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Brush Strokes and Cool Notes ~

"The Macarena? Me? Nooo, you have the wrong man!"

Just another facet to this multi-talented actor, whom prior to our meet we have just heard sing a very tuneful Happy Birthday to Julie Benz in their Q & A session. He is a great dancer too and has been boogieing away with the fans at the Convention discos, reminding us that underneath he is a normal person who does the same things as us. J laughs as Linda jokes that his taste in music is exactly as bad as ours, "Exactly as bad as whose?" he asks grinning. Linda reminds him that he has been seen dancing to the Macarena. "Oh, right, right." He grins.

During CoA's last interview with J. he talked briefly about his painting, and he is happy to elaborate about this great passion in his life, "The great thing for me about painting is when I've decided that I'm going to paint today, like if I say, 'Ooh I'm gonna paint today,' that means that my mind is totally clear and that I'm not concentrated on the show, on lines, on anything". Admittedly, he rarely has time to paint during the season, but enthuses with a huge smile, "When I do have time to paint it's so wonderful to me. I throw on old records, sit out on the balcony and just paint all day and it's the most fun thing in the world for me to do." So was there a particular catalyst that inspired him? "I don't know, it happened probably about four or five years ago, I just drove by an art store and all of a sudden I was just like, 'I want to paint', and I was like, 'What do I need?' And they were, 'What are you talking about?' And I'm like, 'What do I need to get?' And they showed me the different things to get and they were like, 'Well don't you think you should take a class first?' And I was like, 'No I don't want to take a class, I don't want to be good at it, I just want to enjoy it'. So I remember the first time I painted, I was using oil paints and I went to go clean the brushes with water...disaster!" J. rolls his eyes as everyone laughs. He continues, "To stop I didn't realise you needed turpentine, so everything I learned about painting, I learned on my own, and it's absolutely fine. My paintings are terrible, nine times out of ten I throw them away, but it's just fun to do, it's just the process of painting, it's great."

So maybe not a future Monet then but does he paint scenery or whatever comes to mind at the time? His eyes light up, "Well one thing I'm working on at painting a lot is we went to Hawaii and we saw this part of Hawaii which was the single most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life and I was like, 'When I die this is exactly what I want to see.' I mean it was like 360 degrees of beauty, I mean it was ridiculous!" he gushes, "There was a hill here and a hill there and this colour grass here and the sky and the clouds and the water, it was just...and the sound. It was like I never really heard silence until I was there, and so I've constantly been trying to capture that on a canvas, which because I have no talent, I can't do, but the process of trying to do it is so much fun!" He now paints with acrylic and modestly states, "I think you have to have more skill to paint with oils." Hopefully in the future the fans will be able to judge for themselves as J. reveals he may have an exhibition.

"I throw on old records, sit out on the balcony and just paint all day and it's the most fun thing in the world for me to do."

"One of these days I will because I know a lot of actors who paint and when I do get a few things that I want to show, what I want to do is have a charity event with all the actors that I know who paint on different shows. And have like an auction or just like a museum set up and raise some money for a couple of charities that I believe in. That's something fun I want to do."

With his obvious love of music and fine voice he must have some great tracks to sing along to in relax mode, so any recommendations for the fans? With a smile he responds, "Well yes, I really love music so much as you know and at the moment I'm really into a couple of things that I feel pretty passionately about. I love this album of Joni Mitchell's called Court and Spark. I want to have a thing on my website like recommending a new album every week, because there's such good stuff out there, but this album called Court and Spark you have to read the lyrics as you listen to it as it's just amazing. That, and I'm listening to Prince's Controversy album, but I really only like the first three songs on that album. Another song of Prince's called I Wanna Be Your Lover, these are songs that came out in the 70's that I really like. Bjork's last album Vespertine, I love that album so much, I love Bjork." Admitting to his diverse range of music preference, he confesses, "Oh yeah because it ranges from cheesy to like deep". "Like Kylie [Minogue] you mean?" I joke, reminding him of an earlier reference he made to a song in the Q & A panel. "Kylie. Exactly", he chuckles. "See, that song [Can't Get You Outta My Head] I think it's awful in the States. When I'm in the States and I hear that song I'm like, 'This is terrible'. But now I'm like, the minute I stepped off the plane I love that song so much. It works over here; it makes perfect sense to me. Then there's this other American singer called Ani DiFranco who came out with a double CD set called Revelling/Reckoning that I really love, so my taste is really all over the place. I mean I love Britney Spears, I'm a Slave 4 U - I love that song too."

Around the World in 27 Hours? ~