Dave Santia Interview with Meltdown
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00:00Hey, it's Meltdown here in the studio with speed painter Dave Santea. I guess, is that the
00:04really, is that your title, speed painter? Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, so typically, how long does it
00:10take you to paint a picture? Well, it depends on the painting, but they run, on average, it takes
00:15me about, for my speed paintings, it takes me about anywhere between five to ten minutes.
00:22Now, for people that haven't seen you before, so you do this mostly with music, right? Yeah,
00:27and you use both your hands. Yes. Which is unbelievable. I was just watching a thing the
00:31other day, and of course, I've seen you do this live before, but let's start it back at the
00:35beginning. When did you know that you had this gift? Well, I've been drawing and painting since
00:41I was about seven or eight years old, and my mom would always come home every shopping day with
00:49a pad of paper for me to draw on, and I took that pad of paper everywhere I went. I was always
00:56drawing, and, you know, when I was little, that's, you know, I never left the house without
01:02that pad of paper. And so then about, I want to say about 15 years ago or so, maybe, I saw
01:12this video on YouTube. Remember that TV show, That's Incredible? Yeah. It was a clip from that
01:18show from like 1980 or 81, and they were talking about this artist named Denny Dent, and they were
01:27saying, oh, what he can do is so amazing. It's incredible, and blah, blah, blah, and all that
01:31stuff. So then they cut to this artist, and he had the same basic setup that I have, you know, big
01:35black canvas, paint all by his feet, brushes in each hand. They started playing Beatles music, and then
01:41he just attacks this canvas, and within seconds, you can tell it's going to be a painting of John
01:46Lennon. And then I was amazed. He was done with the painting within minutes, and then I watched
01:51the same video again, and I watched it again, and I kind of looked up this artist a little bit, and I
01:55saw other videos of him, and I said to myself, with what I already know, I think I can figure this out.
02:02So it didn't just come right away. I had to train myself to figure out how to speed paint. There
02:09would, you know, there was no tutorials back then online on how to do it. There was no, I had to figure
02:13everything out from the materials to use to what, you know, what type of paint, what type
02:17of brushes, what type of canvas. And it took me, it took me a little while to train myself
02:24to be able to paint, to speed paint. Excuse me. And, you know, my first speed paintings,
02:35I remember my first one that I did. It took me about 45 minutes to do.
02:40Not very speedy.
02:41Yeah, exactly. It was Michael Jackson, and it didn't quite look like Michael Jackson.
02:50Remember when the thriller video when he was the zombie?
02:54Yeah.
02:54Well, it kind of like looked like a monkey tried to paint that with its feet, you know.
03:00And it just looked terrible. But then I kept at it, and kept at it, and kept practicing,
03:05kept practicing. And before I knew it, you know, I was able to do it. And, you know, like
03:13I said, it didn't come right away. You know, it took a lot of practice and a lot of, you
03:17know, perseverance.
03:18Well, my thing with this whole thing is how you use both hands. Are you ambidextrous?
03:23No. A lot of people ask me that.
03:25Yeah.
03:25They ask me if I'm ambidextrous. They ask me if I'm dyslexic.
03:29I mean, none of that stuff. The reason why I paint with two hands, if you really watch
03:37me when I'm painting, when I'm painting with two hands, I'm really drawing it in with my
03:42right hand because I am right-handed.
03:44And then I bring in my left hand whenever I need a thicker, a quote-unquote thicker brush
03:50or I need to fill in some space or something like that. That's when the left hand comes in.
03:54And a lot of times the left hand, you know, if I'm out of paint on my right hand, I switch
04:00brushes real quick.
04:01Got you. Okay.
04:02Yeah.
04:03For those that are watching and listening to this right now, we are in a radio station,
04:05which is supposed to be silent, but there's a heating problem. So that's why we're all
04:08bundled up as well. But anyways, so then you've taken this like on cruises. You've gone all
04:14over. Have you gone all over the world with your speed painting?
04:17I've been to a couple of different countries. You know, mostly I'm in the United States.
04:21I'm mostly here in, in Metro Detroit. Yeah. But, um, you've been on the kiss cruise and
04:27stuff like that as well, right? Yeah. I, I, I painted on the kiss cruise on the, on the
04:32kid rock cruise. I was on the, uh, the first walking dead cruise. Um, I got a couple, I
04:39got another cruise coming up, uh, in a couple of months. Um, uh, it's the, uh, trailer trash
04:47Tammy. Oh, I know her. Yeah. Yeah. I'm doing her. I don't know her. I've hung out with
04:51her. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, that, that, that, that's going to be interesting. That
04:54should be fun. Yeah. Trailer trash Tammy. Yeah. I'll tell you about her, uh, later
04:58on. Uh, but, uh, so I, I just saw like you posted a picture recently. I'm trying
05:02to remember with, uh, like Bo Jackson and stuff. You've done celebrity paintings and
05:05all sorts of stuff, right? Yeah. I, I, that was, uh, from a, a, a fundraiser that I did
05:11in Bermuda last, last spring. Um, and there was a whole bunch of, you know,
05:17celebrity, celebrity athletes. There are a lot of hall of famers there. Bo Jackson
05:22was there. Spud Webb was there. Uh, now see Spud Webb. Now I can relate with him
05:26because you know, he's five foot nothing like me. I had to get, you know, I don't
05:30normally get pictures with, with celebrities when I work with them, but I had to get one
05:34of me and Spud Webb. Yeah, of course. How, how, how, how far did he go up to you? About
05:38midsection? Uh, yeah. Something like that. Like up to my elbow somewhere. And, uh, for, for
05:46those that, that don't know, I'm six foot nine, I'm, I'm about a foot and a half
05:50taller than Spud, Spud Webb. And, um, but yeah, that, that was a lot of fun. It was
05:57that, that particular event was a nightmare and, and a lot of fun at the same time, you
06:02know, cause traveling, you know, especially when you're traveling overseas, I got to
06:06bring my equipment with me and you know, I got to bring it there in parts and I got
06:10to reassemble it when I get there. And people hear, you know, stuff like, oh, you
06:14painted at an event in Bermuda or, or in Miami or wherever for me, it's work. Right.
06:20You know, I mean, I'm not there to sightsee, although I, you know, I will try to set
06:25aside a day to where maybe I can, you know, do something, but, uh, but yeah, I'm, I'm
06:31there, you know, from the moment the plane lands to the moment I take off, I'm, I'm, I'm
06:36working the entire time. Now I've seen you at a, obviously like a astronomicon and
06:39stuff. So, uh, over the course of a weekend at an event like that, how many pictures will
06:43you paint or does it just kind of vary? It varies. Yeah. Like, uh, astronomicon, I, I
06:48typically just do one, one 30 minute performance. Okay. And I usually I do about three to four
06:56paintings within that 30 minutes. Oh, okay. Yeah. Wow. So you just, you just rifle them
07:01up one after the next. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We just, we, you know, I just, I just, you
07:05know, finish one and I bring out the next one. And so, you know, sometimes like if, if
07:09they give me like an, if I get like an hour and I, and I'm, I'm only going to
07:13be doing three paintings, then, you know, maybe I'll talk in between each
07:17painting. Uh, but, uh, you know, that, that doesn't happen too often. So obviously
07:21a big part of it is that you started, you, you start painting with the picture
07:25upside down. Yeah. Now, when did that start and why do you do that? Well, you
07:29know, it's kind of funny when I first started speed painting, you know, I paint now I do
07:36them all upside down. But when I first started speed painting, when I would paint
07:39at an event, I would do one upside down and then the other two would be right
07:43side up. Okay. And then, um, and then when I'd go out to these events, uh, they
07:51would ask me, which one are you going to paint upside down? You know, the people
07:54that hired me or the people that brought me in and I'll ask them, which one do you
07:57want me to paint upside down? Well, at that point, people started saying, can you
08:00paint all of them upside down? So I just started painting them all upside down. And, uh,
08:05you know, a lot of people that, that have seen me before, you know, they know the
08:09gimmick, they know that I'm painting it upside down. And, but a lot of time, and
08:13they know what it's going to be a painting of, like if, like, because the music that I
08:20use is always connected to what I'm paying. I got you. Okay. You know, if I'm
08:23paying, if I'm playing Jimi Hendrix music, it's going to be a painting of
08:26Hendrix. Right. And, and a lot of people that have seen me before, they, they know
08:30this and they've told me afterwards, I knew that it was going to be a painting
08:35of Jimi Hendrix, but I just didn't know how it was going to be a pain. Right.
08:39You know, they'll still tell me, I knew it was upside down, but I just couldn't
08:43see how it was going to come together until you flipped it. Well, the reason
08:47that this conversation came together today was because just recently I saw NASCAR
08:50reposted a picture you did of Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Dale Earnhardt Sr. during the
08:55pandemic. And I thought, boy, you know, Dave's an interesting guy. We should get him in here
08:59to talk about all of his paintings. So did you use a song for that one? I think
09:02they sped that one up. They sped that one up. I did that one, like you said,
09:06during the pandemic, you know, at the time I was, you know, just, just painting and
09:11throwing videos up for fun on social media. And one of them was of, of Dale
09:16Earnhardt. And, uh, I believe the music that I, the initial song that I used, I
09:22believe was, I can't drive 55. Right. Yeah. It's because that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.
09:26Something like that. Or maybe it was, uh, Jesus built my hot rod or something.
09:32Yeah. No, I think what's, what's the, the, uh, the Motley Crue song, the one that
09:36starts off kickstart my heart. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, it might, it could have been that
09:39one, but I, I, it was probably, it was probably, um, Sammy. Yeah. Yeah. So is, is
09:45there, is there any, any people or paintings that have come particularly tricky
09:49for you? I'm gonna say no by that reaction. Well, you know, that's, that's kind of a
09:58tricky question to be honest. I mean, there's paintings that are easy, easier for
10:01me to do. And there's paintings that are harder for me to do. Uh, a lot of times
10:07people want me to paint something that sometimes might not translate well as a
10:15speed painting. Um, like one time someone wanted me to, you know, this one event,
10:19they wanted me to paint the last supper. Wow. That's a lot of guys. Exactly. I, I
10:24kind of like, couldn't do it. I mean, I could paint it sure, but it would take me
10:28a couple hours. Right. And you would need like 12 canvases. Right. You know, and,
10:35you know, and not only that, but let's see with speed painting, the more, um, stuff
10:40you put into the painting, like, like, like for instance, if I'm painting just one
10:44person in a speed painting, that's easy. But if I'm painting, the more people you add
10:48into it, the smaller, the, the, the, um, the detail is, and the detail just kind of
10:56like, kind of like has to, you know, it gets, it gets all muddled. So it's, it's
11:01when people ask me to do something that's a little bit difficult to happen as a
11:06speed painting in general is when things get, get kind of tough. Like, um, like
11:12this one person, they wanted me to paint their whole family as a speed painting. And
11:16it was like, I don't know, like six, I think six or seven people in their family.
11:20Yeah. And, and do you always use the same size canvas?
11:24Yeah. I was going to say, cause they, they, they look about the same size all the time.
11:26Yeah. They're, they're four by five feet. Uh, every once in a while I'll get someone
11:30that'll request me to do, do a painting on a smaller, on a smaller canvas. But you know,
11:36it's tough for me to, to, to perform a, uh, a speed painting on a smaller canvas live at an
11:43event because I'm so big and I, I, you know, I covered the whole canvas. You're not seeing
11:48anything, you know, I gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. Not only that, but like, you know, like I said
11:52earlier, the smaller the images are, the tighter the detail is. So the smaller the canvas is,
11:57the tighter the detail. And it takes, it actually takes me longer to do.
12:00How many events do you think you've done over the past 15 years?
12:03Uh, well I started, I actually went public with the speed painting about, it was in 2011. So
12:13about 12, 13 years ago, uh, about maybe about 50 a year. Yeah. Okay. So probably about five,
12:22probably about five or 600 maybe. Wow. Anything you have to check off on your list as far as painting
12:27or no? What do you mean? Like, like any particular people, anything that you haven't
12:33painted yet that I want to paint? Yeah. Uh, no, because, um, if I want to paint something,
12:39I'll just paint it. Just do it. Right. Exactly. Well, you got an event coming up on a February
12:443rd. Yes. You know about that? Um, yeah, it is the, uh, uh, it's called the, the third annual
12:51golden gala, uh, masquerade ball. It's in, uh, Rochester Hills at the Rochester Hills banquet
12:57center on, uh, February 3rd. And it's, it's a, a fundraiser to, uh, to help the, the Shlama
13:08foundation. You'll paint one picture there. I'm doing three, three. Okay. Yeah. And do
13:14you already know, like, for example, for that particular event, what you'll paint or will
13:17you kind of think about it that day? Uh, we, we figure it out ahead of time. Okay. So
13:21you've already kind of, you've already talked to the people. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I, I, I don't
13:26remember if they've, if, if we've, if we, cause I've, we've been, we've been working on this
13:31for the past couple of months. Gotcha. They booked me a few months ago. I don't remember
13:34if, if we've already decided what I'm going to paint or if we have to decide yet. I got
13:39to look at my, at my, um, notes at home. Hmm. Well, Dave, thanks so much for coming in
13:45here. Of course, uh, people can see the pictures right here on the website. And, uh, sorry
13:49about the, uh, sub degree temperatures in here. Oh, don't worry about it. I'm born and
13:55raised in Michigan. I'm used to being in the cold. Well, good luck to you, man. Thanks
13:59again for coming in. Oh, thank you for having me.