(bright music) - I'll get up before Carol and I'll come down, I'll hit the teapot and I'll walk in.

I'll just, wherever I'm in the house, I'll go, I'm gonna go sit down and I'll think, what am I gonna do today?

When people say, are you an artist?

I generally say no, but I think like one.

I never thought that I would be an artist where I would put actual paint or or markings on paper.

- Michael, when I first met him, he was playing the guitar and singing and writing songs.

He was a blacksmith.

He was doing all these creative things.

He would never sit down and I just said, you need a hobby.

You smell like metal after being in the blacksmith shop.

And I bought him watercolor supplies.

- And then I had this great laugh, I went, I don't even know what I would paint if I painted something.

And so it started ironically in a moleskin journal with me thinking I was going to go to Washington DC to just journal, didn't have any paint.

And our first museum stop, I picked up this little pack of paints and so I painted this blue softshell crab on the front of a magazine and she looked at it and she said, "You know, that's good."

And I'm thinking, my wife, who was an art major just said this was good.

- Then he painted a little bird and then I said, "But you have to start painting roosters.

Haun means rooster.

You need to kinda get one thing down and then kinda go from there.

- There's something about journaling in watercolor for me it has changed how I think about art.

So I now think of it as a continuous story and a journey where I was.

- What is found is a passion and that he loves to do every day, to now encourage others and he's really good at that.

- Hey folks, Michael here, grandkids call me Rhoo.

Thanks for joining me in the middle of the day.

It is instructional, it's an instructional stream.

They can look and they will see what I do and they'll say, I'll never do that.

Or they'll see what I do and they'll say, oo, I'd like to learn to do that.

So you learn from both sides of the coin again.

I've started on a new journal page.

So are they learning from me?

I hope so.

But am I giving them encouragement to keep on, keeping on?

I have this little story that I use.

I came home from school one time and my dad was in the garden and he was plowing with a mule.

And I said, "You don't know how to plow with a mule."

You know the way an 11-year-old boy would say, "Dad, you don't know how to plow with a mule."

And he goes, "I will when I finish this."

I said, "What do you mean?"

He said, "Just stay behind the mule."

That's part of the process that when people, and I look at my camera, I go, "I want you to know that you can do this, but you have to put your mind to it and you have to stay behind the mule."

That's thinking like an artist.

It's pushing yourself a little bit and getting outta your comfort zone.

This community formed that.

I was expecting people would watch, my thinking like an artist fell a little short.

I didn't know that this community would evolve that was so meaningful to them and me.

Now I think it's a good point to realize that not only are you bringing your art out there sometimes, but exactly what I'm saying to you in my studio when I'm streaming to say, find a bigger circle, I'm asking you to go out and meet with real people.

And so in that case, I have some friends who own a coffee shop, and that's where we are today, Brakeman's.

And so that community that I talk about building online, they build a community here.

So they've asked if some artists would put their local art here.

- The Rhoo wall is our most popular wall and it's to tell people that's a local person that just sits around sketching in the coffee shop and hangs 'em up.

People love it.

- And seeing people get a reality of that in their mind and just go, "I believe I could do this."

That's where you sorta hook the fish.

And I think that's where their life starts to change a little bit.

I mean, the boredom is gone.

I've never been bored a day in my life and I don't intend to leave this planet ever saying I was bored.

It has created patience in me.

It's created a better listener in me.

It's created a lotta things in me art has done, but I really think it's part of who I am as a person, who I am as a believer in God, who I am in just my day to day walk in life.

It's a gift.

I love to share it.

(bright music continues)