On Thursday, July 17, I got up at 6:00 after not really sleeping much and ran. Just so everyone knows, sleeping is one of my superpowers. I can go to sleep in a nanosecond when I'm in my environment and things are normal. Like, seriously, I normally can't remember my head hitting my pillow. I can also stay asleep all night. The thunder that rattled the windows and shook the house? I only hear about that when morning comes. I'm really good at sleeping. This is to let you know how abnormal it feels for me to go days without getting good sleep. This always seems to happen on an out-of-town install when my brain is running marathons of thought. So after another restless night, I ran, got breakfast at Biscuit Belly and gave a Post-It note to the cashier. Then, I spent the morning adding some final touches and Easter eggs to the wall drawings at Public Works. I like to put Forest and Oscar in my murals and I found the perfect creature to be my Oscar this time. This was a little stressful because I had to take images of a real tree frog and abstract it enough in my sketchbook to be happy with it. Then I had to translate that somehow onto the wall to fit the space I had. Nothing like doing hard things in the final hours before a show opens with an audience. Oh and that white sculpture I put in the corner and it sort of disappeared into the wall? On Sunday, Katherine had suggested that I draw on it with a marker. That would unify better with the large sculpture which also had drawings on it and would help the sculpture be more visible against the wall. I liked the idea and it was one of the many ideas swimming around in my head while I tried to sleep all week. With the pressure on, why not also try to draw on the sculpture with permanent marker and not mess up just hours before the reception begins? I'm clearly an idiot.
I also drew a little mushroom (just like the one I saw in her sketchbook) for my new friend Blair. I added a lot of small things as people were walking through. I could hear them talking and one guy said “it’s like Dali and Mad Magazine all mixed together”. I smiled and said thanks. Then he came back later and added, “With a little Monty Python in there too.”. What a nice thing to say! By 11:30am, I was finished. I made a few videos and took some photos and then headed back to my bed at South Porch to take a much needed nap. There was still a lot of Thursday to come.
Later in the afternoon, I made a trip back to the Fly Vintage place to get one of the shirts I had tried on and then went to get ready for the reception. I made a stop at Montreax’s and then walked over to Public Works ready to be social. Several of the artists in the curated show came and I got to talk to them. Kevin Jones, Andrew Blanchard, Emily Furr, Devann Gardner, Katherine Rumminger, and Lesya Malskaya were there. They are all such wonderful people and I hope you all get to meet them at some point in your life. Your life will be better because of it. I did the artist talk for my show at 6:30 and the curator’s talk for the other show at 7:00. Both seemed to go really well and I had a lot of audience interaction and questions. It was conversational and fun.So many people said lovely things and it was a really positive and wonderful time.
I was a little surprised to see my new friend Blair walk in with her parents. I wasn't sure they'd make it but as soon as they got out of a practice, they rushed over to try to catch me before I left. I messaged Amanda and told her I drew a surprise for Blair. Blair was so good at finding little images in my drawings the day before, I knew she'd find her mushroom too. It took her less than a second. She thanked me by making me a colored clothespin which is now hanging as a decoration in my home studio.
Even with all that wonderfully positive stuff, or perhaps because of it, the unavoidable gloom started to set in. I could see the little black cloud gathering in the corner and it started to chase me around the gallery as the night came to a close. This happens to me after any event like this. It’s like, the fun is over and I know it. Especially in Summerville, I get treated like a rock star for a week and then suddenly, I transform back into a regular guy and disappear back into the country. But Thursday was incredible and I had one of the better nights of my life before the gloom took over.
Friday, July 18, I woke up before 6:00am without an alarm, again. UGH. I ran, packed up kind of slowly and enjoyed my last few moments at South Porch with Brad and Brian. South Porch Artist Residency is such a cool place and I LOVE Brad and Brian. The house is so beautiful and I’ve had two really great stays there. I highly recommend them to all my artist friends.
I was looking forward to sleeping in my own bed on Friday night, but the gloom was with me like my own personal little black cloud as I moved through my morning. I made my way to Coastal Coffee for one last breakfast and coffee and I decided to sit and sketch for a while as I enjoyed it. I love the people there and one of the good baristas made my coffee and it was perfection. Then I saw Jude, Dan and Jana’s oldest son who works there when he brought out my food. A couple of minutes later, I felt a hand on my shoulder and it was Dan. He saw I was eating and drawing and he just spoke and said he was there to grab a coffee. When I closed my sketchbook and finished my breakfast, I saw that he was now seated across the restaurant. I took the opportunity to go talk a little more with him and ended up sitting down and catching up for a few minutes. This was one of those moments when I didn’t realize I needed some community but I got community delivered to me anyway. I don't believe in coincidences and am convinced that this opportunity to talk to Dan was a little fist bump from God. Dan was a little life jacket that morning and instead of settling in for a 2 hour drive with the black cloud, I left with a smile and a really good feeling from having spent time with him. I went straight to PWAC to say goodbye to Jana and Forest and to see their new cat (I know, but seriously, I did go to see the cat too). I love the Rileys dearly. Summerville is lucky to have so many wonderful people living there now.
During a week like this, I am mostly focused on the tasks I have to complete by a deadline. I am thinking about drawing pretty much all day every day and apparently, a good portion of the nights as well. I can go to this place in my mind and block out most of my everyday thoughts and concerns because there's pressure to get things done perfectly and on time. It was funny, though, as soon as I finished the murals and walked out of the gallery on Thursday morning, I immediately remembered my dogs. I mean, I missed the family too, but for the first time all week, I felt the absence of the dogs. It was sudden and weird.
When I arrived home Friday afternoon, the dogs remembered me too. They were the first to greet me at the door with wagging tails and licking tongues. That night, I slept comfortably in my own bed with both dogs wedged up against me. I do remember my head hitting the pillow and there was an awkward moment when I wondered if I'd lost my superpower of sleep. Soon, though, I was gone and I slept soundly all night. When I woke up, the little black cloud was still there and it stayed with me for a while getting a little smaller each day.
I don't know how to explain the gloom but I know to expect it after a reception and after an installation like this. The people in Summerville treat me so well and say so many wonderful things that being there is like a mountaintop experience. I just don't live on a mountaintop. I think most of us live somewhere between the valley and the peak and part of the fun of life is to move up and down and experience all the things. Heck, even if you do live on the mountaintop, don't you have to go out for groceries at some point?
And if you're one of the people who give me a hard time about repression, here's where you get to find out that I am actually a pretty healthy and self-actualized human. All those "emotions" that normal people feel and experience? I have those too. I like to be aware of them and see them coming (even when they try to sneak up on me like Jana's dad) and I like to catch them and send them off to walk around and explore for the day. During a busy time, I'll send a lot of them out on a little walk so I don't have to think about them until I'm ready. But dude, when they get ready to come home, they come home. That whole "your chickens have come home to roost" expression? Sometimes I live that expression fully.
Drawing both positive and negative things on the walls all week while studying my more intense wood drawings and steel sculptures reminded me of all the thoughts, emotions and experiences that went into their creation. All those stories and memories swirled around in my head while I tried to catch each one and send them off for a walk. On Friday, they all came home and it took a little time and a lot of running to deal with them.
So that was my week in three parts. I did all the things and felt all the feels and got it done in time for a nap! I am forever grateful to my friends at Public Works Art Center and, heck, just about the entire town of Summerville, SC for treating me so well that week. I strongly encourage you to take a little trip there before September 6. Get you a room at Chick Inn On Main or one of the other cool B&Bs in town and have a slower pace for a few days. Go see my three exhibits at Public Works and go buy those floral 1990s Doc Martens from Fly Vintage. Have dinner at Montreax, have breakfast at Biscuit Belly and Coastal Coffee. Find Jana and Dan and introduce yourself, they're the kindest people you'll ever meet. Grab a burger at Matt's Burgers. Walk through Azalea Park and definitely, go see the World's Largest Sweet Tea. Maybe I'll see you there.
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