Itinerant artist will paint for a bed and a meal

Next stop, Bozeman, Mont. Mott sits on a wall in front of a suburban house painting a scene that includes a tract house under construction in a nearby field.

As Mott paints, he talks about his background. He studied art at Dartmouth College and the University of Michigan. He finds painting a challenge, not a pleasure; he does it because it's what he does best. He tries to live as simply as possible, and likens his travels to a spiritual search. He works part time as an environmental consultant. He'd like to stay at the homes of more working-class families; most of the people he stays with are upper-middle-class. He's also staying with three artists on this trip, which makes him a bit anxious. As soon as he starts getting comfortable with the people with whom he's staying, he finds it's time to move on. His father is a doctor who was inspired by Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and devoted his life to working in underserved communities. After retiring, both his parents became full-time social justice activists – something Mott appreciates, but doesn't claim for himself.

"I'm more a contemplative than an activist," he says.

Mott describes a stop on his first road trip where he stayed in a house in an anonymous subdivision outside Las Vegas. Rather than paint scenes of nature or the strip, he painted a white plastic deck chair next to his host's pool.

"[My host] loved seeing that part of her world was turned into art," he says, explaining that one role for art is to find meaning in everyday things. "I guess people are hungry for meaning, or a sense that things matter. When I sweat over a painting and show that I care enough about something to paint it ... that affirms the value of whatever's around."

Part of what motivates Mott is his feeling that he can't practice his vocation in isolation – he needs a supportive community. But can he practice his vocation while having a vacation?

"No!" he protests. "I'm having fun, but I never worked so hard. I don't even have time to go see the dinosaur museum, which is what I was most looking forward to in Bozeman."

Mary Keefer, a reference librarian who, along with her husband, is Mott's host here, says she enjoys meeting new people and has hosted foreign students as well as artists in her home before. "I like almost everybody in the arts, whether they're musicians, or artists, or actors, or whatever," says Ms. Keefer, a painter herself.

Keefer adds that she considers Mott's payment of a painting generous, but not necessary. "In a sense, giving us that is giving of himself, which is far more valuable to me. Anytime I have people in my home, I think it's a gift to us."

Despite Mott's claims that he's terrified of adventure, Keefer sees that he thrives on it.

"It just takes him a much longer preparation," she says. Keefer's husband, Jim, a pharmacist, likens Mott to the reluctant protagonist in Anne Tyler's book "The Accidental Tourist."

Plus, Mott's insecurities seem to disappear once he settles in with his hosts. Over vegetable soup prepared by Ms. Keefer, Mott breaks out a board game he invented called Dazzle, and enthusiastically explains the rules.

"I cannot imagine my life without having done it," he says of the places he's been and the people he's met. "With it my life has a little story within a story.... I actually look forward to going home and thinking about it all."

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