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

I live on the Road by Selling my Art - Wanna Come?...pretty much says it all. It's often a tough life for a dedicated artist but the rewards are immeasurable. I've been doing it 7 months now & am thinking of heading to another place.

I hear people all along the way saying, "Well, I'm a musician," and "I'm an artist." I think to myself, "naw you aren't. You manage a Barnes & Nobles..."

I think it's like you are what you eat. People are mostly whatever they do. When I was a computer & art teacher, I was a freaking computer & art teacher.

I spun off in another splinter of gab about this, but I do meet chicks who live on the road. I always meet hot chicks, but a lot of them want to change me. I just can't do that. I have to do this.

I have a fairly good standard of living. I find, that, well, why be dirty or why piss off the authorities by looking crappy. You have to talk to people from all walks of life. It can be both trying & rewarding. One thing is your art will sell & you will get noteriety.

Any takers?

 

wow your posting from a labtop ?

 

I just read all your posts on this topic - seems hard to get anyone interested in joining in - specially chicks but keep trying - all it takes is the right one to come along.I've had a hard time finding any women to go even just walking in the woods recently - most girls round here just seem to be into clubbing which is ok but a nighttime activity,and bursting with hypocrisy.Anyways - I've spent most of my life in a tent also - was quite tough to begin with but you kinda learn as you go along.As I don't drive I went on a pushbike and made my money by playing the accordian.I worked out that the main thing was to keep money literally for rainy days when everyone stays in doors and also to keep my whereabouts fairly secret,but it's an experience I'll never forget - was quite intriguing to be able to pass all the traffic heading towards the city and out into the country on a monday morning.I did keep a diary all the way along with sketches and all sorts in it but a bottle of water leaked in my rucksack and destroyed it all.Well good luck,dude - keep the faith.Every sunset/sunrise is the greatest free spectacular show going!

 

Yeah, thanks for the encouragement. I agree with the 'rainy-day theorum'... people don't realize how that affects sales & maintenance until they get out there & have to spend the first three hours of the morning keeping clean & fed & getting somewhere to set up.

True, stuff is easier in a studio or sedentary environment, but then you get phat & lazy & take it easy & wind up not doing shit.

I have a hot girlfriend, but you can tell she loves me but wants me to change. Isn't that all women? She does appreciate my art, and has helped me try selling locally, but since she's got kids I don't see her hitting the road. She has too many strings to do that. But she may be good at the business end. I'd having her look at a contract for me.

Yeah, keep in touch with your homies who are usually dudes. I have a friend to the North whom I just fowarded this agreement to, to have it looked at to see if it's bogus or not. Could be some bucks in some of my artwork.

Computer or laptop. It's vital to keep in touch. Eventually your upper-middle class family will think you SUCK for doing this, but I think they SUCK for not doing it with me.

I had a vision back in the early 70's of myself sitting up in a geodesic dome pine treehouse using a laptop computer. It had a floor in it. I'd never seen a yurt til I got to Thailand. Also met a chick in N CA that had one in the back of her truck going back to Oregon. She was pretty cool & they lived in a Commune there. I installed some software on her laptop that day.

Dude, I was high as a fucking kite when I had that vision.--I'd never seen a laptop computer before. Nor had anybody. And people think hallucinations are not real? I have actual witnesses that I hallucinated that roundish Mac before it came out. I think I may have sketched it. High again!

I guess I should have taken this seriously as a sign from God. (And bought stock in Apple & Microsoft )

Anyway, whose going to believe the Prophets nowadays with so many people racing to destruction.

I like that part about your going one way & the 9-5ers going the other.

Trouble is people criticize you for camping in a city & admire you for camping out in the wild. Besides, there are too many fucking 'homeless' or AIMLESS as I call them (people) in this town. They give camping a bad name.

"A pilgrim that never reaches his goal is not on a pilgrimage--he's just a wanderer!"

I guess people need to come ou here as an artist or with something in mind to accomplish. Otherwise life sucks & they just wind up being a stoner or a pathetic drunk.

 

Ahh that's great!
I travel around too, don't sell my art though,
(basically cuz I don't think it'll sell and I'm not motivated enough
to keep on painting and drawing.)
Sounds like you're truly living the way you feel you should,
and that can be hard sometimes, I know.
But keep on keepin' on!!!

 

Yeah - 'homeless' has a taboo attached to it - I remember going into a council place to declare myself officially homeless - I was self employed at the time - but I felt a wrench in my stomach when I actually said it out loud to someone over a desk - even though I'd carefully planned the whole thing and had a strategy.She was ok though - she said stay classed as self employed and just keep a record of what you earn.Its funny cos I kept the paying in book that I used and every stamp is in a different town and its for never more than like 25 pounds (I'm english) but I can always look at the map and follow my route from that account.But yeah - when I'd be playing accordian in the towns - it's like I was expected by other 'homeless' people to go and stay in a hostel or get a free dinner - I never did any of that - just bought simple food and found comfortable secluded places to cook and lounge around - anyways glad you found a chick!

 

I'm probably going to end up wanderin around too. All my guidance counselors at school tell me to go to a college and take an academic major. There is absolutely nothing I"m interested in academically. Everyone's tellin me to take calculus and physics and stuff, but, that's just not what i like. I have nothing against it, if you like it and it's your thing go for it. But I don't think they should be telling kids to do what they don't want to. So I'll probably go to art school and then, who knows?

 

The only reason im stable right now (stable as in staying in one location) is because im starting the path of working towards travelling for awhile and meeting fascinating people and integrating my life with theirs.......

I know that life on the road is hard from past experience, but I know how beautiful and overjoyous it is at the same time.....keep on keepin on.... Peace as you wander freely

 

And by the way...your art is beautiful...I love the soul you put into it

 

I come man, accept I my art consists so far of wood projects. I have a VW and am selling my airplane now. I'd like to buy a small generator and a powered paraglider so I could cruise the country, take aerial photographs and incorporate them into my wood art, like frames and routered out poetry with a picture in the middle yk.
Peace,
Alex
email me if you want and we could chat, I have some different thoughts about art in general like how totally necessary it is for me in my life, but I love flying and travelling. Hey what about going town to town selling photos of each town with a nice wood frame around it, that'd be mass cool. Then if we were in the mountains we could throw a backpack on and take off with the little glider up to some sweet hiking areas. Awesome

 

That is a sweet idea...sell photo art of the places youve been...i love it

 

Haven't you posted several threads about this? I remember responding to one, waaay back, about how I'd like to join you.

I still would. Where are you right now? Probably the States, huh? Well fuck, I'm lookin to be a wanderin hippie artists myself. I play music and paint, and draw, and photograph, and just live. Sounds like this would be right up my alley.

 

I would do it too...I would love to be around folks with these sort of goals in mind, selling art to live and traveling and such I mean. It's kind of my goal but I keep ending up back in this same spot after only short periods of time. Blaah. I kind of want to work on doing quick portraits of people, they'd be into that I think? I mean perhaps it's overdone but I'd like to think I could do it with some style (with lots more practice of course).

Inbloom you should come visit me! I am in the states, ohio to be exact. And I'll probably be chilling here til spring just because traveling in the cold sucks. What instrument/s do you play? I tried to pick up harmonica but it was cheap and it broke before I learned anything...I may have to steal my roomate's banjo. Hahaha! Actually I could never play that, I'm not very musically inclined.

 

ps bring Kahlo and I honestly don't mean to sound so internet-creepy...ahahahahhh.

 

Are you kidding me? You don't sound internet creepy, I'd LOVE to come visit you! You seem like such a groovy mama. I'm sure we'd have so much fun.

I say the two of us (plus Kahlo, of course ) go on a cross country trip! How fun would that be!?

I play guitar, sing, djembe, didg, amongst other things. Just sort of whatever I can get my hands on, hehe.

And don't go tempting me like that! I'll actually come!

 

Eh I don't know, telling a random internet person to come visit you is sort of weird I think? But I'm way serious...I'm not doing anything at thee moment but being cold. I may have to do the unthinkable and get a (gasp!) real, legit job!
On another note, neat signature.

 

Yeah, I prefer the term HOUSELESS. They use that pejorative HOMELESS term on everybody who doesn't have an address. You get lumped together with all the nut-cases, drunks & druggies. You don't get that if you are sleeping in your car in the midwest. There are so few doing it there, since the winters are so cold & it's cheaper to live. You can almost always find a place, if nothing else somewhere to park. I mean in Texas you can find an apartment for $350-$390 even if it's in the barrio/ghetto. They also pay pretty good & you can get along working part-time. Now when you get to the Coast, you won't be able to find a freaking room for $500 or a one-bedroom apartment for $1200 & then there are the deposits. You find they try to pay you less than you made in the midwest. Even the so-called chain stores pay less if they can get students to do the job, so beware of college towns for that humiliation. A house in TX costs you maybe $115K. Here they are in the Millions & nouveau-riche morons own them. It's all pseudo-money that never was, but happened along with the digital economics. I'm so happy that fucking real estate bubble has finally burst. It was so unreal. I hope when Bush leaves office it explodes. But then they'll blame the big reality check on the Democrats or whoever follows.

You use the system. There are good towns & bad towns for that. Some places in California have cleaned out the homeless by shoving them up or down the coast & ticket people who sell without a license. I'd like to hear more current stuff about those places since those like Santa Monica & Laguna are tighter than tight. Laguna, you can't even park any more --there are meters everywhere. In my manic phase (I dreamed I was running for president) I'd ban all parking fees at the nation's shorelines. People that live inland deserve to come to the Beach & see the fucking Ocean that God made. Fuck the aristocracy. I don't think they should even be able to privately own the beach land. I'd repo it all. That sure would be the end of this Allende.

The cops work to enforce the laws for the people who make them & pay them to enforce their laws. I don't think this will ever change. But in those original hippy days, there was just a massive spirit of freedom that swept across the land & nobody had to tell people to go out & enjoy freedom. They just did. Probably why they put such a clampdown on LSD. It's like a worse penalty than worse things like Coke & shit. They don't want people tuning in, turning on & dropping out. Can you imagine where Big Gover would be if there were nobody to tax & collect parking fines from? He'd be unemployed & probably HOMELESS.

As far as drugs though, I see young kids coming through & into the Crack scene, cooking it & smoking it --really bad shit made with all kinds of crap toxins & then you see formerly pretty women with their teeth worn down to nubs! The government clamped down on all the benevolent psychedelics that just used to open peoples' third eye & they got worse drugs. They reaped the whirlwind! Talk about screwing up. Every hippie in the 60's & 70's knew the song, Speed Kills, by Canned Heat. Speed was looked down upon. The War on Drugs got no positive results at all. But, I digress...

 

Spent years in Ohio, brrrr...

Anyway, sorry to sound like I was ignoring you guys that have posted since this guy. I also had to catch up on your postings because I'm still several days between reading & posts.

It's good to quote at least part of what the other person was saying to you, if only so we know who you are talkiong to, but that's cool anyway, at least you post.

Just hope my bigass post doesn't sound out of place.

 

HEY! i'm loving the enthusiasm of this thread. that's great that you guys are living they way you feel you should despite what people think and how hard it can be. as long as you keep a positive attitude i think you can make it through anything. as others have said, keep on keepin' on and i hope to join you someday on the road...wandering and rambling. jesus, on some other thread i got completely bashed for looking forward to living on the road. but i know i'll come across many more in my life so i might as well get used to it.

keep on truckin'

chris

 

Yeah, there are an infinite number of lifestyles. Just hard to believe anybody would bash somebody for thinking differently here. Carve out a niche for yourself & live your life. Like you said, stay positive no matter what!