Wednesday, June 18, 2008
End of Week 3
Week 3 is over. I'm halfway home.
Last day off we chilled in St Louis. Relaxing. Writing. Getting
things sorted.
Leaving St Louis last Thursday, we took the train out to the small
winery town of Hermann, Missouri. Cute little German-influenced
town. They call it the Napa of Missouri, for what that is worth. I
was amazed at all the old intact houses. Late 1800s most of them.. it
reminded me of the old colonial cities on the east coast. I found
out the old Courthouse on the hill might be altered greatly.. a new
approach, landscape, etc. It seemed a shame as it has the nice green
hill sloping down from the front steps, with a little road wrapping
around to the side. So I decided to paint a painting of the façade
and front greenery, to perhaps preserve it, and maybe find a buyer in
town.
Later I met Joey, a local artist with an arts collective in town.
She put me up in her place, I did a little drawing of her son Pablo.
We went for $1 burgers at a rural watering hole. He and his friend
Jason agreed to give me a ride down the road in his red 69 beetle.
Next day it was pouring. So off we went in the rain, stopping
occasionally to shoot driving shots. On one of the shots we took a
turn to quick and skidded of the road into ditch! After a moment of
panic, we started just laughing. All was good, we were able to just
drive off… but the skid marks are hilarious.
We arrived to our destination.. a town called Mokane, population 188
or 186 depending on the sign. After poking into the local tavern we
went up the street to local market. After a while of hanging around
with the owner Rick (and playing dominos with the local ladies) I did
a couple sketches of the his children.. they put me and up and gave
me a great tour of their house, barn, horses, muscle cars, and
fiddles…Rick's father was a legendary fiddle player. It was great.
Next day we went to see a taxidermist friend of Rick's. got a very
interesting tour and understand a lot more about how that is done…
Styrofoam molds underneath.. who knew? And he let me fire his
compound bow… that was pretty cool. My first shot went into the
field not to be found till later when the grass is mowed. But my
second shot hit the target. Pretty intense. Loads o fun.
On the way back we passd the local nuclear power plant, perhaps the
only reason Mokane is still doing ok. A great tour of the back roads
around Mokane… lots of farming and deer hunting lessons.
On to California. California, Missouri that is.
Let me sum up the sucking of my first day in Califronia. Missouri. --
Stuck in strip mall.
Burgher haus.
Hitched a ride to a local park to see a huge family reunion.
Hilarious. Tried to scare up a place to stay.. No good on lodging
cause all of them were from out of town.
Back to burgher haus… out of ideas. Ghetto motel next door out of
rooms. Stopped by the bowling alley next door, called "California
Lanes" talked with the owner. He agreed to let me crash in the ante
room. Better than being in the mosquitos and/or rain.
Owners of the burgher Haus were really cool—mike and jane. Did a
sketch of Jane and she drove me to my next small town in Missouri—
Russelville.
Russellville
written in russellville--
'I just woke up in Squeak's house in Russelville, MO. She is the
local bar keep here, and runs Squeak's place, the current incarnation
of the Russelville Bar, built in 1890. We were dropped in the middle
of town here yesterday, a Sunday, with everything apparently closed.
Russellville is cute, German roots I think, long past its glory when
the railroad ran right through town.
Anyways, we get dropped in town, and I have no idea what
I'm going to do. A kid coming out of the only bar says it is
closed. After a little while, Squeak pokes her head out and says,
"Come in if you want a beer. I'm not open but I have a Sunday
license." Down the rabbit hole.
So we go in, pass the afternoon with a beer and
conversation, and watch the sky get dark and thunderous. Big
downpour. I do a drawing of Squeak in her bar, she agrees to put me
up. I'm exhausted, and am looking forward just to crashing. After
wandering over to the pizza parlor (only place in town that is open),
we all eat and watch some local rednecks drive by. Or hillbillys.
Depends on your definition. I'm going to do a quick drawing
tomorrow for a pizza and a few dollars. Who said this would be
easy? But I love the idea that my little drawings will be left in
these little towns. Maybe the pizza parlor menu will have a Kenny
sketch on the front. Funny world.'
'Like most small towns around here, the economy is not good. In
addition to general downturn, gas prices seem to be wrecking them.
I'm shudder to think what the prices are back home. '
I did a tough sketch of Squeak's son's girlfriend's niece Grace who
had died at 4 days old. This may have been the toughest drawing so
far. I did my best, under difficult conditions.
Matt (Squeak's son) really appreciated it on behalf of his
girlfriend, and it was good enough for a ride was down to Windsor, MO.
A side note was the hillbilly gear in the back of Matt's truck. We
were cracking up about it: Empty bud light cans, two bottle of Jim
Beam of differing emptiness, and a small vodka bottle which was
filled with moonshine. Matt claims to never touch the stuff-- I took
a swig of the moonshine when we arrived in Windsor. I believe him.
Windsor was a bit strange. A bit depressed.. many closed shops on
the little mainstreet, and a general population that was pretty
skeptical of us outsiders. I did a nice painting of the water tower
in town, which may be torn down soon.
A really nice young couple came and offered their house and I took
their offer. Josh and Chyna are young artists and they were nice
enough to take pity on me. They took me in and offered me a ride to
Warrensburg (where I could catch a train) the next day. Upon learning
they were going for their art appreciation class I thought I'd crash
the class. I did a little lecture and made the class pretty fun. We
talked for a while about the project across country… with camera
rolling. It was a great day.
Josh and chyna drove me all the was to KC where I'm currently
laying low.
It all starts again tomorrow. Wish me luck.
Love to All.
k
Thursday, June 12, 2008
end of Week 2
Columbus Ohio.
We happened to end up in Columbus on First Saturday Gallery Hop. I
was dropped off in the arts district by the two young guys from
Ohio. Pondering how to take advantage of a night where a small
gallery district would get packed with 'hoppers' by 8 or 9 at night,
we stumbled into a nice little gallery with a salon style show up.
The owner Jacquie Mahan is one of the coolest people, let alone
dealer, I've met.
The thought went something like this—do a painting right in the space
(she had a nice spare interior for me) and try to auction it off that
night. The question is this- how does an art-going crowd in Columbus
react to a painter they don't know. Sure he has a good story, but
how much would they actually plunk down for an oil?
It was a crazy night, many good people swirling about. There were
some bids, and eventually Jacquie's aunt bought it for $400, and she
gave me the whole split. Great fun. So, with some money in pocket I
took the bus to Indianapolis.
----------
A day cruising through Indianapolis. Setting out to have adventures,
seeing what I could trade for art, what art I could sell, and more
importantly, who I would try to sell to.
Approaching a biker astride his Harley, cutoff shirt, Cigar in mouth,
he seemed the most unlikely art buyer. He gave me $6 for a small
sketch of his Motorcycle. He probably gave me the money just because
I was on a journey and needed money. But now he has a small drawing
of his old friend his motorcycle.. perhaps he'll really enjoy it over
time.
To some ladies eating lunch I sold a small double portrait for $20
each. So sweet they were, telling me all about how friendly
Indianapolis is.
Attempting to enter a nice restaurant, we got shut down as they are
corporate and allowed no cameras in.
Some business men on the street had zero interest in talking to an
artist on the street.
I then hit up a cool store that was like a locally owned jewelry and
home furnishings place called Silver in the City. The owner seemed
excited by the idea of trading art.. and I needed a few things. A
watch for one. I'm always late, so I figured a watch might help. And
a new T-shirt as a couple of the ones I brought didn't work well with
the radio microphones. She also showed me a cool bracelet made with
re-used metal from a city recycling project. So I bartered a little
drawing for a few things, and I think the drawing made her immensely
happy.
But upon seeing a spa on a 2nd floor of a beautiful Art Deco
building, I thought, "That is something worth trading for. A
massage." After barging in with film crew talking to the owners we
agreed on a couple small drawings for a deep tissue massage. I did a
portrait sketch of my massage therapist, and of the Art Deco barber
shop untouched since it was built. I was probably drawing more than
I was getting massaged, but it was worth it as I didn't realize the
amount of tension I have been holding. A whole different set of
stresses on this trip.
I left the spa. It had been pouring rain. I sought a dinner—we went
to locally owned restaurant and after a (what seemed to me) tough
talk with the manager, I convinced him to buy my dinner in exchange
for a drawing of the place- a 105 year old steakhouse, which he's
managed for 23 years. He was not so sure at first, but after we
were there for a while, entertained by the hilarious staff, and said
sure. I was happy he'd have this memory of the place- especially as
the facade would change soon. As I went by the open kitchen I
showed the drawing to them, and they, with the correct critique,
said, "where are all the people?" Yes, good question. Lots of laughs.
The waiter Eric was an artist also, and we had some laughs about
getting caught drawing people while on the job. He gave me one of
his ticket books covered with doodles, some even done while taking
orders! I loved the drawings. The waiters were all comedians it
seemed.
In the morning a Greyhound to St Louis. Greyhound is no fun.
Great to see the St Louis arch. I'm heading home.
beginning of Week 2
I started last Thursday with a cab ride out of Cleveland to a big gas
station complex in the attempt of finding a ride southwest.
Stuck for a while. it was hot, no one wanted to talk to me. or if
they did, they were nice enough, but no one would give me a ride.
What an unpleasant experience. 3 hours or so it took to get a ride.
Seb, the producer, had this gleeful look in his eye at my
frustration. He's hitched a lot, so he felt for me. But he knew it
would not be all roses, and the show would not just be about the high
points. All the waiting and pleading certainly made the ride i
finally got a real high point.
A 21 year old marine just back from Iraq was the only one who stopped
for me. "People around here suck" is what he said. that is why he
picked me up. we wandered south on 71, stopped at a Bob Evans for a
bite to meet up with the crew and look for where to head. The
waitress said, "You could head down to Kidron.. there is the Amish
auction today." Bingo.
Down to Kidron, a tiny town at heart of Amish country. in the
center there is a supermarket, a livestock auction house, a big feed
mill, and an historic hardware store. Amish horse carts clip-
clopping around. chin beards. full on. We couldn't shoot around
the auction (amish are not open with camera crews, especially ones
they don't know). I decided to do a painting of the old feed mill
right in town, and see who i meet just setting up and painting. I
did a nice little study, and had many a chat. finally around 6 or
7pm a nice mennonite farmer came up, curious about what i was doing.
he offered me a bed for the night, and i agreed to do a little
painting for him.
Turns out he has a large farm right in town. Harmony Farms. 140
years in his family. his name is Clarence Neuenschwander, and he
still spoke swiss german. His son Phillip was great and generous.
we had an amazing time with the family, they showed us all around the
Dairy farm. They grew corn and soybeans and had over one hundred
dairy cattle. We drank the raw milk and it was the best i've ever
had. they had their own eggs, veggies, maple syrup they cooked down,
beef from the farm, homemade bread, cookies, mint tea from their
mint, etc. great generosity.
I did a small oil sketch of the farm, and hope it will stay in the
family for generations in the future.
after attempting to sell the feed mill painting to the owner of the
feed mill (great guy), we visited the antique hardware store. a
tourist attraction, it has things i've never seen for sale- old style
tools, but new. Fridges that run on propane, strange non electric
tools, etc. we caught a ride from there with Jean Rockerfeu, who is
from amish country. we stopped by her house and some amish neighbors
came by and we had a good chat. she then dropped us in Millersburg,
a little town. We barged into the main hotel and i traded a little
drawing for the night's lodging. In the bar that night we met two
young guys who agreed to give the lift down to columbus... jason and
matt.. two cool young guys from the stix.. raised amish or mennonite,
they both had interesting tales of growing up rural in OH.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
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