I don't have great photos from the opening as I was scrambling around
setting it up. If some come in, I'll post them.
thanks to everyone..
k

Final Show

I'm writing this four and half months late.

I couldn't wrap my head around finishing the last blog. I was exhausted and needed a break. Not to mention immediately following this break I plunged into the paintings for my November exhibition based on the trip. I just now finished up those paintings, so I'm returning for my last blog entry.

Suffice to say we had a 2-day mad scramble to get the final show prepared. After running all the canvases and some drawings to my framer, we headed to the printer to talk photos. Ian, our cameraman, had shot a bunch of photos from the journey (many of which are on this blog) which we used as a sort of photo diary to accompany the art. In addition, I put up the map I used to navigate, and traced in red Sharpie the path across the country. We also included the pack and easel I brought with me.

What I tried to do was to share with my friends and supporters that came to the show a bit of the experiences of the trip. I hoped the paintings and the photos together would tell a good story.

With the help of the crew (when they weren't filming) and a few close friends, I franticly went about arranging the chronology, and mounting the show. We had cardboard hitchhiking signs I has used along the way, mounted drawings on matte board, framed oils, and two big signs explaining the journey to all who came through the doors.

When the evening rolled around I had just changed, and my friends started arriving. More and more came and I was very touched as friends and art supporters from all corners came out to see what in the heck I had been up to. My parents even came down from the Bay Area. A friend of Levi (ride outta Grand Canyon) named Ira rolled in by train from Norther California just for the show not knowing anyone. Everyone was so excited about the trip and the presentation-- I guess there really was a lot to take in, both the narrative and the art itself.

And they bought work! I sold almost all of the paintings and drawings I had for sale, thought it wasn't that much as I'd traded most of it.

At the end of the night I was called up to say a little something publicly. Sebastian, our producer got up and said a few words, and when I got up to speak it was overwhelming. All the faces just radiated love and support at me, it was pretty incredible. I said some words of thanks, and then came the final event... the envelopes to see who had won the Art Race.


.. but I'm afraid I can't say who won... it would not be fair to the show or the viewers at home....

We did however party till the wee hours in celebration of the end of the Road. A true catharsis.

I won't speak any more on it, but I will say the experience was remarkable. I will process it in time to come. I don't know when it will air, but I'm sure it will be a sort of closure for me.

Thanks to everyone who helped me along the way, and to those who, by reading this, joined in on this Art-trip across the United States...

that is all from venice
good night.

Kenny

Week 6.. pre show

Week 6 – The end of the road.

There is so much to recount now. It seems like much longer than a
week.. It is over now and I'm attempting to rest, recover, and
digest what we just did.

Last Thursday I woke in Bryce canyon and headed to the airport to
meet up with the owner of the plane and heli-tour company operating
out of Bryce. We realized a helicopter ride would be too expensive,
but I traded a drawing of his helicopter (plus my last $100) for a
ride in a 6-seat Cessna down to South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It
was an amazing ride- over Escalante, the grand staircase, Vermillion
Cliffs, and Lake Powell. A bit queasy, we all unloaded in south rim,
grateful for an unforgettable ride.

At the small diner in Tusayan I traded a sketch of the manager Mona
Lisa (her real name) for lunch. It was great. I was broke, but
happy. We slid over to the rim to check out the canyon amid the
masses of tourists. Never ceases to amaze. When the rest of the
crew arrived from Bryce, we set out to hitch to Vegas.

A great guy named Levi picked me up and drove me to Williams, a large-
ish city on the 40. He was awesome, I did a cool drawing for him and
he got me a hotel room and gave me some food money. I felt rich.

Now the challenge to hitching out of Williams. After 2 hours at a
certain exit I realized I had to be back 1 mile to where the Grand
Canyon Exit meets the 40. A couple cool German guys I'd met at the
hotel gave me a lift back, and I proceeded to attempt to get a ride
again.

Not much luck.

The highway patrol was pretty cool, considering it is technically
illegal to hitch in Arizona. They took my info in case something
happens to me. Cool guys.

Car after car, no rides. None. Lots of RVs, tourists.. nothing.

Finally an adventurous couple named Dustin and Bianca picked me up.
They were the type that were on their way to go miniature golfing and
ended up at Grand Canyon and were heading to Vegas. Off we went!

We arrived in Vegas to 108 degrees at sunset. We barged into the
Golden Gate Casino (the oldest in Vegas) in downtown, intending to
talk to night manager Aaron and the owner Mark. We rap for a while
and eventually come to an agreement--a sketch of the casino for $200
in chips some of which I'd gamble there. Deal.

Cacophony of noise, drunken gamblers, go-go dancers, inquisitive
staff, camera crew... Not easy conditions in which to draw. It did
turn out well, though.

But in that time a nice drunk New Yorker gave me $200 for a quick
sketch of his girl. This gave me the fall back money to walk up to
the craps table and proceed to loose my 200 in about 15 minutes.
Pathetic. Aaron gave me and extra 25, the go-go dancers rolled up to
cheer me on in front of the camera, and I could do no wrong. Till
they left.. then the table got cold and I pulled out! Back to the
Artisan Hotel with a good memory of perhaps the last descent casino
in Vegas.

Next night—showgirls! We went backstage of the Follies Bergere at
the Tropicana and I chatted with Cari and Britney.. 6'1" and 5'10".
Some of the last of the old school showgirls, their costumes were
astounding. They posed for me and re-applied their makeup and re-did
their hair for me. I then went out to the stage and sketched some of
the girls stretching and warming up. It was a blast, a treat to see
into their world.. very familial actually. Then we got to kick back
and watch the show…

The next day was tough getting out of Vegas… 2 hours at one gas
station, then another long cab ride to Stateline. At stateline
Kasara stopped to pick me up.. having partied all night, I drove us
all the way back to Venice. We went straight to the beach and I ran
down and jumped in! It was the best. Reborn in the pacific!

Seb and I walked back to the house and Doug and Aiyana welcomed me home.

Now—2 days to prep a show… that is the last Blog. Coming next…

week 5 pics (II)

pics from week 5 (I)

End of Week 5

I'm in Bryce Canyon, Utah.

This week has been incredible.

It started in Aspen, meeting up with an artist from Colorado Springs
named Josh. He does all sorts of painting, is part of a collective
gallery and generally makes cool stuff. But appealed to me was his
guerilla style of making art and giving it away. He would just
enter a bar or restaurant or whatever and put one of his paintings
up. Years later they would still be there. They would get
grandfathered in.

So we made couple new canvases (I did my best attempt at quick
acrylic, spray paint and makeshift stencils.). Then we set out to
stash them around Aspen.. the most fun being in the Ralph Lauren
display window. He gave me a cool shirt on which he'd used bleach
to make a stencil image. A great morning.

After an afternoon in Aspen spent doing little dog portraits for
possible lodging money, (surely an idea from my producer Seb who does
enjoy this sort of thing) I got in touch with Pam and Bruce, a nice
couple who own a hot air balloon company out of Snowmass. I wanted a
killer ride. Above It All seemed the answer.

We agreed on an oil sketch for my own private balloon and space for
the cameraman and tripod in the next balloon! Up at dawn, we floated
up and over the mountains of Snowmass into old Snowmass, watching
deer and elk as we floated.

It was a spectacular feeling to float silently with very little wind
as we're moving at the speed of the wind. It had that gentle
movement of floating on a river, but with the surreal visual of
nothing below your feet.

The two balloons floated closer then farther away, Bruce moving ours
up down, leapfrogging the big one as we went. The big balloon was
called OMG because it really was that massive. None bigger in the
US. 18 Passenger 300,000 + cubic feet (315?).

When we landed, I found this great spot above the valley we landed
in, and painted a landscape, inserting a balloon from a digital photo
reference taken that morning by Pam. It was a long day, but I liked
how the painting turned out.

I stayed with them that night (their son David schooled me in Rock
Band) and the next day I was hitching out toward Moab.

I got a couple lifts to Grand Junction where I proceeded to cook
myself in 98 degree heat waiting for a ride. Rough. A van stopped
to pick me up and we were off . This crew did dinosaur bone tours,
and were heading back 15 or 20 miles down the road. I convinced them
to trade me a ride further down the road for a sketch of
little Ian. So I went to work in the car.

They dropped me in Cisco, a skeleton of a town.. looked like a mix of
Mad Max and Texas chainsaw massacre with a bunch of hillbilly thrown
in. But the crossroads was promising, as everyone who passed was
headed to Moab.

A Volvo containing Heidi stopped inquisitively, but hesitated, "I'm a
girl. I can't pick up a hitchhiker." But once we explained the
trip, she was down. As we winded down the river road, we were
plotting a raft trip to gain transport west. We followed a raft
truck all the way into town and barged in on them. The owner of Red
River, Carl, knew what we wanted and called a competitor, Navtech,
who runs a crazy 117 mile one-day raft trip through Canyonlands and
Cataract Canyon all the way to Lake Powell. We sorted it out and had
a celebratory beer over stories of scary rapids. Bruce our guide
said we had nothing to fear. We were to have 70 horsepower motor on
the back of the raft!

So bright and early we set out to haul ass through a huge section of
the Colorado River, with a notorious 29 mile stretch of rapids. It
was stellar. We hauled at about 28 miles per hour when gassing it,
sometimes we'd float and marvel a the red stone canyon which
stretched forever. We'd pass petroglyphs and tiny ruins, arches and
blue herons. We stopped for lunch and I did a nice drawing of the
first rapid we were about to hit (called Brown Betty after the food
boat lost at this rapid on the first expedition).

We hit some really fun rapids and I had the time of my life—no
paddling just cruising through the nuttiness. One wave in the river
was about 25 feet.. The Colorado had so much water in it. Impossible
to comprehend. They were saying Lake Powell was rising a foot per
day at high water. Unreal.

They pulled the boat out, we staggered about in the heat, then drove
through the dusty desert, exhausted and blissed out from the day.
They dropped me in Hanksville… and passed out in a cheap motel
immediately.

Yesterday I caught a morning ride from three women who had gotten
wind of my trip-- Kim, Iris and Chris. Through the rafting grapevine
in Moab they heard of this artist hitching across the country trading
art. They saw me at the side of the road and stopped, and after a
laugh we were all off.

They drove me all the way to Bryce! They were on their way back to
Vegas. We stopped along the way and I did a drawing for Kim who did
all the driving. It has to be my favorite drive in the country—
route 12 through Escalante. Spectacular natural beauty.

Now I'm here in Bryce and ready to attempt an air lift to Grand
Canyon tomorrow on my way to Vegas…

Shows coming up soon—starting to get nervous. Lots to do…

Love
Kenny

end of week 4 (2)

end of Week 4 (1)

some from the truck trip with Mack.

End of Week 4

Hit an energy wall this week. Needed a rest I didn't get. Resting
now, however.

It has been really hot through the plains of Kansas.

.. ok so we left off in Goodland.
End of the day in Goodland I walked out to the worlds largest easel.
With a big Van Gogh on it. Don't know exactly why people make these
objects out in the Midwest.

Woke up in Goodland ready for some adventure. Hitched a ride toward
a town called Kanorado—you guessed it, on the border of Kansas and
Colorado. Sounded like the right thing to do. The guy Dennis who
picked me up asked me, "You going to the dig?" Hmm.. stranger
assuming I'm heading to a dig? "what dig?" "The archeological dig
in Kanorado. Only reason someone like you'd be going to Kanorado."
So of course I said, "yes I am."
It was a dig out in the middle of the Kansas plains,
digging for clovis and hopefully pre-clovis artifacts—around 10-14000
bc. I had a fun time hanging and chatting about archaeology. Had to
do it, if only for my dad.
Then I hopped a ride to the next town of Burlington with
some of the archeologists, a woman named Katie being one of them.
They dropped me at a gas station near the freeway (my favorite!) with
a lightning storm looming. Pondering how to get out of there, I just
decided to do a little oil- the sky was pretty purple, nasty and
amazing with lightning cracking constantly. Only locals seemed
interested in what I was doing. As I was pondering what to do, Katie
rolled up to check on me—just then the wind whipped up… so I quit
painting and got a bite (she bought, I drew). Then back to hitch
hike some more (joy!).
I stood there watching a glorious sunset, realizing I
would not get a ride.
I was just packing it in for the night, when Shannon,
my savior, drove up and gave me a lift! It was glorious. We hauled
west, spinning tales of Austin and roadtrips. We all crashed the
night in Limon.
That night I felt like hell. Hit some sort of energy
pit. Bleary eyed. Just done as dinner. But I did watch some Conan
the Barbarian on TV and saw the wheel of pain. Whatever I'm going
through ain't that tough. A bit of dehydration—I had been in the sun
all day with hitching and archeology. In the morning I still felt
sick, but started coming to life as we set off to Denver.
Seeing the mountains of the front range was sweet!!
Rolling into the mountains I started coming back to life. We stopped
in Idaho springs for a pizza, and I did a sketch for Shannon, and
then I was back to hitching.
After a while a Pathfinder rolled up and Greg gave me a
lift all the way to Glenwood… a quick bus up valley and I was walking
up the road to my aunt and uncle's.

Rest!! Glorious rest. Watching the river go by. So necessary.

I need to recharge.. after this rest, 10 days to go. Will need my
strength to go strong the next few days.

My friend Susan reminded me this is a competition—"Never under
estimate the enemy. Sell, sell, sell and cross those state lines like
the wind. Win, win, win, and kill to win. Love the big sale."

I've survived well, now I have to play to win.

Love
kenny

more pics week 4

Pics week 4

first part of week 4- big sale

Beginning Week 4

I like Kansas City.

I've been wanting to actually wrap my head around a real painting.
We've been rushing around so much, doing quick sketches then moving
on, it seemed time to go for a more significant painting.

We contacted Leopold Gallery, a local KC gallery, whose owner Paul
turned us on to a local collector named Lee (and his wife Claudia).
Paul took us over to Lee's house (near the art museum and the art
institute) and we got a good tour of his dense collection of art. So
much! Packed into his house, floor to ceiling, almost all figurative
painting and sculpture. It was really incredible…

My idea was to see if he was interested in any of the work I'd done
so far, or perhaps agree to a commission or something. Initially he
was hesitant, as he should be.. he doesn't know me, nor my work.
Anyways, we eventually wandered around to the idea that I could do a
painting, and he could have the option to buy it, but I'd be very
happy to take it back to LA and sell it in the show at the end. This
way no pressure on either end.

Though there was pressure for me— if I bought some art supplies, and
I was about broke. If he decided not to buy it, if the painting
didn't come together, I would be in major jeopardy.

So we discussed what he would possibly want; a figure for sure. We
started thinking about hiring a model, then Lee suggested Lucie, our
associate producer.. Duckie her nickname. It was a brilliant idea,
because it made the whole experience intimate and personal. I did an
ink sketch, we thought about a size, called a great canvas maker in
town (Signature Canvas) and they knocked out a custom Linen for me.
Bob over at Signature heard the whole story and donated the linen to
the cause. Very cool. (I was happy to find they are the only major
canvas manufacturer in the US that use all local materials-- from
wood to canvas. Except for my special oil-primed Belgian linen.)

So with linen in hand, we set up in the upstairs den/guest room. I
chose this room because I could control the north light and find that
cave like condition I love to paint. Lucie has a great neck and I
wanted that to shine, and we chose a purple dress… just because that
is I what she had.

Duckie, it turns out, was a great model. She had been a dancer and
played in Orchestras; both required physical control for long
periods of time. So, her first time as an art model she was
amazing. 7 hours straight we worked.

It is not ideal to finish a portrait under time and money jeopardy,
especially when you have a HD camera over your shoulder, and a
producer asking me questions on camera. Lee and Claudia would come
up sometimes to hang out while the painting was being done. What's
funny is, as much as that would throw most artists off, I thought
about how cool it must be for them to see a painting being done in
their house, of someone they know, of a painting they might live
with. As collectors it would be a rare opportunity, I'd think.

So around sunset I finished the painting, and it was not easy. Doing
a one-pass oil is really hard, as some strokes will want to remove
paint. In my style of paintings it makes it much more technically
difficult.

I was a happy with the painting however. We all went down stairs to
eat and have some wine, with the Lee not having seen the last 2
hours or so of work. After food I brought the painting down, on
camera, to see if he would buy it. He was perfectly theatrical about
it.. an art showdown. He said this whole speech about how KC is not
LA nor New York and that I was an unknown artist to him… it was
great. So I threw out a real, if a bit low, number—2500 firm. He
took it. First big sale!!

So I collapsed exhausted, but knowing I wouldn't have to worry about
money as much form here on out. Though I will set a bunch of money
aside for framing and show costs, as well as a vegas hotel. It is
not smooth sailing, just I get to breath a bit easier now.
-------------

I'm currently in Goodland Kansas near the border of Colorado. I got
a couple rides here from the outskirts of KC—a nice family moving to
Utah from Tennessee (leading to a night in Salina, KS), and yesterday
a fantastic trip with a big rig trucker named Mack. He lived out of
his truck basically, and took me, the camera man Ian and the sound
man Paul along for about 200 miles. It was a real treat and I
learned much about the life of a trucker.

i've been a bit burned out after KC. I'm afraid when I'm done with
this show I'll become a hermit and live in some cave and folks will
remember when I "was such a social fellow."

Today I feel better. Ready to win this race.

That is all from the road. Will be Colorado soon.

Much love
Kenny

week 3 pics (pt 3)

again, in no particular order