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.