Here I am in new York.
My final days in mexico city were spent with a sore throat. I'd burned my candle down at both ends. I slept and sweated through the small fever, and am still, one full week later, coming out of the congestion. I went to a park and sat down by a fountain after staying in bed until noon. I wanted the rays of the sun, out for their first time in over a week, to shine down on me. I sat facing the great sun, and watched a pair of mastiffs play-fight a young English bulldog. a youngish man came over and sat by me. hew showed me a necklace that he'd made out of an armadillo tail and silver, and encouraged me to make a drawing of it. I did little work conversationally because I felt so shitty. He flipped through my sketchbook with me and stopped on a page of drawings made in the anthropological museum. he pointed to a drawings from a sculpted mask from the olmecs. he said with sincerity, and intensity in his eyes, "este, no es humano." 'this is not human, this is reptilian'. he was reffering to the lizard people of lore, the ones who built the pyramids and interbred with humans, the ones who still claim dominion over the earth. that's typing from memory, so maybe not accurate to lore, but its something like that. so later that day I was walking around the downtown, it would be my last stroll before the plane ride that coming morning. I went further down one of the streets I'd become keen of and saw to my surprise, store that sold constructed panels, made of poplar it looked like, in various sizes. what was this miracle economy? intermixed with the panel stores were stores that sold paper graphics in sizes corresponding to the various panel dimensions, still more, there were stores that would affix one to the other, and apply finishes, frames, resin pours, round the edges, you name it. it was like a little fine art production street, that nearly exclusively, dealt with presumably copyright free images. I became tempted to buy a stack of panels and to ship them back home, but I held off. I found a charachature exhibition on that street as well, and went in. at the characature show, I saw many good comics, and was offered to have my portrait drawn- I couldn't resist, and upon sitting for the artist for a while, since the conversation seemed to be flowing well, I asked coyly, 'so, are Mexicans lizard-people?". he laughed, and said casually, 'that's what some people say', then he reached under the table and pulled out a clear plastic envelop full of drawings. He explained that this was some of his personal work, and proceeded to flip through the stack. it looked something like lizard drawing, alien drawing, sexy gril drawing, lizard person, lizard person, lizard, snake, sexy girl etc. we had a laugh. I thank him for his time. my portrait turned out not bad. I took a walk down the panel street again and did it, I bought maybe sixteen panels; eight and eight of relativelyt smallish sizes, that I thought would be useful for portrait paintings or just plain backup upon returning to the states. they were dirt cheap. earlier that day, before lying in the park, I'd made photo-copies of a few paintings to give as gifts. so after buying the handfuls of panels, I went back to the hostel and distributed the photo-copoied painting-gifts, which went off very well. I was happy to keep the originals. I've given away more than a handful of gems, that were full of crazy energy. I wished I still had them many times. I don't want to re-draw them. so, still feeling post-sick, now I had to wait up until 5am to catch my plane back to Orlando. I nursed a couple beers, while chatting up my hostel-friend, Christine. she went to bed after some time, and I eventually ordered a cab. at the airport, I bough a virgin Guadalupe shirt to blow my nose in, which served its purpose well. upon washing it, I have worn it about every day since. I landed in Orlando, then took a greyhound bus back to Sarasota, where I'd applied to stay for a few days during the break. There, I went through the steps to get into the building, like I'd gone through in my mind many times while feeling lonely or vulnerable in Mexico. As soon as I got there I found myself restless. There was no one on campus and I began frantically or maybe manically, re-arranging the room in preparation for the upcoming semester. I realized that I had not been on a vacation at all in going to Mexico, merely postponing work. I still felt like there was much to do at Ringling. I ate unhealthily, and would have a beer or two every night. I clocked into the twenty-four hour labs, where I scanned pages from my sketchbook and edited them for-to publish them in a zine. I made a few to-do lists that shared the proverbial title 'Things to-do in this life' i.e. the to-do list that follows me around for years at a time. I chipped away at some of the tasks; making a graffiti sticker (so when I travel, I don't need to be writing on everything, or staying up late in order to 'get up'), cleaning up my digital files. It became a somewhat sad arrangement, but I accepted it as a phase, and tried to keep working. One night, after calling my mom, and about to go into the labs to work, I went by the bar across the street and got a beer. I was drawing a big graffiti piece across the outdoor table, and a man, Peter, came up to me to ask if I'd take a look at his wall, where he wanted a logo painted. We walked next-door to his business, not yet off the ground, in what used to be the town's legendary café, Big E's. Well, Big E's closed down and in its place here Peter, set to opening a café of his own called 'World Bites', which would serve international cuisine. He wanted the word 'galleria' painted on one of the walls, the gallery wall, with some filigree. I'll spare you (my dear reader) the details and say that I made a design and installed it for him for next-to nothing, with a one day turnover. I think I am still getting worked over by him, in that he wants me to hang my artwork, but is playing an ignorant curator. I think the best course of action is to sit out a round of his curation, and not hang until I am satisfied with the work-to-be-hung as a whole.
I made arrangements of things, some to take to my parents house, some to send in the mail, some to bring on the road. I took a cab in the early afternoon upon waking to the greyhound station, and caught a bus to Tampa. I was operating on good luck at this point, I remember that there was a place in Tampa that would rent cars without a credit card. On the bus on the way up, I looked up the car rentals in Tampa and eventually found one, though not the one I'd remembered, that would rent for cash. When I showed up, I began to get the impression of what kind of operation this was. The office was largely empty, it looked as though it could be packed in a moments notice, should they need to get out of there. I gave him the cash, he gave me the keys. We looked around at the vehicle, there was a panel missing from where a front fog light had been. He pointed it out and said that they knew about that one. I pointed to a large etchy-denty section over the rear drivers-side wheel. He said not to worry about that, but I did. I asked for it to be documented, and he made a drawing of the damage on his yellow rental agreement form. I thanked him and drove off in my car-for-the-weekend. Back to Sarasota, after eating some chicken gizzards from a Greek place. Man, was I brain-dead at that time. I circled the downtown area a few times, avoiding looking at the map, trying to find my way to the interstate mystically. I made it back to Ringling, still on a poor diet and a poor sleep schedule.
I spent the night, loaded the car in the morning, and hit the road again. I drove to my parent's house where I dropped off a drumset that I'd impulsively procured from a friend of my most recent ex-girlfriend. I also dropped off a create of books, exchanging them for more backpack ready ones. I stayed the night. At that time my Grandmother on my father's side, her friend, my grandmother in-law on my mother's side, her dog, my father, and his two dogs were also in residence. I slept on the couch, and in the morning, hit the road again for-to return the car in Tampa. I checked the compartments before returning and found in the center console two condoms in their packaging and a pair of stylish glasses. I added a Mexican Peso to the little collection, and turned in the car with success. I was now to spend the night in Tampa, in a hostel called Gram's Place, which looked like it had at one time been very happening, but not at this time. I enjoyed my stay. The only other hostel-goer was an Australian named Reece. I walked to the corner-store to buy a four-pack of Old Englishes, an affordable brand of malt liquor. He enjoyed the taste, to which I said "Right?", again proverbially. I'd been in contact with an old friend from Tallahassee, whom I'd helped hang a show once. She lived in Tampa now and made craft-goods that would serve as good Christmas gifts. I asked her to bring a couple so I could give them to my mother and sister when I saw them. She came to the hostel, turned down an 'O.E.' in exchange for some trendy sake wine drink that they had lying around in the fridge. We talked art and adventures a bit, before the alcohol insisted we reminisce. She offered to drive me to the happenings-about that night, which was a holiday market. I thanked her, gave a hug and a kiss on the cheek, got out of the car, and walked around a bit. It was one of those events that is so small, but the participants have so little to do, that they just walk in circles, looking at the same things, like cod in a sea-pen. I got up out of there and took the very long way home back to the hostel.
The next morning I took an uber cab to the greyhound station, to catch a northbound for-to meet my family in Panama City that afternoon. It was nearlin Christmas, and my parents traveled to my sister's stomping grounds, (where, also, they had purchased and were renovating two beach condos) for family Christmas. I had a brief layover in Tallahassee, in which I took a cab to a café called Allsaints,where I used to live in my car in their parking lot for four or five months. This is the place in Tallahassee where I feel most at home. I texted Sarah, who took a lunch break from work to meet me on her front porch, not a far walk from the café. It was a wet day, and I drank a coffee in a Styrofoam cup, while catching up with my dearest friend. I called another cab to get back to the bus station, and made the rest of the journey to Panama City without a hitch. My father picked me up at the Greyhound Station in 'old town' Panama City. From there, we drove to the beach, talking about the paint-job I had to do there. A few months back, before the summer, my mother slid a catalogue over to me on her kitchen countertop. "See", she said, "something like this", and pointed to a photocollage of an abalone shell. The composition was dramatic but pleasing. This was a continuation from a conversation we'd been having for not a short amount of time. Basically, I was hanging out on a triptych commission for her bedroom, waiting for some direction. So, she wanted this abalone motif for her condo, and she liked it so much, her bedroom triptych as well. I gave her a rate, which had to do with the logistics of me painting such a thing, and we struck an agreement.
So that summer, I up-and-went to Durham North Carolina instead of doing these paintings. At some point, I'd organized to sell my car to a friend, so I came back to Florida, and wanting to make good use of my time, also picked up the canvases for the triptych up from my mom, and a roll of canvas for the condo painting. I painted through that week, and into a few days after, packaged everything for shipping, shipped everything to their respective locations, and went back to Durham. All of the paintings were received with excitement and gratitude, however now, near Christmas time, upon, second inspection, my mother thinks I can do a better job on the condo painting, and she's right of course. So we, my father and I, in a car, arrive at the beach condo. My mother, grandmother, and my grandmother's friend Jeanie greet us, then we get to the task in discussion. Where I had left the painting loose, and showing the painting process, my mom wanted it tight. Essentially, she wanted more painting, which I could do. I was excited to dive back in, especially in this environment, (my first whack at it was in a garage, where 'friends and co-workers' would come by to hang out, drink and smoke- not the most conducive environment for productivity.
So there I was in Panama City, with family and a job to do. I'll jump through this section I guess because nothing went araye, but I will say that it was a good place to be for a few days. Eventually, (in exactly how much time I had to work on it) the painting whipped into shape, I'd seen the new installment of Star Wars which to be honest, bored me, and I'd spent time learning about my new little niece, Loxie. It was time to leave. My grandmother and her friend Jeanie had plans to go back to Titusville, either over the course of two days, or in one eight-hour drive- the plan was to break up the driving time because they are both old and Jeanie cannot see well enough at night to be comfortable driving. So, with my interest in going to Jacksonville, we were able to find a happy solution in my driving for six hours, beginning in the morning, and turning it over to the gals once in Jacksonville. It went off smoothly. We stopped in Tallahassee for lunch. I took us to the Allsaints Café which, again, is home base for me therein, but it was uncarachteristicly closed for the holiday break. So we went next-door, where a new hotdog place had opened. None of us wanted to eat hot dogs, but two of us had to use the bathroom very badly. Upon entering, the feeling of urgency filled the air. It was apparent that the owner had really gone out on a limb on this one. He was happy to let us use his restroom, he was the super super friendly new business owner type, eager to turn the place upside-down for you. I went to the bathroom while Jeanie looked at the menu, then I looked at the menu while waiting for Jeanie. Grammy waited outside. She was at this point tired and had one absurd request for a chocolate milkshake, which none of the local businesses could satisfy. Jeanie out of the bathroom now, the guy, Yost (of his new hot-dog restaurant, Yosties), offered/up-and-made a chili-dog for us and said "This one's on the house. I cut it into thirds for you too and your Grammy outside." and, "Tell your friends where the best chili dog in the south is." Oh man we felt
silly. So, I take a look around and see among the myriad busy decorations, whack lettering-jobs, and I offer him some logo work. From where I write you now I have drawn an awesome logo for his shop, but my plans have changed too.
We drove across town to get Grammy a chocolate milkshake at the Steak and Shake. I got a milkshake too, and so did Jeanie, by that point 'milkshake' had been spoken a couple dozen times. We hit the road for Jacksonville then, and made it in a few hours. Grammy and Jeanie dropped me off outside of CoRK, where I had arranged to meet up with Shaun, where he was working on a painting. So he put me up for the night in the CoRK warehouse. I walked down to the corner store and bought two beers, and opened up a palette. I worked on paintgs until late, then kind-of dicked around so to speak, before nodding off around 5am. I woke at 9, then again at ten. I painted through the afternoon, until Shaun came to the warehouse to work. He did his usual pacing around pre-work routine. The time was nearing that I was to depart. I needed a jacket, so I was going to swing by a thrift store and pick up something warm. Shaun said he had a jacket that would fit me. He drove me to his place, we got the jacket, then he drove me to the airport where we looked at an art show, then to a gas station where I was to catch a Chinatown bus to New York.
The Chinatown bus was shut down in 2013, due to a series of accidents with fatalities, and also the poor condition of its fleet. They put 40000 dollars into the fleet and by 2015 were back up and running. It costs 80$ to get from Jacksonville to New York, and 22 hours. I got on the bus with a mother and daughter from Ethiopia who had the most beautiful physique and complexion. The bus was otherwise empty and I listened to them speak in their African dialect. By the late evening, the buss was nearly full, though I retained my empty seat-to-the-side, with which I had a mini-studio set up. Then we stopped in Fayetteville, NC, where another Chinatown bus had stopped, and was waiting to consolidate passengers and cargo for the remainder of the trip north. My mother mentioned to me that the Chinatown bus line was a modern day slave ship, carrying an Asian work force according to markets where they might be needed. Also, I say, it is a smuggling vehicle. At one point we stopped in Virginia, to re-fuel. It was about four in the morning, everyone was instructed to get off. I was of the latter in returning to the bus and I was stopped by the driver and asked to carry out a favor- in broken English. Something like "You buy me Cigarettes.?"
"Sure." I thought maybe he didn't have an ID and wanted a pack. He handed me a wad of cash and a quarter.
"Five carton Marlboro, five carton Newport." He handed me a piece of a Newport label as reference so I wouldn't fuck up his order.
"Alright."
I went inside the truck stop, not sure how I would be received with such a request. When I got to the counter, it was clear that this gas station specialized in exactly this transaction, behind the gracious cashier were packages of five-carton-Marlboros and five-carton-Newports, in plastic bags, tied in a cinch at the top. I asked her for the goods, ID in hand. She didn't check my ID, she placed the two pre-packaged bags on the counter punched a few buttons on her register and said the total. "Four-hundred ninety-three, twenty-three." I handed her the wad of cash, uncounted, and the quarter. She counted the cash and gave me two pennies back. "You have a good night." she might have said, or something else southern and alluding to the understanding that I was a thru-man.
I need to wrap this up.
So I stayed at the hostel. Walking around I noticed murals about, and offered to paint one. The owner agreed and gave me a discount on the room in exchange. I drew for days and in a weeks time installed a mural for the establishment. I think it turned out well, but time constraints et al meant it was more fast and cheap than good.
I took a workshop on acrylic painting with John Parks on a whim at the Art Students League. It fit nicely into my schedule and I wanted desperately to visit the school. John was great with color. He helped me a lot and I was thrilled that we would be painting from a live model through the week-long workshop.
That's pretty much it in New York. I went to the New Museum and saw a show which was hyped a lot. It was the work of Jim Shaw. I learned about Tracy and the Plastics there too. I ate bodega and drank coffee a lot. Also, I went to chinatown for the most wonderful bakery goods.
When I first got to New York, I met up with a gentleman who I'd arranged through craigslist to do some figure modeling for. We went to his gym, where I stretched a bunch and got my cardio up, then back to his place where we showered and I stayed in the towel afterwards. I did my modeling routine and he drew in oil pastels from me. He had two cats and one remained under me if it could at all times throughout the session. I was paid forty bucks for two hours.
