Regina Swarn Audio Series Presents

PART - 3 * One Thing Leads To Another As Murphy Elliott Rebuilds A Life, A Career, And A Legacy

• Regina Swarn • Season 8 • Episode 10

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A cross-country move on the morning of 9/11. A dilapidated mansion that becomes a $7 million showcase. A cosmic art portfolio that lands on NASA and SETI’s radar. We sit down with artist and master painter Murphy Elliott to unwind how steady craft, service, and curiosity can turn upheaval into momentum.

Murphy walks us through the early grind of starting over in Florida with no credit score, then proving himself room by room with custom tints, delicate repairs, and ornate column restorations on Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard. That trust snowballed into a thriving Plant City practice restoring historic homes and teaching a small crew, including his son and future son-in-law. Nights belonged to canvas, where his space paintings—rooted in freehand precision and the “illusion of detail”—found audiences on early social platforms, at Space Day exhibits, and on a National Space Society banner that toured conferences.

Recognition scaled from local features to global platforms. NASA showcased ten of his pieces; SETI Universe named him the number one traditional cosmic artist. His “praying soldier” drawing traveled even farther, appearing on Catholic prayer cards for deployed troops and promoting the Brooklyn Memorial Day Parade each year. We also dive into family collaborations at Dinosaur World, intricate plaster and molding work for the Fantasy of Flight Museum, and portraits of golf legends that led Arnold Palmer to sign and sell prints for his children’s hospital. Between milestones, Murphy shares the small habits that compound—drawing daily, embracing tricky restorations, and saying yes to challenges that stretch skill.

The conversation turns candid on AI: how it flatters and frustrates, why he doubles down on freehand craft, and where human judgment still matters most. We close on the throughline that powers his story—a 51-year marriage to Wendy, friendships that spark new ventures, and a working mantra that proves itself over decades: one thing leads to another. If you value stories of resilience, mastery, and art that crosses worlds—historic homes, museums, and the stars—this one’s for you.

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WRITE TO MURPHY ELLIOTT 

https://www.murphyelliott@hotmail.com


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SPEAKER_02:

Hello. Welcome back to another episode of Regina Sworn Audio Series Presents. I am back with my guests, the amazing, wonderful, gifted, talented, greatest. Oh my god. I'm I'm just trying to think of all the the best words I can think of to describe my guest, Marthy Elliott. And I and I really mean it. He needs no introduction because there are too many introductions to put behind his name. He's such a great person. And so he's back with me for part three. And you know, part one was so made me cry a little bit, but you know what? There were good tears because his story has been so inspiring to me and my audience. So he's back again for part three. So welcome, help me welcome, the amazing genius. And genius, genius should be right next to his name. The amazing, wonderful genius, better known as Murphy Elliott. Welcome back, Murphy. How are you?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, thank you very much, Regina. That was such an introduction. And I sure appreciate you in that. And I appreciate you allowing me to uh tell a bit about my story. It's very nice. I don't talk that much, but uh I'll try to fill everybody in on what's happened. One thing always leads to another.

SPEAKER_02:

That's what you said. Remember, you said I don't talk very much. You gotta you gotta you gotta fill in. And I thought to myself, oh, he's gonna be talking because he got all these things to tell. You your life is so interesting. You don't find many people with the interesting life like you. I mean, you find people that gotta lie, but your life is it's like one adventure after the next. And I'm really serious about this. It's like uh I can explain it, but I was listening to um, it's just like the godfather of the movie. I'm not saying the godfather or anything, but part one, part two, part three. It's like every single one of those movies are interesting to me. And your life, it it kind of reminded me of that, not that, but it just reminded me of it's like it's such an adventure. It's like you're waiting for the next, like, boy, when do I want to talk about next? You know, like, you know, the different, you know, my family members, if if my family members ask me questions, then that that says a lot. So I am so thankful that you you signed on to let me talk to you because I love your story. It just takes me back in time. It's like, oh my God. So yeah, sorry, uh I get started sometimes. I can't stop, but co go ahead, El Elliot. Go ahead, Murphy. I'm sorry, I call you Elliot. Go ahead, Murphy Murphy.

SPEAKER_00:

Well that's that's funny because my whole life, even when I was in school, they asked me, is your name Murphy Elliot or Elliot Murphy? I've always gotten that. Um I guess today well we'll I'll start talking about um when uh I left Canada and came back down to the state to Florida, which I'd never been to Florida before, but my family was and the day that we uh were headed back, we'd already packed up all our stuff, sold the house and all the other things, it was the same day that the Twin Towers came down.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh I remember that, I remember that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, I think everybody remembers that. Anybody who was alive then anyway.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

There's so many kids now that haven't witnessed any of that stuff. I know my my grandson is twelve and he hasn't he he doesn't know much about anything.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Well I remember that day. That was I mean, it started out just like a regular day. It was wonderful day, and then suddenly and it was funny here, the sun was shining and everything, but it just for some reason, even though the sun was shining, it turned dark. Oh, it was like I don't know. Boy, yeah, I remember that.

SPEAKER_00:

Well we had loaded up a giant U-Haul truck and Chris and I were headed down driving the truck across country. But Lindy, my wife, was gonna fly. And they held her up. They wouldn't let her fly down on that day because so much was happening, and she had to wait a a few weeks before they would let her come down. That was kinda strange. But my brother Joe and his wife Sandy put us up in their house until we could get settled. Of course, we had nothing. We had to buy a car, I had to find a job and buy a house, and that wasn't easy because we had no credit score. When I when I left the States in the 70s, there was no such thing as a credit score. So even though I bought and sold three houses in Canada, they said that didn't count.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow. Yeah, no credit is d even if you got all your credit even if you got great credit and then no credit, it's just as bad. It's almost bad credit.

SPEAKER_00:

So that that was it. It was difficult to buy a house when you had no credit score. But we did manage eventually. But I found a job in Tampa working with a company with a large crew. And that it was different for me because I'd always run my own company and worked for myself, so it was a little different working with somebody else. But uh I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. And uh they got a a big job in Tampa they were starting. It was a mansion on Bayshore Boulevard. It was a million dollar house and it was really, really old and run down. Uh the Bay Shore Boulevard is an exclusive area in Tampa Bay. But they had uh eight painters working for them when I was hired on, and uh in a very short time uh the customer requested that the crew do the outside and they wanted me alone to do the inside work.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

So they had me custom tint, I had all my own tinters and everything, and uh I custom tinted every room in the house for them. Uh did all the repairs and everything. And that's pretty old. They paid just over a million dollars for it, but it was pretty dilapidated. But I made it I made it look great.

SPEAKER_02:

Well then that was on the inside of the inside of the house?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, I did every room inside. I did all the kitchen, kitchen cabinets, everything. I just made it look beautiful. I did do some work on the outside. They had uh four columns, big tall columns. Some ornate designs. But they were all worn away and dilapidated, so I took wood filler and I recreated the the columns, uh the ornate design at the top of them and painted it all out so they were like brand new again.

unknown:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

Matched the paint. Uh a year later I think I sold it for seven million dollars the house.

SPEAKER_02:

Seven million? From one million to seven million after you finished.

SPEAKER_00:

And just in just over a year.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh my god. But they were that is outstanding.

SPEAKER_00:

But buying buying equipment and sundries at the local paint store here in Plant City. I impressed the manager employees, and they recommended me to do to paint an old house in the historic district in Plant City. So I got my business license in there. I started again. I started painting one after another of the historic houses. My name started getting around pretty fast. I had to hire on a couple of uh uh employees, gentlemen. One of them was Christopher, of course, my son, because he had experience.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, he'd been working with me since he was in school in the summertime and whenever he could. So he he was had a pretty good experience. But my daughter was dating a young man, Randy Stife, and I asked him uh how much he was making, and he told me I said, Nah, pay you more than that if you want to work for me. And he said yes, he had no experience, but uh he he he wanted to learn and he was easy to teach. And in a couple years' time he became a very good painter, which is even after I gave up painting a few years ago, he's still one of my best friends.

SPEAKER_02:

You're a good teacher though. I mean, I can't imagine you not being a good teacher with all the things that you yeah been through before that that time. You're you're a great teacher. I could just see you as as a great teacher. I can just see that. I can see that.

SPEAKER_00:

I have taught a lot of guys how to paint. Uh a few of them went out on their own, which was that was the idea to teach them how to do that on their own.

SPEAKER_03:

All right.

SPEAKER_00:

Some things that I do, uh like wood graining, uh, you can watch and be amazed, but uh that's something that takes a little bit of artistic skill. Uh marvelizing, uh oh geez, so many specialty things. I even invented a few coatings that were amazing.

SPEAKER_04:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

Really, really attractive stuff.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow. So I mean you went from not even having a job to no everybody knowing your name in town. Uh-uh.

SPEAKER_00:

Well that's it. Once they see my work and I was doing some outside in the historic district, and I didn't usually do a lot of outside work. Uh in Vancouver I did inside stuff, specialty stuff. But I enjoyed it. But it sure wears on you going up and down ladders and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I bet. I bet.

SPEAKER_00:

And no time at all. I was busy enough that I could at nighttime start painting on canvas again. After I get done working during the day, I get home and I'd start painting on canvas and I I did a lot of uh space painting originally, of course.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. So how many hours of a day that you think it took you to like say when you're painting on inside of the buildings or something, how many hours do you think you were putting in, you know in a day's time?

SPEAKER_00:

I really, really enjoyed my work and you know I really wasn't paying too much attention to how many hours.

SPEAKER_04:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

What would usually happen on the job is you get a certain area done and if it was late enough in the day, you say, Okay, well that's enough for today, and we'll we'll be come back tomorrow and carry on with the next section room, whatever it was. Right. The beige work sort of dictated how long I'd work, but I usually work just before the sun would start to go down.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, okay. Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

When it started getting dark it was time to call it a day.

SPEAKER_02:

Dedication. Mm. Dedication.

SPEAKER_00:

I enjoyed it. It's amazing that it didn't really seem like work.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

It doesn't really seem like work.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, that's the quote famous quotes. Can I ask you a question? Did you make up that quote? It's that's not your quote, right? If you're gonna make sure because you've been it so much, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm not that old. I always say I really enjoy work. I could watch it all day.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. Okay, go patent that kids, I'm telling you. So wow, Marcy. So I didn't so that's interesting, right? Well, he he took a a a place that was like worn down for a million dollars and and turned it into seven million. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I really enjoyed that. It took uh uh probably four months or so working on that job. The customers wouldn't let the other through inside to work on anything. They would only allow me inside working. So that was a nice very short period in time. But I had all my own equipment and everything and I was, you know, totally prepared. I'd only done it a few thousand times.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Oh, only a few thousand. Only a few thousand tonight. They bagged the same a couple of times. Oh my god, that's amazing, Marcy. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

After a short period of time of painting on canvas, doing my space paintings. Um, I had gathered quite a collection and I started showing them online. Uh uh early on it was like MySpace. Do you remember MySpace?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, vaguely, but I remember.

SPEAKER_00:

I met a few celebrities on there. Uh I became good friends with Paul Lynn. I don't know if you remember Paul Lynn. He's not around anymore.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh yeah, that guy.

SPEAKER_00:

What a great sense of humor he had. I just love talking to him.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But also loc local sites like the Tampa Artist, uh, the talent database. Uh I was on a site called Wet Paint, where again I met a few celebrities and uh people wrote started writing poetry about me and about my work when I was on that site. It was interesting. And uh probably one of the more famous people that I talked to when I was on that site was uh um wait a minute. Should have wrote down some of this stuff. Okay, so we could just keep right on going. I'll remember his name later. Famously. Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

It'll come back to you. It normally comes back later, so Oh, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00:

I was on another site called Wet Paint, which suited me really well.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I've heard of that. Wet paint. I've heard of that.

SPEAKER_00:

It's not around anymore.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

I created I created my own website uh and I called it my friends and fans. Then I meant uh quite a few people made quite a few friends on there and showed a lot of my work on there. And then of course finally I got on to Facebook.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Which was one of the last ones and I post still to this day, I post a lot of my work on there on the regular page.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you got a lot too, because you do you do this uh every day. Ever ev every time I look over at your page something new, I'm like, wow Well that's because I'm I'm constantly drawing, I do something new every day.

SPEAKER_05:

It's rare that I do.

SPEAKER_00:

But I have quite a collection that I haven't even shown because I don't want to show too many at once.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

So I uh I joined uh uh Plant Cities Artist Association and I did some advertising for them and uh I was asked to display some of my work at the downtown uh Brute and Library and that led to uh display for the Space Day exhibition. And that led to creating a large banner for the National Space Society their conference. And they showed that in several cities, they carried that around with him.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow, that's pretty big. That's pretty big.

SPEAKER_00:

I used my uh crying robot and that banner. Yes, my crying robot. He's he's looking out the window and in the reflection, you can see the tear coming down his face. And that led me uh to doing uh some drawing for their uh calendar, the National Space Society calendar, and I did a drawing called Inside Orbital City, where I drew a city that went 360 degrees around inside of the asteroid.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And that led to doing a drawing of Sally Ride for the Internet Station, and they were quite pleased with that.

SPEAKER_04:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

And then the Hull Whip website uh picked up that and wrote an article about me and featured six of my paintings on their website.

SPEAKER_02:

And they didn't want to artists. That's pretty much. I'm sorry, I'm over here just thinking to myself, it just uh your story, I love it. I just love it. I'm sorry. I I'm biting in, but I I can't help it. I'm like, I'm over here just thinking to myself, like, this man is something else.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it's just it's one thing that leads to another. It's just amazing how it works. But the natural or the the NASA website wrote an article about me and displayed ten of my paintings. And then SETI Universe wrote an article and displayed a lot of my work. Uh and they named me the number one traditional cosmic artist in the world today.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow, number one.

SPEAKER_00:

That was a few years ago.

SPEAKER_01:

I know, but still.

SPEAKER_00:

And then I had the local newspapers, the focus uh magazine and the Plant City Observer. They did uh full page spreads about me and my work.

SPEAKER_01:

Boy.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, that's that's amazing. I'm just I'm just in there thinking about how amazing that is. That's a lot of publicity if you will. Exactly. I think I take a drink on that. Okay, I'm taking a drink, I'm thirsty. But that is amazing. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, me too. My dogs are being quiet.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, the dogs are quiet. The cats are quiet right now, they're not keeping any noises, they cut.

SPEAKER_00:

So Well after the articles in the local paper, that led to a commission for a local tourist attraction at Dinosaur World. And they they added some new additions to their complex and uh they asked uh me to do some painting for them, dinosaurs, and I drew about forty prehistoric dinosaurs and other creatures.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh man.

SPEAKER_00:

Chris Christopher helped me paint the background.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh really? Chris Chris paints I mean he paints too. I know he Chris paints too? I mean, like the back, oh I'm a lot. So he can paint like the artist as well. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

My daughter, Samantha, helped me paint some of the dinosaurs.

SPEAKER_02:

There you go, Samantha, you guys.

SPEAKER_00:

And that was a nice job. That was the first job where I got a chance with both of my kids helped me work. Which was really, really nice. I enjoyed it and uh Samantha was just delightful to work with.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

I drew it all out and she helped me paint like she did uh most of uh the woolly mammoth. She did most of the painting of the woolly mammoth and that was good. So I went from futuristic painting to prehistoric painting.

SPEAKER_02:

Samantha is his beautiful daughter who's talented as well, gifted as well. So I just wanted to throw that in there.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's about the time period that I did the drawing of the praying soldier.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It this was reviewed by many, many ven venues all over the world. I was really surprised at how far that drawing reached. But I told you once before, the Catholic Church uses it for prayer cards. They put two prayers on it and the soldier on one side, and they gave one to every soldier that was being shipped overseas. So it was quite and the New York's Brooklyn Memorial Day Parade uses it every year to promote their annual parade.

SPEAKER_02:

To this day? To this very day?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, every year they do they use it to promote their annual parade. And then I got published in the Forbes magazine. Now it was a little strange because uh they used one of my paintings as an April Fool's Day joke. They had one of my paintings and they offered a holiday destination in space. If you wanted to apply.

SPEAKER_02:

That I believe I remember hearing you say that was m something that you were really proud of. That was you most proud of.

SPEAKER_00:

And still, I have the original on my wall in my studio.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh wow, wow.

SPEAKER_00:

And I saw many, many, many prints of it, but the original I still have.

SPEAKER_04:

Wow.

SPEAKER_02:

Did I see that yet? Oh it I wanna s uh did is that on your page? Do you have that on your page somewhere?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh not at the moment. I think I did message you the prayer the prayer card, but it's pretty small. You can you can buy them online, uh the Catholic Church does sell them online. So you can buy all the prayer cards that you want. Which is nice. They use the money for good things. I'm not Catholic, but Right.

SPEAKER_02:

That is amazing. I've just you know, s I'm just blown away here. I mean it's like it's unbelievable. I mean, your life, you'll it's okay if another person toot your horn. So your life is just so interesting. It's uh everything you say is like interesting. It's not it's not a dull moment at all. It's just interesting. I mean, it's everything you spit out is like so interesting.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my god, so one thing leads to another.

SPEAKER_00:

No I have a couple friends online. Uh one is Evan Paul Cuseris, and he's Canadian, and Mona Hare, and they both created a musical video of my paintings for YouTube. And you can see them on there. But uh they're both quite I like 'em both.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I'd have to look them up. I have to look them up.

SPEAKER_00:

There's a gentleman called David Harris, and he wrote my biography, which is on my Fine Art America site, and he created a documentary, which is on YouTube, about my house painting and my artwork. And it's a master master painter.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. I remember watching that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I I have trouble watching it. Watch it myself. I oh no.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

It's very interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh I had fun drawing I did like fifty targets for the gun range. And I had fun drawing them. I did like dinosaurs and all kinds of things that you'd want to shoot. But I did fifty of them. And I packaged it all up for sale. Why? Not sure how he found out about me. But a gentleman named Kermit Weeks commissioned me to do Sorry, excuse me.

SPEAKER_03:

Get a little water, Jerry. Get your water.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. He commissioned me to do some work at the Fantasy of Flight Museum. And I did a lot of work in his office. He had up in the ceiling about fifteen feet up, he had a huge, huge uh uh skylight that had a gold frame around it. But it was made out of uh plaster and painted gold. But it was beginning to fall down. So he commissioned me to redo it. So I made all of it had a plaster. I made each individual leaf on it, uh, created the mold and then created them and then painted it all gold and reinstalled it. And it's beautiful, it's like eight foot around.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, I bet that is beautiful.

SPEAKER_00:

And he had me do uh in his library, he had me do chevrons, which once again um I created a mold and created the chevrons and it had five levels on it with each one a different color, so I have five different colors. And I made about two hundred of them. Wow and installed them. And then in the entryway in the museum, uh I did the same thing, different colors, but I created chevrons once again. I made the mold for them and created chevrons and painted them different colors, but I guess I did maybe a hundred and fifty or so of those for the front room. And then of course he had me painting several rooms in the museum, of course. His library and the the break room and a few other rooms that were displaying airplanes and stuff. I wanted to do some of the airplanes, but I never got that far.

SPEAKER_02:

But can I can I say can I ask you this? I don't know, it may be too personal, but being a painter like you are and an an inventor like you are, I'm just imagining your house gotta be a very colorful place. Like really colorful, like colors everywhere. Is it? I mean it's just probably a crazy question, but I I just uh it's just in my mind, it's in my head right now. I just imagine your house on the inside being a very colorful place, like different beautiful colors, different rooms with different colors.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, my house up in Vancouver, we had a four level. uh house and yes I did all kinds of fancy stuff but here uh in Florida it's kinda average I have some accent walls and stuff but I have paintings and drawings on every wall of course I've I've drawn every member of the family mom dad kids everybody I've got drawings of all the family members I don't think there's anybody that I haven't drawn a picture of and like I say every wall is full of drawings and paintings That's what I was wondering right there you answered it oh my God I bet that is gorgeous well it keeps inspiring me especially my studio because I had things and drawing around my studio and I just look around and I get inspired to do something else. You know that's kind of the way it is and uh there was a time when I um I've been golfing since I was in my early twenties and I'm not really pro-level but I got pretty good at at golfing. And I've drawn a lot of golfers. Uh I've drawn probably eight or nine drawings of Tiger Woods over the years. Maybe since he was a little kid. Yeah I did see that online I remember seeing Tiger when he was a little kid. But I draw Bill Mickelson, uh Arnold Palmer and Arnold Palmer noticed my drawing I'd drawings I did of him and he invited me out to his golf course, the Latrobe golf course and he autographed some of the drawings for me and he bought a so that he could find nice Arnold Palmer to to sell them to raise money for his children's hospital. And I was kinda proud of that that was really nice of him to do that for me. Yeah very nice and I I was pretty well wrapping it up with my painting career but I was uh nominated or voted in the top one percent endorsed for painting with two hundred million subscribers so that was kind of an honor.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow that is a great honor that is great. Oh my God 200 did you say million?

SPEAKER_00:

200 million subscribers do it and they voted me in the top one percent that is that is spectacular I've got another friend online his name is Bill Blair now Bill has has played over two hundred sci fi characters. Uh he's in the W World Records Book of World Records beginner um but he's been on like Star Trek and Babylon Pues Deep Space Uh he's played so many characters and he's become a really good friend of mine online.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah he now he's a nice one to do a a podcast with 'cause I'm sure he's got a lot of stories. Not only did he play a lot of different characters including Frankenstein and whatnot, but he also worked in the uh makeup department to help make up some of the characters. Oh wow I need to contact him he's one of my friends on Facebook. Oh he's quite interesting.

SPEAKER_02:

He's done a couple of uh uh interviews and stuff but he's quite inter maybe he's getting older now and not working with the U Right but he's a delightful character boy sounds like it sounds like he is he is um I've done many many different logos for different companies and fundraisers such as uh Save the Animal Society I've done logos for them actually uh I had a couple of pieces that were published in Russia I did uh Yuri Gagarin for uh his anniversary Isaac Asimov they were published in Russia but they're published almost everywhere Australia uh South America of course England Europe United Kingdom Germany uh I have lots of friends around I really enjoyed the Russian people the government I don't know much about but the Russian people are wonderful people and because you you realize how how delightful they are our our government is like their government you know right Murphy I don't know about you but I'm gonna get me I'm gonna get me some more of my little um my minute made fruit punch right here so if you hear a little noise in the background if I'll do it because I am posty.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm gonna take a little drink of my my fruit I love that fruit last year I wrote a children's book um a children's book you say yes called The Tale of Two Turtles and the Terrible Tornado Wow and it was two little turtles a tornado happened and carried one of them away so now we're trying to get together so they're walking trying to find each other talking to all kinds of animals on the way and in the end they finally find each other I did see that online by the way too I I s and I did see that one of the Z you sent me. I was like wow that's very interesting Yeah well it's about 50 pages long and I thought the kids would like it but I haven't had it published.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah I should but I think maybe you will one day though. Maybe one day there you go maybe one day so but I think you said Chris was a part of that right he did something with that too you signed?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes he he helped he helped me write it um just getting reactions from the different animals that the turtles ran into on their way you know he helped them making it a little humorous in a lot of cases which was nice wow that's great uh I should probably give a shout out to some of the people who wrote uh poems about me and about my work. Oh one of my one of my favorite poems is Murphy's Cave of Gold and I have put that on Facebook a couple of times but that was Jackie Schmaw and she's no longer with us but that is probably one of my favorites but also uh Jackie Essex wrote several poems Sylvia Wright wrote a few about me and about the praying soldier Andy Pennon wrote a few about me which were quite humorous. And Mars been wrote a couple of poems as well so I thought I should mention their name anyway because I very much appreciate it it makes me proud that people know this my work.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah always good to give it like a shout out to like I mean the the floor is the floor is open for that you know and I'm just oh boy that I mean your your your work your body of work as I said in the beginning I forgot which I think last at the last podcast was like it spans multiple decades not just like one decade or two but it goes back I mean it just take you all the way back and when I'm talking to a person their story just take me right back to that time and your story has really taken me each time every every time you you you know bring up an event in your life that story just that that whatever you're talking about it just put me right there and like it's so interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

When I was younger I studied uh a lot of technical drawings um I I got a degree in architectural drafting and I wouldn't like the technical end of it but after I got out of school I just I like freehand. You know and a lot of technical drawings I still do but I do them all freehand. I do a series of robots and they look technical but it's just um a couple weeks ago I did a bunch of uh uh female alien astronauts with spaceships in the background.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah you gotta I think I did see something like that.

SPEAKER_00:

And the last couple of weeks I've been doing uh Halloween witches.

SPEAKER_03:

Right the data wizard uh in color which again it people accept that they really like that one. Right.

SPEAKER_00:

I'd rather I'd rather just throw a pencil than add a lot of color.

SPEAKER_02:

But sometimes you decided and I I was looking at your latest drawings and they're the beautiful I mean just you know just beautiful.

SPEAKER_00:

I love I love the one where the um I think it's like the alien it's this lady she's standing out there she's holding something and I love those alien pictures something about them they just oh I I wonder whether they ever come to earth the I'm sure you've heard about the three eye atlas that's approaching when I did that painting uh back in 2005 I drew it so or I painted it actually back in 2005 I'm a little bit ahead of my time but I noticed that about a lot of my space paintings once the Hubble came out it was starting to show things that I'd already painted I still see it and I go wow yeah that's amazing. You are ahead of your time too because I was thinking about I don't know how far back the robots go, but I'm thinking you probably came up with the robots before anybody Well no I don't think so my own my own impression like I say it's the illusion of detail but if you look really close you'll see they're non functional Yeah. Well they look like they're fun though I spent years when the Rock'em sock'em robots came out I spent years figuring out how to make them more realistic and I came up with creating them using piano wire and magnets to be able to and a joystick to be able to make them bend up bob weave and all the things to make them more animated but I used to lay at night thinking about all the details of how to make the shoulder joints and elbows all that stuff. Wow and then I fall asleep. Wow but then when you when you wake up you pick back up at it on it or you could the next the next night and I did a few drawings but like it's happening I never carried it all the way through. And things electronics or I've always thought a mechanical way to do it and then electronics take over, you know and nowadays animation uh artificial uh CGI all that they make it look so easy and so real. Right I noticed that um the drawings that I've been doing now I've been drawing for my entire life and I I do try to get better at what I do. And I have people that say oh that's that's AI and I say well thank you AI's getting really good but and I appreciate that but it's kind of disappointing after spending so many years and here AI comes along and boom, couple minutes they can draw what I draw.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah it's a little frustrating Yeah I mean I I feel the same way about AI, you know it's like it's okay, it's good in certain aspects it's alright but I'm like 'cause some people were like your voice if if if I didn't know you talked like that, I would think it's AI. It's just like they just came along and just like people can mimic anything. I'm like I don't know if I like that too well. But I like some of the things about AI but not all of it.

SPEAKER_00:

I really don't in the last few years it has really advanced but it makes me work harder. Yeah but and the latest the latest thing that's happened is I met this lady named Regina Sworn she created a podcast and allowed me to go on it and speak and it's probably one of the most delightful things that has happened to me in quite a while.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh and I appreciate it very very much well you are so welcome it's uh it's been a delight I mean this might be part three but this is not part three of us ever you know having a conversation again for the for the audience because you can always come back anytime anytime you're welcome back anytime because your life you know your body of work and the things that you've created and over the years over the decades decades listen good not not last year not the year before last but over the decades this man I mean he you need an Oscar you need an Oscar of of uh of life I'm not gonna even say art of life you need an Oscar of life I've been quite lucky every since I met my wife my my life everything has gone so well for me and for us and it's really good.

SPEAKER_00:

Um I mentioned earlier uh I forgot in the last podcast that when I was in Vancouver and I did mention it to you earlier is that my two best friends Brian Gale and his brother Tony Gale Brian is the one who tucked me into going to Vancouver in the first place. And uh he was a mechanic and he saw this broken down hovercraft it was built in France and it had a BMW motorcycle engine in it. Now it's like the airboats here in Florida except except it was uh had a rubber base of zodiac and then it had a skirt underneath that blew up to make it hover. And uh Brian he wanted this really badly but uh the engine in it after five minutes of running the oil would foam up in it and it would just wouldn't perform anymore. So we decided to take the whole thing apart and we bought uh a car engine to put in it and we re-geared it and oh my goodness did we ever have a lot of fun in that oh boy but we could hover off the trailer across the parking lot down the beach and out into the water it was fun it was really fast we could do three sixties on one spot and even though the water was really rough we would hover above it and just sail along so fast and it was it was great fun. We spent thirty nights for several months rebuilding it and that was just an adventure for a while. But Brian nothing like those good old days Brian is the one who talked me into going to Canada I mean to Vancouver for all those years that I was there. And we're still friends. I don't talk to him as much as I'd like to but that's where you met in in Canada that's where you met your your l the love of your life yes no Wendy she was from Texada Island and Texada Island is a small island in between Vancouver Island and the mainland to get to get there from Vancouver you had to take three ferry rides to get there. Right that was ex that was exciting a picture of her on uh Facebook she's sitting there smiling and it was such a beautiful picture of her just sitting there and the biggest smile on her face and I was thinking to myself wow that's the the woman behind Murphy Elliot Yep yeah that's the great woman wow she she is wonderful and I love her to death we've been married fifty one years and how many years?

SPEAKER_02:

Fifty one fifty five one fifty one yes and uh oh my god what a blessing and we're still in love wow that's the way it's supposed to be though you're supposed to still love that person as if they just got married or oh my god that's so beautiful.

SPEAKER_00:

It doesn't seem like that long it really doesn't seem like that long at all it's gone by so fast. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow but she supported me all the way right that support means a whole lot means a whole lot so well I truly thank you for being a part of this podcast because you know once upon a time it was just about musicians but I wanted to hear other stories and your story never a dull moment never ever a dull moment with your story you can sit here and just listen to you your voice is so easy going you know so relaxed and laid back it's not too loud it's not too out it's just laid back like you just sit there and just listen to it and I I truly appreciate you letting me um or sharing your story with with my audience. Thank you so much Marcy thank you you're very welcome and I thank you and hopefully we got a few more stories left in there to be more we we are not near done with with your story because we can't we cannot be done with your story. Your life is ever evolving it seems you know some stories is like okay come back in four years and I'll tell you more your story is like one two three four it's like you just keep going it keep going and going and going one thing leads to another yes it's perfect. I think we end on that note one thing leads to another yay well thank you so much oh you know what um yeah go ahead go ahead I'm sorry I was gonna say everybody that's listening please stay safe and keep smiling yes that's one of the notes we're definitely gonna end on but uh Murphy is there anywhere and I'm gonna put it in Dorita but is there anywhere that um people can go and check out your body of work uh like online or anything like that that we can you can tell 'em yes on my fine art america site now I do uh put the link every once in a while on my Facebook page and look me up on Facebook make a friend request yeah and and most time if you've got something on your page I can see I'll accept it.

SPEAKER_01:

Right so there you go.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah you can't trust everybody so if you don't have anything on your page that's kinda suspicious.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah that's probably a fake profile too and so but look 'em up on the is is it Fine Art America?

SPEAKER_00:

Is that Fine Art America um yes like I said it's easier it's hard there's so many people on there now when I first started on there it was artists. But now there's digital art and photographs. There's thousands and thousands of people that put photographs that aren't really art. They're just photographs. You know they're not really artistic no composition anything just photographs so it's hard you know if you just go there and try to find me it's not easy like it used to be go to go to my Facebook page murpheelliot uh pixels.com and that'll get you there. That's Twin Art America Pixels and Twin Art America is the same.

SPEAKER_02:

Right and well I mean I'm going to have like uh that in the write up so if anybody wants to go and I'm sure you are going to want to go and check him out because he is outstanding. I when I say one word that's not enough. When I say two words it's not enough. So genius though that's it's you so thank you so much for for being a part of everything. I appreciate it Regina and you stay safe my dear all right you too and we're gonna say goodbye on that note thank you again for um stopping by and listening um that's all I gotta say thank you so much Murphy you have a wonderful wonderful day and I think we're gonna say goodbye thank you too and we'll be talking again soon I'm sure all right thank you okay bye for now bye for now