Recently I was featured on NPR Monday Morning Edition. The interview / article is about the fact that I live with chronic back pain from a severe case of idiopathic scoliosis that I have dealt with since I was 15 years old. This subject is not one I tend to share. Up until now I've chosen to keep this information out of the public eye. I've made a point to avoid the topic in interviews in the past. I also have done my best to avoid the topic in conversations with friends and family. The reason is there is nothing particularly positive, or uplifting about it. I didn't want to burden anyone by sharing the dark side of my life with them. Instead I hid it in my art and music. That way if the viewer / listener chose to dig into the back story it was their choice because of their interest in the art and music.

In a way living with chronic pain is my secret weapon. When I make art and music the pain greatly diminishes and sometimes it's almost like being pain free. So naturally I end up with lots of art and music. I wish it was from something else, something more palatable and attractive.

Situations like this is why people say "Truth is Stranger than Fiction". I would have to agree.
Jon Hamilton at NPR contacted me a couple weeks ago to do the interview and I almost didn't do it. Simply because the focus was my chronic back pain. For such a long time I've tried to keep this a secret and I wasn't sure I was done keeping that secret. So I thought about it for a while and a little voice inside me said "do it" so I did.

This painting "Self Portrait Green Shirt" was specifically requested for the article. A rather disturbing image I painted what seems like a lifetime ago in 2001. It's odd to be this far away from the time of it's creation and yet it's the piece chosen to represent my art. It was equally strange hearing a snippet of a song I released in 2004 titled "Pain" (album "Self Portrait") being played on the radio. It's the last song anyone would imagine being played on the radio. However it does fit the topic of the show. Listen to the interview and read the article, click HERE. It's a little bit of my back story, literally~
Sterling