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  • BRANDON ANDERTON: Some would see it as an exercise in futility.

  • It's invariably going to wash away.

  • But if it gets people to stop and think,

  • my time is well spent right then and there.

  • LAURA LING: You were a professional motorcycle road

  • racer.

  • What did you love about motorcycle racing?

  • BRANDON ANDERTON: I've always been an adrenaline junkie.

  • So it's just the most extreme circumstances

  • that you can think of.

  • Being out in the elements, being on a motorcycle,

  • and then being able to carry the speed that you

  • can through corners and stuff, it's

  • a perspective, an experience you can't really synthesize

  • through any other means.

  • LAURA LING: Have you experienced many crashes and injuries?

  • LAURA LING: Oh yeah.

  • Yeah, I've broken my legs three times a piece,

  • my arms twice, ribs, probably about six ribs.

  • Disintegrated my tib, fib, and my femur.

  • Broke my pelvis in half, and my lower two ribs,

  • and my scapula on my left side.

  • LAURA LING: Racing was your passion, and all of a sudden,

  • you weren't able to do that anymore.

  • How did you deal with that emotionally?

  • BRANDON ANDERTON: I was relegated

  • to living in a wheelchair for about a year and a half

  • inside my condo, essentially a shut in.

  • So I had a lot of time to work out and practice moving

  • and regain my ability to walk.

  • LAURA LING: Can you talk to me about the ritual that

  • has helped you through this?

  • BRANDON ANDERTON: Yeah.

  • I found art.

  • And it's not something I grew up with doing.

  • And I got the idea one of the times

  • that I was out there on the beach

  • to just start scrawling stuff in the sand,

  • and I wouldn't have to worry about anybody else's judgment,

  • because I was there by myself and the waves were

  • going to take it anyway.

  • So the process for me is, basically,

  • being with a thought, an emotion, or a story.

  • Usually on the drive over, something will come to me.

  • And then a shape will manifest from that,

  • and it all starts from there.

  • LAURA LING: Can you tell me what goes through your mind

  • when you're creating this art?

  • BRANDON ANDERTON: Sometimes there's-- I'll have a bit

  • of a pity party.

  • You know, why me?

  • You know, why has this happened to me?

  • Other times, I just think about what

  • life is, what consciousness is, why we're all here.

  • LAURA LING: It sounds very therapeutic.

  • BRANDON ANDERTON: Extremely.

  • It's fundamentally changed who I am as a person.

  • I was in a really bad place, but just the creation of the art,

  • in and of itself, and that feeling of gratification

  • and thankfulness and satisfaction,

  • is something that I haven't obtained

  • from anything else in my life.

  • LAURA LING: Do you wait for the tide to take the artwork away?

  • BRANDON ANDERTON: Sometimes I do.

  • It's just an affirmation of no matter what we do here

  • on this world, nature's still going

  • to come back and reclaim everything.

  • It's a total catharsis for me in that regard.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • LAURA LING: And you can also watch this episode of Rituals.

  • MIKE SHINODA: And there are other times

  • when I'm hyper-agitated.

  • In my head, it's like a cyclone of noise, and it's loud.

BRANDON ANDERTON: Some would see it as an exercise in futility.

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