I got to be a kid during the 70's and 80's.  I can't complain, really. Compared to a lot of other places, the U.S.A. is a pretty great place to grow up. I grew up in a very visual and instantaneous world.  I watched a crap load of TV, read comic books, listened to music all the time.  I remember the very first music video on MTV,  my parents buying our first microwave, my first Whopper.

 

I loved the good parts of being a kid, never wanted to grow up.  Parts of me never have.  I like to have fun, and don't much like the responsibilities of being an adult.  I was never any good at school or much else for that matter.  I think that is why I like to paint so much.  I get to just have fun, get lost in the color, no rules.  It's where I feel the happiest, like I'm doing what I was meant to do.  I feel like I'm the luckiest bastard in the whole world doing something I love and making a living at it.

 

I have never thought much more ahead than what was in front of me . This has gotten me into a lot of trouble but lets me paint without fear.  Making mistakes doesn't bother me.  I have done that my whole life.  I have screwed up my share of paintings, but have got a lot more up that work.  I don't follow rules well and try to break as many as I can when I paint.  I think that is why my teachers in college didn't like me much.  I wouldn't do anything the way they said and then I would come in at the end of the semester with all of these great paintings.

 

Ever since I can remember I have thought about art.  It isn't forced at all.  It just comes out of me.  I can't help it.  I have painted my whole life, nothing serious, just playing around.  People ask how I decide on which colors to use.  The truth is I don't. I just paint.  I can't believe all of the stuff I have painted, because I really don't know how I do it.

 

How do I define my work?  It's colorful.  I know that, but beyond that, I want to manipulate the common and ordinary, to stand out from the crowd, for people to say, that's a Wakefield.  I want my work to be art, for people to love it for what it is, not to match their couches.  I don't give a damn about that.  I like to tweak people's noggins, get them to look at life from a different angle.