Prompted by a proposed Wal-Mart in the heart of Athens, Georgia, Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood teamed up with John Bell and Todd Nance of Widespread Panic, Mike Mills of R.E.M., and many more Athens-based musicians to protect the small businesses of their town. Their shared interest in keeping Wal-Mart out and supporting small businesses led the musicians to unite and create a powerful protest song: After It’s Gone.

The college town outside of Atlanta is home to the University of Georgia, as well as a small business district that thrives on the patronage of students, alumni and locals. The music video (featured below) highlights the areas that would be the most negatively affected by the proposed Wal-Mart and shopping center. The musicians, who recorded the song under the moniker “Patterson Hood and the Downtown 13”, hope that that the song will help bring the issue to the attention of the public.

“This Atlanta developer wants to clog our cultural heart and build a bunker the size of three city blocks next to the vibrant downtown scene,” said Hood in a press release “They hit the easy button: a big box store in our downtown district is clearly misguided and a somewhat ridiculous notion. Downtown Athens is a dynamic network of local businesses — Athens already has a meaningful brand and we are extremely protective of it.”

While the locals behind the cause are not opposed to any specific company, they are broadly opposed to developing the area, which they believe would detract from Athens’ vibrant downtown economy. "We don't need a big box retailer, the very definition of the past, to once again bring us back through that dark episode of closed down storefronts and empty parking lots" said Hood, "Protect Downtown Athens-- that's what this is all about."

HeadCount Board of Directors member Bob Weir performed at his TRIStudios last night, which was Webcast live. Bob was kind enough to invite some HeadCount volunteers to attend. Here is one volunteer's account.

It was great to see Bobby in his newly finished TRI Studios in Marin last night. TRI Studios is a perfect setting for a band to rehearse, record and broadcast. Given it is Bobby's place, it was only fitting that Ratdog do a broadcast there.

There was lots of love in the room between the band members and the small group of friends and invitees in attendance. It's an intimate setting for everyone, which I think was even felt by the countless others watching via the live HD stream into cyberspace. The studio even has a Twitter and Facebook stream along side of the live feed for people to share their experiences while watching from all over the globe. The tweet and Facebook deck is nice because it allows you to feel connected to people all over the country and the globe sharing the same experience.

Growing up on the Grateful Dead, living in the Bay Area and having a parent that's a hardcore Deadhead all add up to having a great appreciation for the sound, style and scene the Dead created.

It appears Bobby was right when he said there were no instructions or guidance for doing this live studio stream. However he may be on to something. After talking to a few friends who watched, there is a business here for sure. An "entrance fee" for the live stream is small price to pay for the entertainment provided. I imagine that Bobby's onto something before its time... "All good things, in all good time" as the story of the Dead continues today.

A special thank you goes to Bobby and Ratdog for making the whole event special and I would personally like to give a shout out to HeadCount for extending the invitation to me and my date to attend. Hope to do it again sometime soon.

Name: Charlie Blatt
Location: Towson, Maryland
HeadCount Band: Phish/moe.
Best HeadCount Experience: The most recent Virgin Mobile FreeFest. After over twelve hours of working hard we were rewarded with excellent times and great live music!
What’s Your Issue? Education
Why do You Like Volunteering for HeadCount? Besides the obvious draw of live music, I've developed a sincere appreciation for HeadCount volunteers' work, whether it's raising awareness of voting and registration or engaging with fans through the DNA surveys and/or the new photo contests. Not only is doing a simple deed incredibly self-gratifying, but it really does help make a difference in the long run. Exercising your right to vote is SO important, and I'm glad I can be a part of such a great team that helps in the process.
Hobbies: Live music, playing music, reading, video games, snowboarding.

When Roger McNamee and his band Moonalice play “American Dream Rag” at Occupy Wall Street protests, not everyone knows he’s one of Silicon Valley's most successful investors.

Here’s a 55-year old, long- haired guy singing “They took everything we have, but we don’t cry/We can’t afford to drink, but we still get high.”

Would anyone guess that he’s Bill Gates’ self described “sounding board”? Or that he’s an early investor in Facebook? Or manages $1.9 billion in investments with an Irish partner… named Bono?

But the truth is that McNamee, who has spent the last 30 years helping to build technology companies in Silicon Valley, is firmly on the side of the occupiers.

“The country has been stolen,” says McNamee bluntly. “I expect to be involved in getting it back for the rest of my life.”

The Facebook page for his band Moonalice includes posters created for Occupy Wall Street by the band’s artists, including Chuck Sperry and Chris Shaw. McNamee has also appeared on CNBC’s news show “SquawkBox,” explaining to individual investors why they should support Occupy and debunking false reports about the movement.

On the evening when 10,000 protesters flooded the streets of Oakland, he shared his thoughts with us…

On what really happens on Wall Street:

I have been angry about this way longer than Occupy has existed. My first boss told me that “Wall Street is not the world’s highest calling,” but it wasn’t a bad place until the past decade. Irresponsible deregulation combined with unbridled greed has broken the back of our economy. And no one has been held accountable.

On his unique perspective:

I really know Wall Street. At one time my firm was an investor in the technology system that makes NASDAQ work. It wasn’t designed to rip people off, but it’s being used that way now.

On how he came to write “American Dream Rag”:

Somehow we wound up with a two-tiered legal system, where there is frequently no consequence for rich people who do horrible things. Wall Street has been increasingly dishonest for a decade. Wall Street was never an angel, but until recently it also wasn’t the devil. Every step of the way it has been aided and abetted by our government. And the press slept through the whole thing. When none of the major banks had been prosecuted by 2009, I took matters into my own hands and wrote this song in 2009.

His visits to Occupy Wall Street:

I’ve visited Occupies in several towns. My favorite was Philadelphia. I was there on the day they launched it. 500 people who showed up... watching them organizing themselves was a thing of beauty. I loved the simplicity of it. The fact that there was no political agenda. There isn’t any magic to it. It is the American Spring. It is analogous to the Arab Spring . . . and based on the same issues. After all, our income has become as unevenly distributed as Saudi Arabia. This is so disappointing.

Getting caught in a police parade:

In New York, Moonalice had the most amazing experience. We went down in the rain and played the song a bunch of times at Zuccotti. The next day we were scheduled to play a gig at BB King’s, which is a club on the edge of Times Square. It happened to be the day of Occupy Times Square. We didn’t really know it, but the demonstration went right past our hotel. We boarded our bus to go to the gig, and only got around the block when police stopped us at an intersection. While we waited, 8 or 10 paddy wagons turned onto Broadway in front of us. Our bus went up Broadway behind the paddy wagons. They were pushing traffic onto side streets, so our bus was the only civilian vehicle going up Broadway. Next thing you know, we are in the heart of the demonstration. That’s when we began tooting the bus horn. At first the crowd didn’t react, but pretty quickly they figured out we were on their side. That’s when the crowd went CRAZY. We took a really funny video of it. Big Steve Parish, who was Jerry Garcia’s roadie, was convinced we were going to get arrested. I tried to calm down by pointing out the irony of me getting arrested for supporting Occupy.

On New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s comments that Congress, not the banks, is responsible for the financial mess:

He knows it’s not true. There is no question that the government played a huge rule in enabling everything that happened, but the notion that the banks are not responsible is just crazy. The sub-prime market is not the portion of the market that Fannie and Freddie [Mac] were doing. Nearly all sub-prime loans were made by commercial banks.

How this was all inevitable:

History is very clear that when an economy sustains unemployment around 20%, social unrest is an inevitable consequence. The official U.S. unemployment rate is 9%, but an equivalent number of people are either underemployed or have given up looking. More important, America is no longer a land of equal opportunity. A handful of industries have paid for the right to set their own government policy. This has produced a huge change in the distribution of wealth in this country, entirely at the expense of the middle class.

The ‘brilliance’ of OWS:

What Occupy is doing is merely leaning against any obstruction put in its path. So the organization system is really nothing more than that. And therein lies its brilliance.

About the future of Occupy:

When Occupy started, our country was buried in a ridiculous national conversation. One party had pushed our country to the brink of insolvency and was arguing that $10 in spending cuts was not enough to justify one dollar of tax increases. Then Occupy began. Within a month, the national conversation had changed completely. We’re now talking about the right issues: jobs, income distribution, the failure of government, and the limits of capitalism.

The vast majority of Americans support Occupy on the issues, even if some are ambivalent about tents in parks. My hope is that the movement has grown beyond -- and is no longer dependent on -- what happens in city parks.

About the attempts to eradicate Occupy:

There is a story going around that the Department of Homeland Security may have organized a conference call with more than a dozen big city mayors to coordinate the eradication of Occupy camps. If that story proves to be true, U.S. government will find itself in the position of behaving like the dictators we have worked so hard to eliminate. The First Amendment guarantees Americans’ right to peaceful assembly. Unfortunately, mayors and police officers in several major cities seem to have forgotten.

Occupy is not a political movement. It is a protest against overreaching by businesses and the government, which means the more the government behaves like Syria, the bigger the protest will become.

The status quo is bad for America. It’s going to change. It will change peacefully unless the government chooses a different path. I hope our leaders will wake up and engage in a thoughtful discussion about the issues being raised by Occupy.

The HeadCount blog is a community forum where all opinions are welcome. The following does not necessarily represent the views of the HeadCount organization, and anyone with an opposing viewpoint is encouraged to comment or become a blog contributor. Please email info@headcount.org for more information.

With the Occupy Wall Street movement in its 24th day, there are still real questions as to what these people are protesting against. Yeah I get it: anti-greed, anti-bailout, anti-corruption, anti-establishment. They want jobs, free education, and list goes on and on. But that’s what I see as one of the main problems with the movement. The protesters don’t seem to have any idea about what they want as a group. With no central leadership these protesters seem to be protesting more out of frustration, then out of trying to further a vision of how things should be run.

The anti-greed notion is something that I get. No one wants to hear that the CEO of a Fortune 500 company is making $85 million a year, while he or she is living on food stamps. I agree, there are serious problems in our economy. However, so do the majority of the companies on Wall Street. They would love nothing more then to be hiring more people and expanding their business in the U.S. Maybe these protesters should be protesting about outsourcing or trying to pressure the U.S. government to put pressure on China to appreciate its currency. If this happened, China would have less of an exchange rate advantage when it comes to exports to the U.S. and it would be more economical to produce the things we need right here in America. This would bring back good salaried union manufacturing jobs to the U.S.; something these protesters are asking for indirectly - jobs.

Another popular grievance of the Occupy Wall Street movement is the fact that big banks got bailouts with taxpayer dollars, when everyday Americans are left to fend for themselves. The problem with this argument is that it doesn't take into account the complexities of our modern financial system. There are some economists who disagree with the bank bailouts, but the prevailing thought in economic circles is, if these big banks were not bailed out things would have been much much worse for everyone, including the protesters. You and me - average Americans - rely on these banks everyday. Even indirectly without the bailouts the businesses and services that we use, like hospitals and schools, would not continue to function because of the lack of capital liquidity. Capital liquidity in the financial markets allows private institutions like hospitals to stay open or public ones, like states, counties, or cities, to borrow to build infrastructure.

Now if you followed all of that, great. But if I lost some of you in my greatly simplified economic analysis, that's the point I’m trying to make. These protests - while coming from a good and sincere place, are mostly misplaced anger. From what I have seen, these protests are mostly based on misconceptions about how the world functions in reality. All of these issues and policies, if they were retooled to meet the protesters demands, would call for a fundamental restructuring of American society and the world economy, something no one person or group is in a position to do. These protests are spreading to other cities around the country, capturing the general discontent of the masses, that are enduring high unemployment and a tough economy. But the issues and policies that the protesters are purporting to rally against, are not the source of their problems. Wall Street can do little to change the situation, and does not have the incentive to do so. Even when Kanye West stands outside their offices and stands with the masses.

Fans of moe. and Guster can feel pretty good about the bands they love. Both have been model citizens when it comes to supporting causes and various organizations. Guster's Adam Gardner even formed his own non-profit (Reverb). So it's no wonder that when Patagonia launched the Patagonia Music Collective, they were two of the first bands on board. The Collective raises money for environmental organizations through the sale of downloads.

In a pair of videos produced by HeadCount, members of each band talk about the songs  they donated and the organizations they chose to support.

The video with moe. also features a live performance of their song "One Life," played at the All Good Music Festival this past summer as part of a "Challenge Set" - a bonus set played to reward fans for downloading the track at least 1,000 times. Proceeds from "One Life" support the Rainforest Action Network.

Guster's track is a live recording of "Satellite" from a performance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gardner and bandmate Luke Reynolds speak of the performance and of Reverb, which downloads of the song support.

Also included here is a video with G. Love and Samantha Stollenwerck that we released over the summer.

So enjoy the videos. And if you like a tune, throw down a buck and download it. You'll feel good every time it comes  up on your iPod.

Click here to download tracks.

On September 17, I marched through New York City’s Financial District with about 1000 other people. It was the first day of what has now become known as the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, and I was there to protest the undue amount of influence that corporations have on our political system. It didn’t seem right to me that the people who were most responsible for our economic crisis were making as much money as ever while the middle class saw its prospects dwindle every day. It also didn’t seem right to me that so few people had come out to Wall Street to join the protests. Where were the students whose opportunities looked so bleak? Where were the unions whose labor rights were constantly under attack?

Fast-forward two weeks and Occupy Wall Street was on the tip of everybody’s tongue. Pundits were talking about it, politicians were talking about it but, most importantly, my fellow students were talking about it. The internet was buzzing with articles about a big labor/student solidarity protest that was planned for Wednesday, October 5. At the New School, where I am a student, there were signs all over campus calling for a walkout on the day of the march. As far as I could tell, everyone was planning on going. You would have a harder time finding kids who didn’t intend to walk out on October 5^th.

Just when everyone thought they were going to be sticking it to the man, the man decided to join us. On Tuesday, October 4^th the New School faculty released a statement in support of the walkout and most of them cancelled or rescheduled class so none of the students would fall behind. Many of the professors even declared their intention to join the protests in solidarity with students, labor unions and the rest of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

At 3:30pm on October 5^th, hundreds of students and teachers gathered in a courtyard on campus to make signs, trade tactics and prepare for the walkout. At 4pm we left the school and marched down 5^th Avenue to Washington Square Park, where we met up with students from NYU, Columbia and CUNY before heading down Lafayette Street to join the labor unions at Foley Square. It was an amazing thing to see a couple thousand students and teachers taking to the streets in solidarity while the police tried, with little success, to force us all on to the sidewalks.

When we finally got to Foley Square thousands of people cheered our arrival. Students and labor were joining forces once again to demand justice and fight for a better society. As a brass band began to play I stood on a bench and watched the crowd grow larger and larger. It became clear to me then that this was all just the beginning. A new movement was coming into being and I was happy to be a part of it.

“Every decision you make is an exercise of your power.”

My friends in Zuccotti Park -- A.K.A. "Liberty Square" -- the location of the “Occupy Wall Street" protest movement, would seem to disagree. What power? Most of the people that I have met through the weeks of Wall Street protests tell similar stories of despair over losing jobs or having piles of student debt with little voice in the matter.  But “personal power” was the message from the facilitator of the Civil Disobedience Training that I attended on September 16th, the day before the protest began.

There were, maybe, 40 people there. We began the day as strangers but were forced to work together as “buddies” during the role-playing scenarios. We each took turns playing either a protester or a police officer and being forced to decide, in the heat of the moment, if we were willing to get arrested to allow others to escape. The facilitator kept repeating the same line: “Every decision you make is an exercise of your power.” Before she could fully explain what she meant, a woman in an all black dress entered the room and offered us the leftover dinner from an "Anarchist Wedding". As we munched down on the vegan Swedish meatballs and gluten-free spaghetti, we made sure that every out-of-towner had a warm home to sleep in before the protests began in earnest and we would sleep on the streets of the Financial District until “our one demand was met”.

And when September 17th arrived, we put on our layers of clothing, camping gear, and courage and headed to Wall Street. There was an overwhelming presence of young city rats, hipsters, dreadlocks, and anger. We all started to walk towards Wall Street, chanting in unison “Banks get bailouts! We get soldout!” only to run into police blockades and relocate to what's now being referred to as Liberty Square.  The spirit was high but the numbers were low; estimates say that less than a thousand people showed up.

Now, almost three weeks into the protest, the “Occupy Wall Street Protest” movement has grown and expanded in solidarity from coast to coast.  I headed down to Liberty Square after work earlier this week to check out the afterglow of the campus walkout. I joined in a meditation circle and tried to find center, but it was not easy with so much talking happening around me. “The government doesn’t give a fuck!”  “Capitalism failed us!”  “Let’s throw donuts over the Brooklyn Bridge!” Even in my moment of Zen, I couldn’t help but agree with the frustration, resentment, and righteousness. After all, many “peaceful” protesters have been arrested for unjust reasons and the mainstream media coverage has been slanted at best. Before I could get another thought in, a young Hispanic man that I had met at the Civil Disobedience training spoke through the loud mic: “Today we proved our power in numbers but our power must come from love and respect, even for the NYPD.”

To me, “Occupy Wall Street” can never change the system unless we change ourselves. It is about believing in the worth and power of the individual and having faith in a world where the individual can achieve as much of their potential as possible.  It’s about the books that people give away to the “Wall Street Library”, the tireless drum circles that keep morale high, the free medical care, and even the leftovers from the “Anarchist Wedding.” It’s not about 99% vs. 1%. I finally understood what the facilitator meant by “personal power”. “Occupy Wall Street” is a movement towards changing what it fundamentally means to be a citizen and a human being.

Photos by Brian Stollery

It was not too long ago that artist, teacher and mother Gwen AP was painting in the crowd at concerts and festivals. Through a rapid turn of events, she now finds herself painting on stage with her favorite musicians. Here, she tells how it all happened.

You have been producing art for some time, but have only recently begun live painting. Can you tell me about how this began and what you experienced in the transition from painting in a studio to performing in a live environment?

I have always loved painting and music is definitely a big inspiration. Live painting kind of just happened at Bonnaroo this year. It was my first time painting in front of a large population of strangers. It was great. People really seemed to like it and the responses I got were almost entirely positive. I ended up working with another artist who approached me while I was spray painting out in a field and we ended up doing some collaboration throughout the festival.

When I live painted at Camp Bisco it felt very natural and at times surreal. My live painting has developed lately and I feel like it's - just a really big wave I'm riding of - artistic progression.

You painted quite a bit at Bonnaroo this summer. Could you perhaps describe some of the insight you gained from this experience, it being your first time performing live painting?

Well last year I had entered the Bonnaroo logo contest and my husband had made a bunch of prints of my design to bring with us and sell. I thought he was crazy, because my art had always been very personal to me, and I had never tried to sell it before. But all of my prints sold really well, so this year we upgraded and decided to vend my artwork. That was very scary for me because my paintings are very personal, so it’s definitely putting myself out there for everybody to see. It was putting my soul on display - you like it, want to pay for it? The experience ended up being really cool because even though it was so scary going into it I got a lot of really positive feedback from the crowd. People were really excited about my art.

At Camp Bisco I saw you in the crowd and you were painting with the general population, but I know that you live painted on stage with Dirty Paris and the Disco Biscuits. Could you tell me about this experiences and perhaps how they differed?

This year I requested an artist pass to see if I could paint on stage. It was great. Brownie was so nice. He hooked me up with a guest pass and I wasn't really sure what that meant at the beginning of the weekend. It was cool. I enjoyed going back stage and talking to different artists and different people.

I ran into my friends in Dirty Paris who I had done some album and other miscellaneous artwork for, about 20 or 30 paintings.

When I ran into them at Camp this year I told them that I would be live painting on stage with the Biscuits and it just so happened that their time slot was directly before the Biscuits day set that I would be painting during. You know how pretty perfect is that? So I said, "Hey can I paint with you guys?" and they said, "Yeah, of course!" So I painted on stage with them, which is cool because I know those guys, and even camped with them at this and past Camp Biscos. That was a very comfortable experience, they are friends of mine, so being on stage with them was very awesome. A lot of my friends were in the crowd supporting them and supporting me. Which is great to just hear people cheer for you, yell your name.

When the Biscuits came on I just kept painting. Brownie came out, he tapped me on the shoulder and gave me a high five, went out and said 'Good Morning' to Camp Bisco and introduced me to the crowd. I remember looking out at the audience and it was very surreal seeing how many people were out there, it looked like a sea of people, it didn't seem like it ended. Being able to look over at Barber jamming on his guitar, just a few feet away from me, Magner getting into it or being able to see the gloss on Allen's face: that all was very intense but cool at the same time.

I felt like I warmed up with Dirty Paris but really got into it for the Biscuits. The whole thing was one of the best experiences I have had. It felt nice and exciting. When it was over, Brownie introduced me to his mom who was watching from the side and I ended up meeting his wife and kids. The painting ended up being awesome. Brownie actually helped me name it.

You recently went to New Mexico on an artist retreat to collaborate with artist Mike Rohner, who you met at Bonnarro. Can you tell me what that experience was like, what you did and what it was like collaborating with another artist?

Collaborating with another artist was great. I met him while painting at Bonnaroo while I was painting in a field a few days before they let the general population inside. I was just laying down some spray paint and he said 'Can I show you a couple things?' It turns out he is an amazing spray painter from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Right off the bat we became really good friends. Throughout the weekend he ended up live painting with me on multiple works. I felt like his style really complimented mine. He would lay down some spray paint and the I would go on with some splatter, or he'd try some spray paint and then he would sketch something out. It seemed like we had a really nice flow to what we were doing.

We became such good friends that he actually gave me a piece to take home and do some work on. Through the course of the next few weeks he ended up sending me 5 or 6 paintings that he laid down some spray paint and some sketching and then I laid down some of my ideas. They all turned out really well so he end up inviting me out to a Girls Inc. show that he was doing on the plaza in Santa Fe. As soon as I got there he had some paintings prepped that he wanted to work on. He has some really cool concepts of a female image that we ended up collaborating on that we used a model friend of his for. Overall I think our styles very much compliment each other and it was definitely fun to feed off of each other's creative ideas.

Did arts education play a big role for you developing as an artist or is it something you came to on your own?

I've always drawn, and art class was always my favorite. I always took art class very seriously much more so then I think I did any other class. But it was fun because I had a tough childhood and so for me art was my outlet. It was how I could express myself. There were no rules and it was just whatever you wanted it to be. So I think that always had a very big impact on me because that was my way to express myself. But the only type of art education I ever had was kindergarten through 12th grade.

As a teacher as well as an artist. Perhaps you can give some insight into how important arts education is to a child's development.

Arts education, well of course it's very important. I have a 4-year old daughter so of course I see her -- every day -- developing her fine motor skills. I think for a lot of kids art is a little bit of a release. It’s not like science or math where its hardcore facts and figures. Art gets to be interpreted in any way you so choose. So there’s no right or wrong in art. In art the spirit is that you tell everyone that they did a good job and that everybody's an artist it’s just a very positive type of experience for kids. I think art is just as important as music or anything like that. And it's sad that sometimes those things are overlooked when it comes to budget cuts.  The district I was in suffered a big budget cut the last school year, which is why in pursuing my art a little more then I am my teaching at this point. I think one day I will have a good teaching job but in the meantime I'm going to pursue my art.

Continuing on that note do you think anything can be done to stop the defunding of arts and music programs in American public schools or do you see that as the first thing to go when a district has no money?

I can't say I know enough specifics to say what the first thing to go is. But I know I saw a lot of teachers in our district react very negatively to different proposals our district put out. Cutting jobs, cutting programs, it’s sad. I hope that something can be done about it. But it's gotta - you have to have enough power behind that, enough people have to support it and you have to really really try to make a stand and do something about it, and hope that the people in control recognize it.

Back to you live painting, you painted with Conspirator on the 27th can you tell me how it went?

It was awesome, it was a lot of fun to meet everyone and hang out with them. I got to have a little one on one time with everyone in the band. The whole thing had a really good vibe and I thought the painting turned out really well. It was really fun. I always enjoy listening to their music and getting to be so close to it was phenomenal.

I’m looking at a picture of your painting right now and it seems very dynamic and organic but still has a raw energy to it, can you tell me how this manifestation came about?

It does have a lot of energy. It was a great experience where they put me right up front next to Magner's keyboard and it was intense and awesome. I think the painting reflects all of that energy I felt. It was definitely tough painting because I was trying to dance and paint at the same time, but still keep my lines nice and clean. I wanted it to be a little bit raw but still crisp and clean in some spots. I feel like I soaked up a lot of the energy coming from the band and the crowd. At one point I asked Mike Greenfield [from Lotus] what color he thought I should add next. He said purple and I said ooo yeah purple, and when I added the purple to it, it changed the dynamic of the painting. I asked a bunch of people for name suggestions, which is always my favorite part. As people see it develop I ask them for name suggestions and I got a lot of good ones which for me is one of the fun parts.

[Gwen's painting is now on sale through her website. Gwen has pledged all of the proceeds from the sale as a donation to Headcount.]

This is the third in a series of interview of artists who paint to live music. Previous interviews featured Kris D and LEBO.