HIP: When did you begin to paint? Rx: I started painting when I was nine years old. I used to hang sheets on my mothers' clotheslines back at the sludgy swamp I crawled out of. HIP: Sheets? Rx: What it was is, I grew up next to a cotton field and my mom had a clotheslines which is typical you know, because I grew up outside of Memphis in a little town you've never heard of, on the Mississippi River. The name of the town was Cruthersviille but we called it Crazyville because everybody there was crazy, fucked up, and on public assistance. I used to hang sheets on my mothers' clotheslines and take like house paint and different shit and I did these big paintings. Then the neighbors all thought I was crazy. HIP: And to this day some of your art is still done on sheets. Rx: Right, right. Only now it's got big fancy names and shit,....but the art is what matters, not what you call it. Art is the action. I believe what people consider the piece of art is nothing more than a residue that is traced like real estate. It is the action that I consider the art, the doing of the actual thing. HIP: When did you first come to LA? Rx: I first came to LA in 1986 as a result of my friend Steve Swaford being murdered in a brutal and torturous way. HIP: Really? Can you tell us the story behind that? Rx: Well, he was a really good artist friend of mine. There was a lot of rednecks where I'm from, and generally shitty people. They were all stupid and didn't understand that he was what in LA would be considered an avant-garde artist, but there he was considered a menace to the community. For whatever reason, the case is still being investigated. He was tortured over a twenty-four hour period, had parts off his skin peeled off, and was multiply stabbed. All in all, it was a gory brutal death which horrified me and led me to six months of serious drug addiction. At the end of which my dog was killed by a big mean redneck from out of town. Then I cleaned up my act and moved to New England, but then had to leave because it was getting to be winter and I couldn't stay because I'm a southern-born and I can't stand the cold. Only having one friend left that I could stay with, I came to Hollywood, with no goals or expectations, or hopes of success. I came out to Hollywood because I knew there was dirt out here, so I was familiar with that. HIP: What did you expect to find here in LA? Rx: Like I said, dirt. It's never what you expect, but all in all I was pleasantly surprised because as I said, unlike most people that come to Hollywood, I had no expectations or hopes of success. I just thought it would be more fun than the place I was from. I didn't tell anyone that I was an artist but I made some friends with some freaky people in bands and one day they happened to see my art which seemed to be just something they were into. HIP: So you didn't come out for the art scene? Rx: I really didn't know anything about it. I thought everybody surfed out here. Like I said, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was such a wonderfully dazzling, scummy slimehole pit of sin. HIP: What do you think about the art scene here? Rx: A lot of the people I've met out here who can very clearly articulate what their art is and what function they feel it has in society, can't paint worth a shit. I see a billion artists doing stuff that any five-year-old child could do, and they have been to art school for years and years with their parents' money. I wish they would all die because there are real artists and real artists do demented things that come out of their own tortured existence. I just think art is such a therapeutic. HIP: So you are basically against art school? Rx: I hate art schools. I think, art schools are a scam. Those that can't do, teach and make money out of poor saps that think that you can learn to be an artist. My personal belief is that you cannot learn to be an artist. They say you should never call yourself an artist, but that's like saying you should never say you're five foot nine or whatever. You are what you are, and if you're an artist, you know it. I knew I was an artist at nine. I didn't say I wanted to be an artist, I felt like I was an artist. Maybe that sounds arrogant, but it's really not. It's just seeing reality and not bothering to varnish it with any sort of romanticized dog shit. HIP: What influences do you have that show in your work? If any. Rx: The psychotic ramblings of my insane grandmother after she came back from the mental institution. My friend Steve Swafords' ramblings after he came back from Malcom Bliss, which is another institution there. Psychotics, misfits, and human refuse generally are my inspiration. HIP: So you go with the thought that art is based on insanity? Rx: I don't know what anything's based on, I'm lost. The only time I know where I am at is when I do my art, and as soon as the art's done, I forget it. Some people think I'm an idiot but I don't know about that. I'm too stupid to know what that means. I used to look at art in books and magazines, and I personally never saw the difference between Van Gogh and a tattoo on someone's arm. It's just like different levels of art, different levels of skill. HIP: Tell us about your Gel-Relief work. Rx: I am the sole inventor of what I call the Gel-Relief. It is in between a painting and a sculpture, very much like the classic reliefs of ancient Rome. However, done with heavy gels. Reaching a translucent depth and intensive emotion unseen in art until now. The fusion of the best of Classicism and the best of modern art is needed for the next century. I call this Current Classicism. I don't believe in putting the word "neo-" in front of anything. HIP: What subjects do you prefer to paint? Rx: My favorite subject to paint is the human face and figure. The variety of expressions that are possible with different people. I like the area around the mouth where the muscles tighten,....and the eyes, which everyone knows contain the soul, are really good to paint too. I definitely not only like to get the anatomy correct, but show the expression and the soul of the person. HIP: How would you label your art? Rx: I refuse to describe or label my art because that wouldn't be doing justice to it or to your readers. Art should be looked at and experienced, and not explained.