I'm working for a barn building company out here in Lancaster, the best company of the bunch. They're Amish. The Amish call themselves plain folk. I love their way of life, and they work very hard. I was concerned the first time I worked with them that I would not be able to sustain more than a few days at a time of the work, so I expressed some flakiness when I returned from building a pole barn.
I shoveled snow with a man who does parking garage restoration. After the snow, I did some concrete chipping. I used a chipping gun and we were indoors working under a garage in a boiler room, my coworker and I. We worked around scaffolding and wore respirators, and goggles, and ear protection. It was even more difficult than the barn work, and I kept the schedule spotty by acting flaky with that boss too.
Both companies like me and want to keep me on, despite my lack of experience. The barn builders put me in the office once a week to optimize their website and advertise across social platforms. I am glad to do this because it is a skill I could utilize for my own promotions, of the art I supposedly make.
The paintings come so slow nowadays, because I'm painting from my head maybe, or maybe because I'm working all the time it feels like. I'm expanding my life and it feels like it every day. I split my time up and there's usually none left. When the light of the tunnel seems near, something pops up- often an unanticipated expense, and I become motivated to work for the company hourly rate.
I lost money in the stock market, but it should go back up, and I should adjust my exposure.
I meant for this post to be about some site optimization, to drop in some words that would generate flow into my website, but now I realize it would generate into the blog only, not lead to my website. I should put the site in the header of the blog.
2019 taxes hit me hard because I worked five months full days on a 1099, which is supposed to be illegal but in Philadelphia if you're not running a scam, there's no way to make money. Lew Blum towing in Philly ran into trouble because they just started impounding cars that weren't illegally parked, to scam money out of people. Now, the city has reacted; tow companies must wait for a car to be ticketed before they can tow. The result is that tow companies call the cops, and the cops don't bother to come out. If cops do come out, of course their ticket means they get some revenue off the car themselves. Terrible city. Glad to be gone.
I secured two mural walls in Lancaster, neither paid, but both pretty close to Heather and I's apartment.
The snow which sat for two months mostly melted off today, and I have my study done for one of the walls, which came with super clear instructions from the business owner. It'll be an underwater scene; something I've prepared for for a while, but in loose terms. Time to make a tight-ish drawing I think.
The other wall the owner just wants me to do something better than what's on there now, which is a freight train looking piece of graffiti. So I'll do something beautiful and rhythmic, which is good because I have a wall like that in Philly, and it'll be good to reinforce that look for my portfolio.
Unpaid walls often lead to paid ones, and I like Lancaster too. It'll be good to have a little representation in this town, and if we stay in it, maybe I can begin to conquer it like my friend Shaun Thurston did Jacksonville, Florida. When I remarked; "boy Shaun's work is really what Jacksonville looks like isn't it?" some critical friends remarked "well, he kind of forced it on them", which, that's fair, but over time his work will hold, and theirs will be at the mercy of trends, so my allegiances go to Shaun, and the crew that speaks clearly with their art.
