beginning of Week 2

many more adventures since Cleveland. lots to write, bear with me...

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.

more pics

photos 2

photos 1

end of week 1

Cleveland.

Ohio.

That is where week one has left me.

i'm starting to get used to this lifestyle.  Drawing for food.  Camera in one's face.  a bunch of nutty brits as my companions.   Uncertainty about every day, and every night.  What is funny is that I'm more and more at ease with not knowing what is next.  I've had such luck, and been so fortunate with people's responses to the project, that I feel more present and at peace with my abilities to survive off art.  Help seems to come when I'm not expecting it.

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Last of my blogs ended with the insanity of the Ride for Jesus motorcycle crew in State College PA.  I got to see Mike (the former bike gang member) speak the next day at David's church and it was quite moving.  then the 275 Harley's rolled up for their ride for jesus.

after that it was not all roses.

Things slowed down a bit as I had an _impossible_ time getting a ride out of State College.  after many hours waiting at the side of the road as a hitchhiker (with funny signs saying "ARTIST FOR HIRE..     PITTSBURGH, PORTRAIT FOR A RIDE" ), i gave up.  As a hitchhiker I had no luck.  zero.

next thought?  Bus.  bus to pittsburgh.  so i walk over to the bus station.  bus just left. the only bus in the afternoon.  Welcome to mass transit in the US.   I got a cheap motel, and hit the 6:15 am bus to Pitt.

After about 1 or 2 hours of delays, i reached pittsburgh around 1pm, and had one of the coolest experienced thus far.

Met up with sculptor Thaddeus Mosley.   He is 82 years old, and I swear he has more energy than i do.  An amazing amazing man. He picked me up from the Greyhound station, and we rolled to his neighborhood for lunch, and then a fantastic studio visit.   He knows Pittsburgh so well, knew all the jazz greats, and is still carving wood on a large scale at 82.   He delights in life-- his wonder and appreciation of the moment are inspirational.  my favorite quote of his, "I never made a living at art; I just lived it."   I did a nice portrait drawing of Thad, and he put me up for the night in his house (which is one of the coolest places i've ever seen.  top to bottom salon style paintings, photos, collages, sculptures. )

(See night photo of the crew with Thaddeus overlooking Pittsburgh.)

at dinner that night the waiter chris heard of my adventure and not only bought my dinner, but gave my 50 bucks for the train.  i made him a sketch in thanks.  unreal generosity everywhere.

After checking the impossible schedule for Amtrack, i went back to the bus terminal and bussed it to cleveland.

hope everyone is safe and sound

love

Kenny

end of Day 3

wwwwwwwwwowwwwwww.

it is real now. Today i realized why I'm doing this.

Many amazing encounters so far. Steps of the Met, a train to
Beacon. staying on Emilio's kitchen floor. Charlie's ride in
exchange for a drawing of his baby. A Coney Island hot dog in
Scranton PA- the electric City. Talking my way into the Hilton in
Scranton. A drawing in the Northern Light cafe (drinking good
espresso i might add) avoiding the rain and working on the drawing
for the room i stayed at. The GM of the hotel Charlie's ride to a
truck stop in PA. Vanessa's Ride to the next Truck stop.

which leads us to this afternoon-- I was stuck at a Flying J rest
stop on the 80 in Pennsylvania, sitting there pondering how to meet
people, and more importantly, how to find someone going west toward
State College (where Penn state is).

Up roll these 3 bikes. two Harleys, one vespa-- i felt a bit of
comraderie at that. One looks like a pretty tough biker ( turns
out he used to roll with the Pagans). Anyways the man on the vespa,
David, hears of my plight, and exclaims, 'both my kids are artists.
they went to RISD. we'd love to help you out.' next thing i know,
he's bribed another truck to take my bags, and i'm on the back of the
Harley with Mike. We roll out, with Ian and Paul (sound and DP) in
the back of the pick up, traversing some of the prettiest farm country.

I was struck at how unreal this whole thing is. How unbelievably
kind people have been.

succumbing to fate.

Beat

First day of shooting backstory in Santa Monica.

I am tired.
Beat.

The reality of what we're about to undertake just sunk in. This is
going to be more of a challenge than I thought. I'm just not used to
being in front of a camera. The amount of energy it takes to do this
is something i'm not used to. It is a bit akin to teaching and
lecturing i suppose.. I hope I'll get more comfortable as time rolls
on.

It was also strange talking about ones self.. on camera.

Also going without good coffee with be a challenge.... to say the
least. And and for the record I will not be a patronizing a certain
national monopolistic coffee chain. Scoff if you will, but i will try.