Itinerant artist will paint for a bed and a meal

Jim Mott's cross-country odysseys are an attempt to barter art – and hang it in the homes of everyday people.

from the October 16, 2007 edition

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"[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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