundreds. I painted hundreds and hundreds of paintings of my life, you know, probably thousands. 

Rich Bennett 28:57
So sure. In the back of the books, those are tell people where they can buy your paintings. 

John Keaton 29:00
You could you could buy my paintings directly from me or from galleries. I have three main galleries. Okay. United States. We like I have a I'm with a gallery in New Hampshire and with a gallery in Boston. Nice. And while I'm doing this show coming up here right in Havre de Grace, 

so I'm looking for galleries. You know, my goal is to do some galleries in Europe and things like that. So you be all over, you know, But for the main part, I just paint. 

Rich Bennett 29:30
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, they'll be in the galleries. 

John Keaton 29:33
Thank you. Yeah, I know they will. 

Rich Bennett 29:34
Thank you. So you what? What gave you the idea to write this? 

John Keaton 29:40
Gigi is a book about friendship, number one. It's about the power of friendship. And it's a very charming story. Is about a giraffe who flies on a plane to Paris to celebrate her birthday. Okay, She has many friends, many animal friends, all here in the United States. There's an elephant, there's a monkey, there's a mountain cub, and then there's a bluebird. Okay. But she flies over and visits her friend Jean-Claude, who is another giraffe, and she decides to celebrate her birthday in Paris with him. So he's given to the grand tour. You know, I mean, saying she wants to go to the Eiffel Tower. Okay. Okay. And so because I've always enjoyed the the juxtaposition of the neck of the giraffe and the Eiffel Tower, these little things, you know, they look really cool together for some reason to me. And so she goes over there and has this wonderful tour with Jean-Claude. And then there comes a point which is, Oh, my birthday's coming up, you know, and it's really great being in this beautiful city and exploring with you, Jean-Claude, but she starts to get upset and she starts to cry. And she says to me, and she says, because she's a young giraffe, you know, she's a year a year old. And she said, But I miss all my friends in in the United States, you know, more or less this is the text I'm kind of paraphrasing. So he secretly had called them on the phone, the other friends. Okay. And arrange for a surprise party. So they are all coming over on an ocean liner for her birthday party. It's a surprise party. Okay. She doesn't know that's but she's upset because she misses them, even though she's expecting and seeing the world and then having this great time. So it's about that. It's about the fact that the friendship is very important to her and so that's the moral of the story, is that you can have all these things, but if you don't have friends that you can rely on or relate to what what is the value of that? Right. You know, so sure enough, she comes out on the morning of her birthday, There's this huge street party and then all of the animals come out onto the Cafe Street and they're all playing musical instruments and they roll out a big cake for her and everyone's dancing. So you have like an incidental character named Fifi, who is like a pink poodle. She's dancing, and all of these things are illustrated in this sort of stylized 1930 style, right on huge. The huge paintings actually 18 by 24 acrylics and done in the Disney style, you know, so the big party they roll out the cake and then, you know, at the end of it you see Gigi and Jean-Claude and they sort of are talking together. She she says basically that, you know, without her friends, she really wouldn't wouldn't understand, you know, the purpose of life. So and then it's been a great adventure. And where will we go next, basically. So it sort of leads off into the next story. The next the next book is going to be coming out the next book, which is already being written. 

Rich Bennett 33:07
So which that is going to take you seven years, too. 

John Keaton 33:09
Yeah, well, I hope that I think I think I've developed a little proficiency. I think I can be a little quicker. 

Rich Bennett 33:14
So are the characters in this book based off of anybody that you know? 

John Keaton 33:18
Well, sometimes the names are because But the real typical sort of like you got Happy, The Bluebird. Okay. And the reason is happy. The Bluebird is from the It is a bluebird is literally is blue. Right. And is a small bird is which flying around very friendly but it's named after it's actually got its name from the Wizard of Oz because in that song this Somewhere Over the Rainbow is is where Happy Little Bluebirds fly. Yeah. So I named that Bluebird happy for that reason. Interesting. So there's little things like that, you know, or 

like Gigi is just sort of a French name, but it also, to some people means a grandma or a mama. Yeah. So that yeah, a lot of people like that. And so but it's really like a whirlwind book. Like a girl. Yeah, it's so, it's primarily written for young girls say is seven eight years old who would really identify with this this strong willed sort of character. 

Rich Bennett 34:26
Yeah, I want to I want to say that I mean, that's that's you you're and this is sort of news with every author I've had on that has written children's books. Yeah. You look at them and you read them. 

Adults learn something from them as well. 

John Keaton 34:42
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 34:43
And I think they need to get rid of that term children's because these children's books out there teach a lot of us about. Yeah. Or remind us about some especially with the friendship. 

John Keaton 34:55
Yeah with the. 

Rich Bennett 34:56
And everything I mean that I see. I thought Gigi was just short for Giraffe. No, no I. 

John Keaton 35:02
Well, there was a famous movie in the fifties called Gigi. Yes. And with Maurice Chevalier. And it has. So this sort of French connotation to it. Connection. The French connection, so to speak. So that's why I put this all together. And you sort of kept it that way. Okay. 

Rich Bennett 35:18
So your next book is the sequel to this? 

John Keaton 35:21
Yeah, it is, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 35:22
Any other books in the works? 

John Keaton 35:23
Yes, there's another one. It's another children's actually. 

Rich Bennett 35:26
Children's book. 

John Keaton 35:27
I'm actually enjoying children's books more than. 

Rich Bennett 35:30
A lot of. It's funny you say that because a lot of authors do. 

John Keaton 35:34
It's very addicting once you start doing them because you can sort of go off on a tangent. All these places that you could never go before, you know. So I'm doing I'm thinking about one that takes place in a circus and it has to do with two clowns. They kind of have a thing for each other. Okay. So it's about that. Okay. In a simplistic form. 

Rich Bennett 35:57
You know, see, a lot of people don't realize when it comes to authors book because you're also the illustrator. 

John Keaton 36:04
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 36:05
So there's more that goes into it. 

John Keaton 36:08
Oh, there's a lot more. Yeah. Because the illustrations take a lot of time. You know. 

Rich Bennett 36:12
People don't realize reading the children's books, that is easy. As I say, I. 

John Keaton 36:15
Know a lot of people seem to think, Oh, I want to write a show, you know, because. 

Rich Bennett 36:19
They think it's. 

John Keaton 36:20
Like a cool thing to do. You know, A lot of people think it's a cool thing to do. Yeah. You know, And it is a cool thing to do, but it is a lot of work. 

Rich Bennett 36:27
But the good thing is, too and I just 

had dinner. Debbie Jane Jennings, the Jennings Now, okay, she's a children's author. 

John Keaton 36:38
Okay. And I know Lindsay Pope. 

Rich Bennett 36:40
Oh, Lindsay's a sweetheart. Yeah. Yeah, I've had Lindsey. 

John Keaton 36:42
I just illustrated a book for Lindsey. Which one is. 

Rich Bennett 36:46
Just. Oh, oh, Is it the sequel to the sequel to Sheldon? 

John Keaton 36:50
No, it's. It's a surprise. Oh, guess about is a children's book that I illustrated. Lindsey wrote the the tax. Okay. And I did the illustrations that we just finished. Okay. So that's coming out in September, early September. Nice. And it's really cool. It's about Havre de Grace. 

Rich Bennett 37:12
Oh, I think I saw her. Did she do something about that? 

John Keaton 37:15
She probably, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we've we've been in cahoots. 

Rich Bennett 37:20
Yeah, she's good. She's wanted to be on the show a couple of. 

John Keaton 37:23
She's a wonderful lady. Oh, she is a beautiful soul. 

Rich Bennett 37:25
She is a her. 

John Keaton 37:28
Hello, Lindsay. Love you doing. 

Rich Bennett 37:30
Because her book, Debbie's book and Debbie came and talked to our club. To our Lions Club. 

John Keaton 37:36
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 37:36
And she actually we actually sponsored some of her books because. Yeah, a lot of people say, well, it's a lot of people can't read. Yeah, well, we don't need to hit hit them in high school, right? We need to hit them in day care in elementary school to get them to learn how. Now. And that's that's what we did. And that's a I think what you're doing there is perfect because it's helping the younger kids. Yeah. And the younger kids who was the other one I had on the signing? Grandma Marlene Everhart. Okay. I bought some of her books actually donate to the local daycare because they're children's books, but they also teach the kids how to sign. 

John Keaton 38:19
Which I think, Oh, yeah. Oh, the signing, Grandma. Yeah, I see. 

Rich Bennett 38:23
What I say to singing, Grandma. No, no, no. 

John Keaton 38:25
You said it right. Okay. Right. Okay. 

Rich Bennett 38:28
Actually, And speaking of singing, so, God, let me make sure I get this right. 

Artist So you're painting. Writing? Oh, yeah. But what about the design? When did you start doing that? 

John Keaton 38:41
Well, I used to design a lot of products like gift and retail products. Okay. I lived in California, in San Diego for about eight years. Okay. And I work for a company called Lava Enterprises, and I did designs for candle holders, 

all sorts of houseware kind of things. Right, with different motifs on them. I did a lot of packaging. Okay, Food packaging. I design for a while 

just and I did murals out there in, oh, huge, uh, multimillion dollar houses. I painted ceilings and all this did this sort of Michelangelo thing. 

Rich Bennett 39:21
Are you still doing that stuff out here? 

John Keaton 39:22
I No, I will not do that. Okay. Yeah. You must not do murals anymore. 

Rich Bennett 39:27
No, no, no. Well, I get up on the ladder too, and that's why. 

John Keaton 39:31
Because it's so. I did it for many years when I was younger and I actually had a company. I like five other artists working underneath. Okay? And I loved it. I made a lot of money and I enjoyed it immensely. And I learned a lot of things, but working with a lot of really cool people. But I just don't want to do that anymore because it's physically too demanding. And if you're working outside on ladders in the elements, it just is not. I mean, I'd rather be in my studio in front of my big easel and paint in the comfort of my home and, you know, and then put it out there on the Internet. 

Rich Bennett 40:08
Only to do ladders anymore. No. 

John Keaton 40:10
No. Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, it's a scary proposition, you know? Forget it. It's a scary proposition. 

Rich Bennett 40:15
Yeah, I don't want to. So when did you get into music? 

John Keaton 40:18
Oh, I've always been involved in music since I was about a teenager, you know. 

Rich Bennett 40:22
Oh, really? 

John Keaton 40:23
Okay, I got a guitar because everyone. I wanted to be a singer, number one. Okay? And I consider myself primarily a singer songwriter, but I basically learned the guitar, taught myself like chords through different music. 

Rich Bennett 40:38
Books, right? 

John Keaton 40:39
Like I would find a specific performer and by the the sheet music where they had the chord diagrams and I would be like learning the chords. And so I started on acoustic and I guess I learned Smoke on the Water was like my first thing I learned, which. 

Rich Bennett 40:56
Is funny because that's usually the first thing you learn if you go and take lessons. 

John Keaton 41:01
That's right. That's right. 

Rich Bennett 41:02
That ah, House of the Rising house. 

John Keaton 41:04
Exactly. Those were that I knew those ones. So I really enjoyed that. I loved the guitar. But through the years I worked with a lot of really, really good musicians who were way better, right? I but I had the voice, so it was sort of a compromise. And I'd say, Well, you play the guitar do either. I can't play better than you. You play the guitar at all. I'll do the same. Yeah. And that's how it worked out, you know? So I played with a number of bands. We used to write songs together. Okay. We wrote a lot of originals. I'm a member of ASCAP's, so I registered all of them. So I've written, you know, over 400 songs. Wow. So I have ten or 12 albums out, you know, and about a lot of singles. I do a lot of recording at home. I used to sing in church. Okay. I love to sing in church. I love to sing in different languages, too. I like to sing Italian God and Andrea Bocelli, for example. I admire immensely. 

Rich Bennett 42:02
You got to go to the Maryland Italian Festival at the end of year. 

John Keaton 42:06
I definitely will be. 

Rich Bennett 42:07
There in October. 

John Keaton 42:08
Yeah, I definitely be there. I love that. 

Rich Bennett 42:11
Elio, If you're listening, you know, you and the other two Sicilian tenors get jammed up on stage. 

John Keaton 42:18
That be awesome. I would love to do that. 

Rich Bennett 42:20
That I just Yeah, So Italian and what else? German. I'm sure you sing well. 

John Keaton 42:26
But German is not such a nice language for music. Well, let's be real here. It's a great language, you know, Just don't get me wrong, I don't get upset. Germans does have a niche soldier mind, but it's not a great language for music. Okay, You ask me Italian. Spanish? Yes. Oh, yes. Of romantic languages. Right? 

Rich Bennett 42:48
Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you could listen to Dean Martin singing heavy metal, and it'll still sound romantic, right? 

John Keaton 42:53
Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 42:55
Something about it's. 

John Keaton 42:56
All in the delivery. 

Rich Bennett 42:57
Yeah. Yeah. So any bands that you played in, anybody might know are mainly just local bands. 

John Keaton 43:03
They were local. I mean, some of them were bigger than others, right? Depending on where you live, but not anyone famous. I mean, I did tour a lot. I toured, right? I did the whole sort of rock star thing with tour buses and and all that. When I was younger. Yeah, I had enough of that. I mean, it's it's too much partying. Gee, you know. Yes. Yeah. And it gets kind of in the way of life, you know? Yeah. So I reached a point where I said no more parties, first of all, is very demanding to go on stage every night, sing. It's very physical know. So you can't do that for any given length of time and really do it well, right. Unless you're absolutely committed to it and know how to control yourself well. 

Rich Bennett 43:51
And the other thing is to back when we were doing you know, when you were doing it, I was doing it. You you didn't have the Internet. 

John Keaton 43:58
Now you had to go out there. 

Rich Bennett 43:59
You had to go out there. You had to rely on hopefully your demo tape finding the right person that, yeah. 

John Keaton 44:06
You were on your own. 

Rich Bennett 44:07
You weren't independent. 

John Keaton 44:08
Labels. 

Rich Bennett 44:09
It was it was hard fish. 

John Keaton 44:11
Out of water. 

Rich Bennett 44:11
Yeah. So what's your favorite style to play and sing? 

John Keaton 44:17
Well, I really like, you know, praise and worship music. Okay. Like Michael W Smith. Yes. Yeah. In fact, at the show I'm going to do Michael W Smith above all. Okay, I'm doing one Elton John song. Your song with the band. Oh, So I picked two really good songs and wow, I'm going to do those. 

Rich Bennett 44:37
Yeah. Elton John Your song is. 

John Keaton 44:40
One of the greatest songs ever. It is. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 44:43
It is. So who are your biggest influences When it came to music. 

John Keaton 44:46
I would say I really like I well, I'm a child of the eighties, so, you know, I always say I got into the Queen or David Bowie, Elton John, that whole kind of genre. But I lived in Europe, so I had a different slant on it. Like I didn't see the bands that necessarily were so big here in America. I would see the ones that were more of the European circuit, and so I got more exposure to that. Okay, Well, like, you know, the new wave, that sort of new wave and the electronic and the punk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The punk. Johnny Rotten in the sixties. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 45:28
That's when punk was punk. 

John Keaton 45:29
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 45:30
Yeah. Today's punk game punk now today's punk seems like more like the new wave from. The eighties. Yeah, yeah. With a little twist to it or so I don't. 

John Keaton 45:39
I can't really speak about. I don't really know. 

Rich Bennett 45:42
I can't figure it out. Yeah, I mean. 

John Keaton 45:45
I see some people dressed in punk attire, you know, 

but I don't know what they're listening to. I really don't. 

Rich Bennett 45:53
Yeah. Yeah. I don't even think they're listening. Yeah, it's. I don't know. 

John Keaton 45:57
But the music world has changed so much. Yeah, it's so too much fabrication going on. Too much sort of plastic, kind of a plastic mentality where it's cookie cutter, you know, uh, like, let's sing about these themes and these themes only, and it's just not very creative in that. 

Rich Bennett 46:22
It's not easy. 

John Keaton 46:23
Creative development has, right? Plastic, you know, kind of like, oh well they become products that yeah, the performers become products who are told specifically by the record companies what to do. Mhm. And so it takes away all the fun of it. The joy of creativity where you know, an artist could be an, an individual and say, no, I'm going to sing about this, you know. So it's the ones who, who are independent and stand out and do that on their own that are really unique. Yeah. And they're the ones who really deserve to succeed. Yeah. Because the cookie cutter thing has long had to stay. And so in the independent, you know, so-called alternative, uh, indie world. Yeah, 

those are the heroes, You know, those young ones. Like, I think Ed Sheeran is really good. Yeah, that young guy 

also. I mean, I like song. 

Rich Bennett 47:23
He writes a lot of his stuff. 

John Keaton 47:24
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. He did a song with Andrea Bocelli, actually. 

Rich Bennett 47:28
Oh, really? 

John Keaton 47:29
In Italian? Yeah. Oh, Went to his house in a music video I saw. It was great Boogie. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 47:35
Yeah. There's just. No. 

John Keaton 47:38
He's like, a whole different level of musicianship. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 47:42
Well, the other one, because, you know, the ones that write their own music, like Taylor Swift, is very good. She writes. 

John Keaton 47:49
All right. 

Rich Bennett 47:50
Everybody doesn't like her. But you got to give her credit because she's doing what she wants. 

John Keaton 47:54
He's doing what she wants to do. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 47:57
And there are still a few out there, but not a whole lot of. Yeah. And the thing that gets me is, you know, when did the day come? Where? All right, I understand on TV, the lip synching. Yeah, Because I think, you know, honestly, I think they even did that on the midnight special. Some sometimes. 

John Keaton 48:15
I'm sure they did. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 48:17
But when you're doing it in concert, I mean, come on. 

John Keaton 48:22
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 48:22
Why? Who wants to pay money to go see Milli Vanilli? I mean. 

John Keaton 48:27
It's. 

Rich Bennett 48:28
It's just. I don't get it. So people are spending good money to go see you in concert. Why are you going to lip sync? 

John Keaton 48:35
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 48:36
Or why are you going to have a soundtrack playing behind you? 

John Keaton 48:38
Right. I don't think, you know, people are not going to a concert to experience perfection. They're not. I think they're going there for an experience. They want to feel something. 

Rich Bennett 48:49
Yeah, but in all honesty, I don't think they're getting it. 

John Keaton 48:51
Whether or not that's the proper medium. 

Rich Bennett 48:54
And it's a lot of people laugh at me because I got spoiled now when I go to concerts, I've got to be up close. 

John Keaton 49:01
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 49:02
And a lot of people be sitting there, you know, getting into it, dancing on the one that's just sitting still, watching the guitar player, watching the drummer, watching the B. I just like to watch the musicians and you know, the skill and watch, see how they're doing it, what they're doing. Mm hmm. That's just me. Yeah. I'm the type to where I'm the guy that also believes what they believe. And it's true when it comes listening to music, you still can't find anything that sound quality better than vinyl. Yeah. Yeah. You know, if you have a good turntable, a good stereo system, you're not going to find anything better, right? It's just that something about that sound. And again, I'll sit there and I'll, I'll pick out when you played me your one soul mate. Remember what I said about the what kind of the crusher was? Yeah. Yeah. I like to pick out different replicas of. 

John Keaton 49:56
Yeah, it's like a like a woodblock thing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean with, with it with the reverb and echo on it, you know, that's what makes it do that. 

Rich Bennett 50:05
Which is awesome. 

John Keaton 50:06
Yeah. It's a different something different. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 50:09
So with your writing because you've written, like you said, a ton of songs. 

John Keaton 50:14
Yeah. Um. 

Rich Bennett 50:17
Is there any particular one that stands out that your favorite. 

John Keaton 50:21
That I've written? Yeah, quite a few. Okay, Yeah. I'm kind of fond of quite a few of them because they're stories of my life, you know, They're stories. They're about experiences that I had, and they belong to a certain timeframe, right? So there's a lot of memories attached to them, like a photograph or like a, you know, a memory that, uh, kind of stays with you. And when I hear that song, I think of that right, that time frame and why I wrote that. And so it's, it's cause for introspection, you know, where you think, hmm, that's yeah, I certainly don't think that way now. 

Rich Bennett 50:57
All right, so now I have a challenge for you. 

John Keaton 50:59
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 51:01
You're painting. Yes. And your music, right? I know you really can't come out of a c d that does it. You can't really put it into a book. So I think what you need to do is put some videos together. You're probably already done it. Put some videos together with your music and your art combined. Right? You've already done well. 

John Keaton 51:22
Ah, indirectly I have. I have some videos on YouTube. Okay. I've attempted that. I have some that go on off in a completely different direction. Right. But I haven't really fulfilled that 100% the way I would like. 

Rich Bennett 51:38
Were the I got the solution for you. Here's what you need to do. 

John Keaton 51:41
John Wood Savage. 

Rich Bennett 51:42
So, all right, what are we having? Have it. Grace You have to stay theater. You have the opera house. You have the Star Center. I think coming up 

for one of the festivals they put out there. Yeah. John Keating on performing on stage. Yes, whatever band you have with you. Right. And then on the screen behind you. 

John Keaton 52:04
Is the paintings, the. 

Rich Bennett 52:05
Audience. Yeah. 

John Keaton 52:06
I like that idea. I like that idea. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 52:08
I think you need it. 

John Keaton 52:09
I think that sounds like an awesome. 

Rich Bennett 52:11
I mean, when's the last time you actually got out and performed? 

John Keaton 52:14
Well, I like to do karaoke, but that's sort of a cop out. Yeah. No, it doesn't really happen. 

Rich Bennett 52:18
Right. Let me rephrase that. When's the last time you got out and performed your own stuff? Because that's the stuff that kicks ass. 

John Keaton 52:25
I don't do it. Actually, I haven't done it for years because I just like, I like creating it. I like being in my studio and coming up with ideas, but I don't really perform it out outside of that. I hope to one day when. 

Rich Bennett 52:42
I hate you. That song that you played for me earlier. Yeah, it's freakin awesome. 

John Keaton 52:47
Thank you. 

Rich Bennett 52:47
And yeah, you need to get out there. Sure. 

John Keaton 52:50
Yeah. I love you. I it when the time is right, I will do that. You know, I would. I like to do that maybe at the state theater or maybe at the Star Center or something like that. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 53:01
Like, yeah. You want a place that's got good acoustics. 

John Keaton 53:03
Yeah. Well, both of them have great. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I know. So, yeah, I just talk to Katy and know about that. Maybe they, they would, you know, entertain the idea. 

Rich Bennett 53:14
I think you definitely need to. And you say your music is on Spotify, right? 

John Keaton 53:19
Spotify, Apple Music. 

Rich Bennett 53:21
Okay, so now I got to go in and follow. 

John Keaton 53:23
That SoundCloud as well. Okay. 

Rich Bennett 53:25
Because this one is I just love playing. I've always been into local music. I love music overall. Yeah, but the local musicians I want to listen to as much as possible. Yeah, because they're the ones. Well, what's the old phrase? Well, it's our phrase. It's the truth. The starving artist just started. Well, musicians are the same way. Oh, yeah, you know. 

John Keaton 53:48
Oh, yeah, Probably even more so. Yeah. Because the competition is is fiercer there because you have more people trying to do it. Yeah. I think, you know, music as opposed to art. I mean, painting, you like that, right? I think there's more musicians trying to break into music than there are painters. 

I may be wrong. I may be wrong about that. 

Rich Bennett 54:11
I don't know, because, I mean. 

John Keaton 54:13
There's a lot of painters. There are. 

Rich Bennett 54:15
Is funny. When I started the Artists of the Week thing, I'm seen yeah, I'm not seen as many. I see a lot of musicians, but not as many musicians as I do 

artist really. But you know what? I am seeing a lot of authors. Oh, I'm sorry. And I think that's because of Amazon. Because a lot of you self-published now. 

John Keaton 54:37
Yeah, a lot of. 

Rich Bennett 54:38
Oh, but I'm seeing a ton of authors now. Here's where I think a lot of authors are missing the boat. I like to call them author printers. Use that phrase with me. 

John Keaton 54:50
Yeah, I never heard that. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 54:51
Yeah. Well, you think you're an author, You're. You're writing books. It's a business. 

John Keaton 54:55
Yeah, it definitely is. 

Rich Bennett 54:57
But a lot of them don't know how to market their book properly. Yeah, And I think also a lot of them focus on local area. 

John Keaton 55:11
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 55:11
More than anything else. Um, which I'm going to give you some things to do after how to get this book even out there even more when we're done, great. But yeah, I think, I don't know why they do that, which is brought up to think about, you know, having a website. Yeah, I think if you have a website, you're sharing it with the world. 

John Keaton 55:34
You have sort of a hub. 

Rich Bennett 55:35
Yeah. People can. 

John Keaton 55:36
Go to. 

Rich Bennett 55:37
You're not doing that. Just a social media right, because you got to have those people following you. 

John Keaton 55:41
Yeah, well you got to have a website. Yeah. Everyone has, you know, everyone involved in art or, you know. 

Rich Bennett 55:47
Business. 

John Keaton 55:47
Author printers because of the printers. You know, they, they should have a website. 

Rich Bennett 55:55
And it doesn't cost as much as it you. 

John Keaton 55:57
Know, I have a website John Keaton dot com and it it does I mean I'm still working it's always. 

Rich Bennett 56:03
A it's a good looking website. 

John Keaton 56:04
Thank you It's a work in progress right I'm always, you know, trying to make it better but but but always have new material to add to it and so it's hard to keep up with you know Yeah. Yeah. Because I do it myself. No one's doing this for me, you know? 

Rich Bennett 56:19
It's not that hard, is it? 

John Keaton 56:20
Now, with the templates they have these days. 

Rich Bennett 56:22
What are you using using Wix or WordPress? 

John Keaton 56:25
No, actually I use a very unusual method I have that is actually a website for musicians. It's called Bad Google. 

Rich Bennett 56:35
Have you really? 

John Keaton 56:36
Yeah. Do you know bands? Google? I've heard of? They're out of Chicago. Okay. And it's really designed for musicians. Okay. But if you know how to do it, you can make it for anything. Yeah, Any kind of business, any kind of. 

Rich Bennett 56:49
Interesting. 

John Keaton 56:50
Thing that you want to promote. It makes it's really easy for musicians to write because you can automatically sell merchandise. You can automatically list products, and it will be directly connected to your bank account. So someone buy some is a. 

Rich Bennett 57:04
Nice. 

John Keaton 57:05
Directly into your you know that into your pocket. There right? Or you can do 

slideshows, you could do videos, you can add YouTube videos to your site bios, pictures of rice, and it's all sort of animated. It looks kind of animated because it's like moving and constantly doing things. Yeah. So even though it's not really Adamy, it's it's the slideshows and that kind of that make it look really dynamic. Okay, So I pay a yearly fee and I have this great website, you know. 

Rich Bennett 57:39
And it doesn't call. I know because I used to design websites some years ago, back in 2000 when I first started designing them. Yeah, $6,000 for website easily. Oh yeah. Easily nowadays. And now keep in mind that was all coded too. Yeah. 

John Keaton 57:55
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 57:56
Yeah. Are you using Dreamweaver well? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Nowadays you got WordPress, you got Squarespace, you got which you got better. Google the one that I'm doing for my for the podcast because I was doing it through WordPress. I was using a thing called Divvy. Yeah, but I'm transferring that all over now to a thing called Pod page. Now it'll still be conversations with Rich Bennett. Yeah, but it's done through Pod page so people won't see a pod page anymore. But the reason I'm doing that is because now I can it doesn't take is it's not as much work. Mm hmm. I can feature my guests more. I could feature my co-host more, and my sponsors. The feature I really love, though. So somebody wants to leave a comment about the podcast or a suggestion. Mm hmm. Um, instead of going through Facebook or email, there's a little microphone on the website, and they could click on it and actually leave a voice message. 

John Keaton 58:57
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 58:57
So which I can incorporate into the podcast. Yeah. 

John Keaton 59:00
Oh, that's really cool. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 59:01
Well, when it comes a podcast, it. It makes sense. It really does, you know. So and that's like hundred and $80 a year. 

John Keaton 59:08
Yeah. Yeah. That's really. 

Rich Bennett 59:10
Nothing. Yeah. In the domains run like $20 a year. 

John Keaton 59:14
So I think my website is like 160. 

Rich Bennett 59:17
Yeah. Compared to $6,000 in 2000. 

John Keaton 59:20
And it's got all these capabilities people just that need to learn how to take the time to, to take advantage of them. 

Rich Bennett 59:27
Yeah, exactly. 

John Keaton 59:28
Because it is a time. 

Rich Bennett 59:30
It is time to consider, especially if you're always putting out new stuff. Yeah. Now with me, like with the podcast, the good thing is a true podcast like this is strictly Audio has what's called a RSS feed. So what I got to do is put the RSS feed in the settings and it automatically pulls all the episodes, the images and everything. MM So that makes a lot of noise. 

John Keaton 59:53
It sure does. 

Rich Bennett 59:53
Yeah. If a lot easier. And actually do you have a newsletter. Yeah you do don't you. I think you do have an Oh my website. Yeah. 

John Keaton 1:00:01
I have like a biography in the front. You can contact me towards the end. I don't really have a newsletter per se but okay. Oh, I have like world premiere or, you know, everything's okay, what's new? You know? So in that sense, it's sort of like a newsletter, but I don't have specifically one called newsletter newsletter. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:22
Like a newsletter. It gives people updates every. 

John Keaton 1:00:24
Yeah, well, it's just new music or, you know, new paintings or the the guy is in there, right? Book is in there. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:34
The John Keating dot com. 

John Keaton 1:00:36
That's correct. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:36
Okay. And you're you're going to so we're going to feature a song at the end of this Right. 

John Keaton 1:00:41
That's awesome. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:42
Tell everybody about this song. 

John Keaton 1:00:44
Okay. The name of this song is called Maybe Next Time Around. Okay. And what it's about is, as I was telling Rick, 

a lot of times in life, we go through circumstances where we have relationships that don't quite work out the way we sort of plan or intend or maybe even wish for. And so a lot of us, we can easily be sort of damaged goods or, uh, burnt children, so to speak, where we burn our hands in the fire. We don't want to play anymore. So we sort of have a bitterness, you know, we're a the coldness of heart that we've developed because of these negative experiences. So what I decided to do was write a song where that's sort of turned around, where you accept that reality, right? That that particular relationship is not going to work out mutually agreed. It's not going to work out and just say maybe next time around, maybe the next person that you meet will be the right one. If you're speaking in a romantic sense, you know, or if you're looking for that kind of partnership, you know, then maybe that person will be the right one for you. So maybe next time around. But not this time. You know what the lyric says? Letting go is never what it seems to be, you know, So a lot of people will say, oh, let go of that. And what were you in that situation? Your emotions are running high, you know that. You don't want to hear that. Yeah, that's not easy to hear. Letting go, you know. So as I say, letting go is is never what it seems to be. But towards the end, you know, you have to say, well, that was a certain time of my life and now it's time to move on. And the sooner you adjust to that 

development or situation, the happier you will be because. There are many fish in the sea and some things are simply not meant to be. And not all relationships are healthy or good for you. So I depend on the good Lord and I trust that he knows in that in that realm, romantically speaking or emotionally speaking, who's right for me. Right. And that he will create a situation where I will find that individual and make it happen. And then I won't have to say maybe next time around. I love it. Yeah, I love it. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:21
I'm sure those of you listening when after you hear the song coming back, let us know what you thought about it. But one more thing for you before we before we wrap up. 

John Keaton 1:03:32
Yes, sir. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:33
Because, I mean, you're a very accomplished author, artist, author, musician. Any advice for anybody aspiring to be an artist overall? Because everything that you do, you're an artist AS It's true. 

John Keaton 1:03:48
Yeah, that's true. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:48
So any any advice that you want to give anybody once you get into it? 

John Keaton 1:03:52
Well, follow your heart and know that talent is great. You know, it's wonderful to be talented, to have sort of these magic hands that God has given you, But it doesn't all 

rely on that. It takes a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice 

and nothing good really comes sort of overnight like that. So you have to work at the craft and discipline yourself and draw. If you're if you're talking about visual arts, draw, draw, draw, draw. Always drawing, always drawing, because drawing is the key to painting because painting is only drawing in color. Okay. So keep that in mind and believe in yourself and know that you have limitations like everybody else. But always be strong and challenge yourself to learn about artists, the lives they've lead, the different type of styles that they've created or given to to the world to make it a more beautiful place. If you are a musician, sing your heart out and don't let anyone stop you. Just go for it and speak from your heart and know that life is a struggle and it's always going to be a struggle. But you can find joy, music and in expressing yourself because we are creative individuals and that's the way the good Lord created us. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:29
I love it. Great advice. John, thanks so much. It was a pleasure meeting you. And I guess, well, you're going to be back on again for when we do the rounds, at least one of the roundtables. 

John Keaton 1:05:40
I would certainly enjoy that. Reg, I love to be here. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:43
Yeah, you will be. Thanks a lot. 

John Keaton 1:05:45
Thank you, sir.