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(soft footsteps crunching through gravel)

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♪♪

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Gaylen Hansen: I was born September 21,

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1921, and

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I am now 104

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and a half.

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(soft rustle of clothing)

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I try to paint every morning because it's

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important to have a continuity in painting.

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(stapler click-clacks)

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My dreams are what is called lucid

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dreams, and, uh, I can make an

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entire movie and provide all the

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language that goes with it.

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It's a very interesting but sometimes

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very annoying part of my life. I get

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dreams that won't quit.
(laughter)

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And it just, "And then," and,

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"But," (laughs)
and they can continue for

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quite a while.

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I had a dream sometimes, uh,

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I get stuck underground and can't

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find a way out, and those I don't like very much.

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♪ gentle music ♪

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I lived in the Palouse at least 60 years.

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♪ gentle music ♪

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It was very good and not so good.

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It was contradictory. 

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The university wanted grades,

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quantifiable grades, and art

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is not always quantifiable.

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But I had some very good students from all

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over the country, and, I learned a

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lot from them.

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♪ gentle music ♪

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The rolling hills of the

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Palouse are quite beautiful and they're quite

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paintable. I did a very

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large painting of it that's a good painting.

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Interviewer: 
So how do you know when it's good,

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and how do you know when it's done?

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Gaylen Hansen: You don't. 

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I often had to be told by my wife

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to stop [laughs] 
or you'll ruin it,

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and I took her advice and saved some

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very good paintings.

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♪♪

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We were married 40 years, and we

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happened to enjoy the

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same things, and everything we did,

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we did together. 
And of course, we

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influenced each other in painting in a good

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way, and very supportive.

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♪♪

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This was a favorite walk for my wife

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and I, and, uh, there are some benches

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down below, and we would sit in one

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and just look in front of us

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and not think about anything. 
Just look.

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And various configuration

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came into view and into our

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consciousness that we would have missed had

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we not done that.

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She's always here, but it was a very

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intense grief that I experienced.

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But oh yeah, she will always be,

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close.

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(soft footsteps crunching through gravel)

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♪ gentle music ♪

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Well, I fortunately had a very

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open-ended approach to painting

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so that one thing could lead to

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another and another.
Sometimes I would

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start with an idea that was very definite,

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and I immediately had to erase it
and start again.

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I learned to form

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a partnership with my painting, and

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my painting could indicate what it needed.

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It could indicate something that

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didn't work. 
And, uh, lately

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[laughs] 
I've had fun with paintings that

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went belly up, and so I painted over them.

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And if that didn't work, I painted over that.

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And some of my most interesting

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paintings I painted over maybe four, five,

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six times until the paint film

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became quite thick. And some of my

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best paintings came out of failed paintings.

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[laughs]

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Interviewer: What would you tell people when

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they're looking at your work, how would you

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direct them to look at it?

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Gaylen Hansen: 
Just stand and look at the painting.

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Don't look for something,

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but just look at it. If you're looking for

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something, you're looking for something

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you're familiar with. And if you don't find

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it, you don't like what you're looking at.

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And that's a huge, huge problem

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with learning to like painting.

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♪ gentle music ♪

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Interviewer: What do artists provide of value

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to the rest of us?

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Gaylen Hansen: Oh, that's a big question.

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[laughs] 
No, I, I think it

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keeps us from getting stuck in our

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conventions. This is the right way,

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and that's the wrong way. We are us, and you

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are them. This dichotomy that we get into

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that stops really imagining

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other solutions, other ways of dealing with

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things, other ways of looking at things.

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Interviewer: So one thing I'm noticing is

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that you don't treat this as very precious.

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Gaylen Hansen: Oh, no. [paint splats] 
Whoops!

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[laughs] 
That's another way you can paint.

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[paint splats] 
I have trouble now

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because I can't hear so well, which makes

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it a little more difficult to speak, and, uh,

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my eyesight is not so good.

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But I've made a positive thing out

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of it. Having really sharp eyes

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makes everything too clear in a way.

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You don't see the main shapes.

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I'm just gonna try to be

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positive and, I'm going to try to

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get going on some painting, and

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that means just doing it.

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♪ gentle music ♪