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Michael Spainhour paints on plywood, finds his frames at yard sales and uses house paint to make his scenes and images jump.

And people notice.

First, you're caught by the colors — the purples, reds, yellows and midnight blues. Look closer, and you see a cowboy, a train and a depiction of Spainhour's fascination with "The Andy Griffith Show."

But your eye can't stray. It's because of what else you see: the dots, circles and triangles, as well as words and phrases such as "Joy," "Spirit," "Dream Catcher" and "God Is Love."

It all symbolizes, in colors as stark as a rainbow, Spainhour's personal faith journey. And that's what sticks with you.

It's some kind of ride.

"There's this good quote," Spainhour told me the other day. "In the physical world, you have to see it to believe it. But in the spiritual world, you have to believe it to see it.

"I've seen it. Really. Everything is energy. Prayer. Faith. It's like what's running through those power lines outside," he says, pointing to the poles outside his house. "The more you put in, the more you get out."

Spainhour has no formal artistic training, and he uses everyday materials to create what he sees in his head.

Plywood from a front yard or a lumber yard. Paint from Wal-Mart. Canvas from yard-sale paintings. As well as garbage can lids, toothpicks and a 45 RPM single of the incredibly hummable tune "Secret Agent Man."

It's folk art, or what folks like to call "Outsider Art," created by a 54-year-old man with an incredibly curious mind.

"Man," Spainhour says, "I see stuff everywhere."

For the past month, Spainhour has exhibited 13 of his paintings at Tate Street Coffee House. They hang underneath a collection of vintage coffee pots and jazz posters near the tables in the back.

His paintings will remain there through Friday. And as always, his images are a conversation starter with anyone who strolls in for a cup of Joe along Greensboro's most Bohemian street.

"Who is this guy?" customers often ask co-owner Matt Russ.

"He's like Mr. Greensboro, a longtime Tate Street guy," Russ responds. "He's always had a metaphysical curiosity, just curious about ways of living and approaches to life. He's always discovering something for himself."

The adventurous life is nothing new for Spainhour. He worked as a radioman in the U.S. Navy. He hitchhiked to New York City and slept in Washington Square for a week to check out a jazz festival in the 1970s.

But he's always been a Greensboro guy. His grandfather ran the old Texaco station on Tate Street. Meanwhile, for 17 years, he cooked and waited tables at the unofficial headquarters on Tate Street: the Hong Kong House.

He's also framed and painted houses, and 27 years ago, he co-owned and ran a small bar called Jot-Em-Down. He's played guitar and written songs for the Swingin' Lobsters, an old-school rock and rockabilly outfit that played everywhere in Greensboro.

He started his spiritual quest when he beat alcohol 15 years ago. He started with the Old Testament. That was only the beginning.

He dug deep into all sorts of religions — Judaism, Native American spirituality, Eastern mysticism, just to name a few. He studied in Wilmington and even on a Hopi Indian reservation in Arizona to quench his spiritual thirst.

And now, he paints.

He started four years ago, urged on by a friend. He figured he had made music and rock 'n' roll fliers. So, he wanted to see for himself the correlation between the healing power of playing and painting.

He did.

Since then, he's completed at least 40 paintings. He takes his time. He paints at his kitchen table, near his array of framed autographed photos from "The Andy Griffith Show."

Or he heads to an old motor court in the North Carolina mountains, in Pineola, a tiny spot near Grandfather Mountain. And there, he paints the colors and scenes of western North Carolina.

It's not to sell. It's simply, as he says, to help.

"They (his paintings) do more good in a coffee house than in someone's den," he says. "It's all to spread good energy around."

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jrowe@news-record.com.