Daytona Beach News Journal correspondent Tom Iacuzio recently caught up with KISS frontman Paul Stanley to discuss the singer's budding career as a painter. The following is a brief excerpt from the story:

Iacuzio: You were an art major and a graduate of the High School of Music & Art in New York City. How did that shape you?

Stanley: "You know the great thing about specialized high school is that they allow for full academics plus a very intensive curriculum in music and art. For me it was great because I was a freak. In public school, I was the outcast, the freak. There, I was a freak in a school of freaks."

Iacuzio: What got you in to painting?

Stanley. "About seven years ago, I went through a divorce. You really get tired of screaming in a room by yourself. A friend of my said to me, 'You need to paint.' So I did. I wanted to be more about connecting emotionally than intellectually. Interestingly, once I started putting my own pieces up in my house among others I had owned, I started getting a lot of good feedback from them and at the time they weren't signed. I was still a little too self-conscious about them. But I realized that I really enjoyed it and if I could please myself, chances are I could please someone else."

Iacuzio: Do you think your acceptance in the art world has anything to do with your musical fame?

Stanley: "No doubt my celebrity got my foot in the door. But in the end, it's just my foot. It could still get slammed shut on. People may like me for my music but that doesn't mean they'll by my art. Mindless adulation is a rare commodity."

Iacuzio: What do you make of all the success you have had with your paintings?

Stanley: "I think I've really pleased myself. It's futile to please others as a first step. I'd rather fail on my own terms that try to create something I think others would like and then fail. It goes back to the whole idea of pleasing yourself. Then the flip side of that is that if I succeed, I don't share the credit."

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