I live on the Road by Selling my Art - Wanna Come?

my only question is...since my parents don't want me to live that kind of life...how do i get out of going to college?

 

Haha, good point. I used to not want to go to college, but I kind of do now, just to see what it is like, because if I pick a place that I like then I will probably be around people who are like me, so it could be a cool experience. But I also find the life on the road to be spontaneous and I love spontaneity

 

wow that sounds like a really great way to live, i wanted to do something like that but i dont like i have enough art skillage to really make it so ive devised other ways ..keep on having fun man!!!

 

Hmm. I'm not going to tell you guys how to get out of this or that. It is your life & every action has an equal & oposite reaction (4U). The repercussions are yours not mine! OK--what if all those groups that made lucrative musical comebacks never did their dorky music n the first place? Even the 1 hit wonders. BUT Ya will always regret not taking FREE stuff --that should be your Mantra now if you plan to make it as a Road-Dog later. SAVE & STASH DUDE!!! Computers, survival equipment, sleeping bags, tents, No one should be without the these 3 things: Van, portapotty, propane stove. --jUST DON'T GET SUCKED INTO A PERMANENT COMPROMISE YOU DON'T WANttt. All the last posters are all pretty young & life's just slammin. But, hey, if your folks want to send you to college, that's damn pretty good of them, since it's really expensive. Try it for a while maybe. College is a bong-and-a-half. Uni towns are great places to observe alternative lifestyles & other people that want to circumvent society. I did my best dope at college while maintaining a 4 point average--go figure. Then I split & did something my parents hated

Hey, get really good at something, develop your talents; figure out what are your strengths & weaknesses. Get a Gig...Find a wired/weird Friend to Go w. U... Then you can drop out. You have to learn to hate the system first. Or you'll get sucked back in first wind that blows ill.

"...Sex with the Parents" - Lou Reed

 

1) van
2) stove
3) portapotty
4) sleeping bag

You can be working on these if you decide not to go to college. The list goes on depending on what you want to accomplish. Don't just come out to get drunk or stoned. You can do that much safer at home. Figure out what kind of artist you are/want to be. Then save/buy/beg/borrow/stash:

5) Equipment

Work in a store that sells it & you can buy it at a discount.

Make sure your van has good tires & brakes & about a year's insurance, inspection & registration. This gives you time to breathe. Gas is really expensive when you get out there & if you think $50 is a lot of money, it's probably just a tank of gas, so plan accordingly.

 

My teenage bud told me a story last summer when I visited his city. He said these guys he knew were trying to move a bunch of pot. So they researched which vehicles were the most common. Turns out one, which I will not mention for obvious reasons, is the most common one ever. This fact alone made them virtually invisible.

Although I don't sell dope, I can't say I've never been stopped, but each time for bogus reasons. Cops are trained to be suspicious; it comes with the territory. Like the dogs most of them are, that's how they find out who is doing something wrong, through imposing fear & sensing fearful reactions. None of this is according to the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. I was pocket searched because when they asked me to get out of the car my hands were in my pockets. This is crap, along with them asking you to look inside your whatever vehicle. You can say no, but then they will find some reason to further hassle you. So since i wasn't hiding anything, I let them. But self-incrimination is their game because they don't fucking know everything. In fact, most of the jocks that harrass people in high school have about the same IQ as your average cop: Street wise, but not too bright.

They are hired by the rich, who make the laws, to enforce those laws on the poor. This means YOU if you are a street artist living on the road. If you are going to live somehwhere scenic it's going to be expensive as hell & you won't be able to afford housing until the real estate market crashes. The they'll be jumping out of thse mansion's windows. But until then c'est la vie.

It's not matter of choice, but necessity. It should be unconstitutional to ticket a citizen for not having a place to live, but welcome to 'The Land of the Free & the Home of the Brave."

Hey, I mean, if you can't accidentally shoot your hunting buddy or slip over the back wall of your house during the hour your ex-wife & her lover are brutally murdered, what the Hell kind of a country is it anyway?

 

Not to hijack this thread or nething... What kinda art typically sells best? specifically: type of medium, size, subject matter, cost, ect... The freedom of being a street artist/tattoo artist (flash) seems like it might be just right for me at this point in my life so im trying to get an idea of how plausible it really is.
-Bob

 

I think it depends who are you selling to. Everyone has their own taste. This is stereotypical, BUT, younger people are probably more open minded to art than an older crowd, but, of course there are exceptions.

 

True. Everyone does have different taste. I know people that won't buy realistic stuff but will buy surreal or abstract.

If you do whatever you're best at doing it'll sell. Personally I do realistic stuff, but it can be pretty loose. After all, my medium for this trip is aimed at thrilling the audience. I'm purposely doing it in front of them & not in the studio for the same reasons. You have to be like the jugglers or clowns, you have to take risks.

I think people have lost some connection to reality with the advent of computers (which by the way I love). I think digital is great. Why go back in time & retrograde & lose all the great junk that comes with digital.

But traditional genres are always in style. I think the more people shift into light speed & go towards the future, the cooler it seems to them when they see someone at a festival doing or making something from scratch. Whatever, cotton candy or twisting balloons or whatever. Kids pull their parents over there & are like totally into it. Usually their parents are less thrilled because they are jaded, but they want to see their kids happy. Some parents get as excited as the kids because they are still in touch with the kid inside them.

I guess people are more convinced by the strength of our conviction than the depth of our logic. I mean they love art. They love performance art. They really like to walk into your charmed circle of inspiration. It pulls them right off the street. It happens to me every day. Not everybody, but certain people. But you DO get respect from everybody. You're not panhandling.

I love it when two people are walking & one stops & is just hypnotized by my stuff & the other one keeps on going. It's like tug-a-war.

I've found out a lot of this stuff is FEAR. It keeps people off the street & in these tight little circuits & venues where you are just a pebble amongst pebbles.

I try like hell not to enter those conformist gigs. There is too much competition; too many hoops to have to jump through, paperwork, admission fees, juries... fuck! It kills my creativity. It's unconstitutional if you ask me to make everybody fit into those cookie-cutter molds.

After you do this stuff a while you'll find you think your boss (you) is an asshole anyway. He makes you go out there even when you don't feel like it & you'd rather take the weekend off & go get wasted.

That's the hard part of being your own boss & running your own business. You have to do everything, creating, marketing, networking, selling; plus filling up your own belly & washing your own clothes & being your own car mechanic if need be. It's exhausting as any work you've ever done.

It's no picnic. It's not easy. You get depressed when you don't sell & a total high when you do. If you're manic you have to watch it & hey-- most artists are totally manic.

You know how they say when you're up high, don't look down because you'll fall? But it's great & there's nothing like the feeling when you finally DO look down at the ground & see how high you are & how you're living your dream. It's something everyone envies you for.

It's worth doing at all costs! Do everything you have to do to prepare for it so that you can be mentally & spiritually & physically ready, whatever you have to go through so you don't look back & chicken out, like "hey I could have gone to school or got this job or married a rock star or whatever..." You want to get that stuff out of your system if you are the type that needs to because you are going to go through some disillusionment. I mean the enemy of your soul wants you to fold up & stop doing what you love & make it seem like you made this huge mistake & really screwed up your life & didn't listen to Mom & Dad & didn't marry Connie or Jim. It's his fucking job to be a defeatist--he's the Phantom Menace & he's as real as the weather.

This guy, Mr. Bor-o-fill, wants you to be the beacon or mediocrity & just the same as everyone else. I think it's fantastic that we weren't born in a repressive society where they want to kill you if you do anything different...or don't they still? I mean the Amerkan Way sucks if you are not the rich politician born with a silver spoon in his mouth. It's all about materialism. So, if you're not cop you're little people. You may as well act up once in a while, test the boundaries. But do it in a creative way instead of destructive. See what you can do. And you'll never do that until you have to make a living at it. If you have to create to sell & then sell to eat, you'll create like fuck almighty.

I still get old hippy drunks & people who are jealous of the fact that I'm sitting there making it work, doing something creative with my free-will instead of wasting my life buzzed all day long. They try to haze you & mumble shit at you. Happened today & happened yesterday. But not everyday. Thankfully there are people that they piss off so you don't have to call the cops. Who likes to do that anyway, whose side are the cops on? Later...

 

I want to see your art!!!

 

Hahahah, I liked that line a lot. That was good.

How did you get started doing all this, man? I want so badly to make this my life,
but aagh! No money, and no vehicle. Makes it kinda hard, you know?

 

hmm i have everything on that list. it seems i am ready.

 

sky canvas you have written the 'new age hippy bible' without even being aware of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i need to write a song about this. i think i'll call it sky canvas.
man your ideals totaly match mine. i am the same way. i go out on insane road trips and camp out and car camp instead of motels to save money, and usually cook my self instead of nasty restraunts, and i am not a sterotypical hippie becasue i present myself in nice cloths all the time (from the thrift stores mind you) because i feel that people's hang ups lie in the raggedy appeareance (kind of like a prophit they worship ahhaahahaaha) of normal hippies, and i've always been aware of taht. so i am just as crazy or crazier than your normal hippy, but you can't know it by my appearance. this is my beloved satire!!!!!
man there is just so much to talk about on this subject. i am on the east coast ready to head out west again, probily stop in telluride then who knows....lets meet up!

 

You go pj!! Send me postcards brother

 

oh she knows

 

I have so much respect for craftsmen who live off what they make and sell...

 

Hey everybody, glad you think so. I just have 5 minutes left at this library computer, so I'll have to get back in line, but will try to answer everbody with whatever usefulness I can.

OK, on again. It's raining & cold today. Just had a birthday yesterday. Broke up with my girlfriend again, so an alone one. I've had a lot of those it seems. Artists! That's cool to be alone when somebody severely messes with your reality. You have to hang on to your rationale & if somebody's saying it's your fault when you know it's not & you even apologize, then that sucks & it's best to go paint. She projects things her ex does to her but won't admit it--when it's so obvious. Wish I could change that, but it's cyclical. When you see a nutty pattern with somebody, you have to be firm in the fact that you believe you have seen it more than once.

Anyway, she let me crash for a couple of nights while I had 102 fever,which was cool, but nobody's allowed to stay at her place anyway. So, being a fugative will drive you, hunger & lack of gas are also great propellants. Like the guy said about his old lady to the judge, your honor, I ain't no deserter, I'm a refugee! Pot is superb, too, because it gets you into that space where you are so busy painting or drawing you don't care what people think. Also, I can sell too hard, talk too much, oversell people. If you give them a card, that's usually the end of that sale. If they ask you if you'll be here tomorrow, everyday, or say they'll be back later, that means NO.

Someone passed me a couple of days back & said it is the coldest March since 1948 here, before any of us were born. A guy & his kid came down to the beach with snow from the mountains above us here piled up all over his roof. His kid was freaking out. He said the cops closed down the roads because everybody was crowding up there. Yeah, this has been one helluva winter to pick according to old-timers who were serving food today. Rain up & down the coast. You can plug into the missions for food, but don't stay there unless you want to be overly influenced by all the mental cases. Some of these people are really sweet but have let the odds win in their lives.

Eat but don't stay there. So, hook up with food stamps or free medical. This is stuff you really have to tow the line to get in the system. You have to haul ass for years to get medical & good food. Sometimes it pays to be an artist.

You kind of are a cut above the regular panhandlers & people DO treat you with genuine respect, because you're trying to do something. If they see you out there every day, it's like the 9-5ers really dig that. When people can place you & know what you are up to most of the time, I think it helps them existentially, because we are all alone on this planet. They check-in with you. I see these totally homeless hairy guys getting all this fuss from these totally hot chicks. This one guy, we sent him to the hospital the other morning. I call these two guys ZZ Top, because they look just like them. Everyone is concerned about this one dude, asking about him. It's a lot better world than you think, than people like you to believe when you have very little & you are living close to the pavement. People are more genuine. There are a few criminals but everybody is wise to them right away. People stay away from people who are off in some way. Everybody has a lot more descernment out here, because it's fight or flight mode, very primative survival.

It's amazing all the days you get up & don't feel like doing shit. I mean you're your own boss. You are sick or depressed or whatever. People see you drawing or painting & say shit like, "Oh, what fun!" I'm like, no, it's like a job...

It's not a sucky-assed job though. You still can take a day off if you are really out of it or hate a place. You just have to make up for it later. The buck stops here. I mean, but also if you take a day off the bills aren't piling up either.

 

I envy you in so many ways

 

skycanvas,

have been doing sidewalk painting in the seventies, yes people love to see how a painting is worked out.

Now occasionally I go busking ... which I found is quite different from playing on stage. It is more relaxed ... as you move into kinda state of non-expecting as well as one of not being expected.

All you do is putting yourself into the tunes that you love (with you, it is the colours). And it works ... their steps seem to get lighter as they dance by, not always knowing they do ... sometimes they risk a look and a smile. This is the best reward I would ask for. Some stay around ... some start to dance a jig or polka which probably will give me goose-pimples.

And so we all change on.

And also they send their children to throw cash into the case, and you're lucky if they have a happy bunch of them, cuz each wants to throw their own then.

But your thread is about painting, and I wanted to distract from the topic just as long as I already did.

Wishing you well for your Doing
Blessings

 

That's alright to mention it; in fact I did some busking on this trip for a while. It just seemed like there were many more musicians on the same streets that visual artists of which there were few. More competition for attention & funds. When I lost the light & couldn't tell between different colors or my eyes got tired I used to change my gear & do music. It got pretty exhausting, like working two jobs. Music was my cutloose job at night. People do OK at music performance here. It seems location is the key. If you can stake out a great restaurant & have your songs organized, people will tip. If you have a chick, then you get so much more. I did some harmonizing with a chick who was together (not great) when I first came to town. She really raked it in while we sang together because we knew all the same material, but sad to say didn't cut me in. I didn't have my guitar & boy I was broke.

I went to doing it by myself for a while, but there were a lot of drunks, people who would ask you for information & would threaten to beat you up if it was wrong, tweakers.

Then there were the people who demanded that you let them PLAY YOUR guitar. I used to tell them, "You can fuck my wife, but you can't play my guitar!" That usually blew them away. People have been known to run off with musician's guitars in the past.

Well, that's late night venues VS daytime too. It's a whole different crowd.

Visual is more rare. There are jugglers & all sorts of things; people with snakes & balloons. I like visual because they say people remember 80% of what they see & only 40% of what they hear. I dunno, but I go for the visual nowadays.

Just get some act that makes people happy together before hitting the streets is what I say to the other people who have maybe never done it before. Panhandling is OK as long as you don't make a career out of it because that sucks. I mean everybody ought to be able to at least do something clever for a buck or it just gets old.

If I could have the same effect doing what I do at home then I'd be there. Hell, if I wanted to please some woman & be a teacher & have a great car, I'd like to sleep in the same bed every night, too. I'm not crazy, torturing myself like this.

I expect bigger & better things than this to come of what I have invested or it all sucks. I see it coming & it's happening for me. Like, some store are asking for my shit & I sold an original for $300 bucks the other day. I found out where to get my stuff photographed. I don't intend to live like this forever. Only until it happens for me. But I don't want to NOT have it happen.

It comes down to a choice of freedom over bondage & failure. I chose freedom.

I'm a means to an end & everybody's friend; come richman, poorman, beggarman or thief. From my heart I send, a messenger & then... - S. Winwood & Traffic