work road trip, remix

Chapel Hill is a long way from Charleston, SC.  You don't really think about distances between cities until you have to drive them.  I got caught up on my podcasts and even spent some time driving in silence before rolling into the Charleston area around 3:00pm.  

This was originally a family vacation, a short trip to the coast to hang out and eat good food before everyone gets really busy with school and work.  Those plans started to fall apart when the kids had other plans but instead of canceling, we decided to go without them.  G had to miss a couple of days of our beach vacation because of dog drama and she was going to Charleston with or without us.  I ended up meeting her there during a very uncommon weather event.

The event was unseasonably cool weather.  I mean, a hurricane would be more common during the summer in Charleston.  There was a lot of cloud cover and the occasional shower, but being in Charleston in August and not being drenched in sweat immediately after walking outside was worth the risk of rain.  We had a good dinner at Saltwater Cowboys and since we didn't have any real plans, we just drove around Mount Pleasant and explored some of the historic district.  We walked out Pitt Street Bridge and admired the landscape.  The rain moved in as soon as we made it back to the car.

One of my favorite things to to in Charleston (or on any vacation) is to run.  When we stay in Mount Pleasant during a Charleston visit, I get to run the Cooper River Bridge.  This is an oddly tense situation for me because I'm a little apprehensive about driving over big bridges and I'm afraid of falling from heights.  But also, Charleston is so flat and you get such a great view up on the bridge.  It's always beautiful, even in a crazy thunderstorm (which I got caught running in during my last trip).  Since I was missing my extra miles of cross country practice while out of town, I had been adding on some mileage during the mornings.  This allowed me to run all the way across the bridge and back and it killed my thighs.  Hills in Charleston!

G was owed a beach day and so on Sunday, we had breakfast and drove to the beach at Sullivan's Island.  It was cloudy and we got drizzled on a little, but it was so cool and nice to be outside.  I got to take lots of photos of birds and I got to pet a dog.  I even walked a little, but my legs were pretty tired so I kept that at a low distance.

Again, we had no real plans and only two opinions instead of four to consider, so we just sort of winged it.  After washing the sand off, we got dinner and then found our way to Shem Creek Park and found a really cool, really beautiful and really long boardwalk.  This added more miles to my day but the views were worth the shaky legs.  

People watching on vacation is always at the top of my to-do list.  I mentioned in the last post that I was in an artistically receiving mode and that continued in Charleston.  Everything was inspiring and I was noticing images of suns, moons and stars everywhere I looked.  Also, for reasons I haven't yet figured out, shrimp made an appearance every day.  

Monday started with a 5 mile run across the bridge and back.  I almost trampled a young woman who was gabbing with her friends and not paying attention.  She got scared by an oncoming bike while walking in the bike lane and as she jumped back into formation with her friends, I was attempting to thread the needle between them.  This scared her more and as I apologized ahead of them, I heard lots of laughter and apologies coming from behind me.  

I got to my car just as the rain started and it would continue through the morning.  We had planned to make this our downtown walking day and when we found two umbrellas, we just decided to walk in the rain.  I had this amazing biscuit at Callie's Hot Little Biscuit in the Market and then we walked up King Street.

Where I continued to see imagery from my drawings and sketchbooks.  A sun and clouds in one of the fancy windows.

This is a Colada.  It's 4-5 shots of espresso with pure cane sugar.  It's intended to be for 4-5 people but it's my favorite drink at Cafecito, my favorite Charleston coffee place.  It's technically not a "coffeeshop" and I used to love Kudu Coffee but I go to Cafecito every time I get to go to Charleston.  The food and coffee is as amazing as the positive vibes in this little cafe.  I love it so much.  Please go give them your money when you're in town.

I visited my favorite thrift shop, Far Side, and found the perfect new motto for the sculpture studio.

I got waved at by Jesus.  That was pretty cool.

The wave came from inside St. Matthew's church on King Street.  This is also a favorite stop for me in Charleston.  I used to tag along to Charleston on G's work conference trips and would spend several days exploring the city alone while she did boring things.  One year, I saw the church doors open here and walked inside.  It was so beautiful.  I spend the rest of that trip trying to open church doors and found a surprising number of them open.  I figure churches should be welcoming to strangers, especially if they're visually beautiful.  Even the ones that weren't "open to the public" didn't kick me out and some even gave me a tour.  St. Matthew's is one of my favorites and it's where I want to go to church if I ever move to Charleston.  Also, more suns, moons and stars.

Another stop I have to make is the Halsey at College of Charleston.  They always have the best exhibits and it's my dream to get to show there at some point.  This is the first time I've ever found the doors closed and locked.  They were in the middle of installing a new exhibit and painting the hand rails just outside the gallery, so maybe next time.  That's when I found this fun little "exhibit" on the street.  One of the art students left their sculpture out with the trash.  Sad and totally relatable.  

We let Google choose our dinner.  We decided to try a completely new place and that meant spending a little time on Google seeing what was rated best on different lists of restaurants.  We landed on Crave in Mount Pleasant and when I got my drink and saw the classic crescent moon in it, I knew I was at the right place.  The food was really good and the chocolate we found just after dinner was even better.

Tuesday was my fifth day in a row running with the public instead of running on my private running trail.  I am truly Southern and I made a point to say "good morning" to everyone I passed on the bridge.  I'm sometimes baffled by the responses and this causes me to overthink while I'm running.  Other runners and walkers mostly respond in kind with "good morning" or at least a smile.  If you don't, I judge you pretty harshly.  I don't care where you're from or what running protocol is there.  You're in the city of hospitality, you can at least smile at the bald, sweaty guy who says "good morning" to you.  I even had a nice conversation with another runner who had a similar pace.  He was from Maryland and even if he was surprised I was talking to him, he was kind and obliged with runner banter.  

In those five days of running around others, I noticed a lot of female runners and walkers and I do understand if they're not jumping at the chance to make eye contact or say "good morning" to a man they don't know while trying to exercise.  I can't imagine what it's like to be a female runner and to always have to worry about safety.  When they didn't make eye contact or pretended to not hear me because of headphones/earbuds, I just smiled and waved in the hopes that they would relax knowing I wasn't trying to stalk them.  I'm sure it doesn't help or change anything, but if you're a female runner, you should know that some of the guys you see on your run are not bad guys.  Some of them are running near you or doubling back to pass you in the opposite direction because we're making sure you are safe and that the suspicious guy we saw a few minutes ago didn't start following you.  It's cool to still be suspicious.  I don't blame you.  But some of us are trying to help. 

So after another 5 miles over water and saying "good morning" to a bunch of ungrateful party poopers, I showered, we packed up and headed out for breakfast on the Isle of Palms.  Since the sun was out and the temperatures were starting to climb back to normal Charleston temperatures, we couldn't resist one last look at the beach before leaving.  But again, I wouldn't just be driving home.  I still had one more leg to add to this trip.  

I had to go by a shoe store in Summerville to get a new pair of Hokas and if you put me near Summerville, I'm going to go by all my favorite places and try to see all my favorite people.  I texted Jana and Dan while getting my coffee fix at Coastal Coffee.  I dropped by the Fly Vintage place to see my new friend and check out the new arrivals.  Then I went in Public Works and saw so many wonderful people.  I got to talk to Jana and Linda for a while and made some plans for my next visit in a few weeks.  I got to check out the new positive notes in the Vault exhibit and then finally I got in my car to drive home.  The dogs aren't even sure I live here anymore.  

 

the "more light" installation diary part 3

Here we are again for the last couple of diary days.  Thanks again for reading this.  I hope it helps you in some way and if there's anything you want to discuss further, I'm a big fan of coffee, obviously.  You can also comment or email me.  And if you're finding this in the future, you'll want to read these entries chronologically, of course.

On Thursday, I got to run with my beautiful friend again.  In truth, he's just beautiful and not much of a runner.  He can fish, though.  Oh, and he can fly, so he wins.

This is the most accurate depiction of Summerville.  It's so Southern and beautiful.  I have real feelings about this place. No idea whose house this is, just ran by it Thursday morning.

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.  

Highly recommend Biscuit Belly.  

I also recommend doing hard things even when you're afraid.  You'll never know unless you try and Thursday was the day to try new things.

Here's a glimpse of the finished exhibit.

Another glimpse, but really, I can't stress enough how you need to go stand in this space in order to really get the whole feeling the exhibit can provide.  

The newly finished sculpture.  Is it my best work?  No, but it's pretty dang good and the drawing made me like the sculpture even more.  Thanks Katherine.  

Have you seen the world's largest sweet tea?  I have, several times, and I left a free drawing there.  I guess I overlooked that part here, but I left a drawing somewhere in town every day that I was there as a thank you to this really sweet town.  Also, I don't even drink sweet tea.  

The finished Vault interactive exhibit.  A lot of this was other people's work.  I stole the idea from my students from the last 10 years and then Katherine and Linda installed all the stuff.  I did draw a heck of a lot of Post-It notes, though.

Blair found her mushroom and took a photo with me.

I forgot to take any photos all night, but I photobombed Devann and Katherine and then stole the photo from Devann.

I stole this one too, Devann.  Thank you for taking photos.

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.  

A moment of appreciation for Spanish Moss.  I love the Lowcountry so much.

The good barista must have read my aura because this is SO me Friday morning after a reception.

Highly recommend Coastal Coffee and the challah french toast.  Coastal has fueled at least three of my weird mural installations at this point and I look for excuses to go there.

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. 

a summerville summer

Summerville.  What a great name for a town, right?  Summerville is the little town just outside of Charleston, SC that you pass just as traffic is backing heading toward the waterfront.  I’ve stopped there for gas before, but nothing else.  Last week I was lucky to spend several days there for art.

So there’s this guy Kevin.  Kevin and I went to the same college sort of at different times.  I took 5 years off between undergrad and grad school so it’s hard to keep track but he was a familiar face and a very familiar name.  Our paths crossed in recent years because he’s been teacher of the year and won all sorts of other cool titles at his teaching job near the coast.  I recommended a recent grad (and sculpture worker) to him for a job and he and I grabbed a coffee together once when we happened to be in the same town at the same time.  Anyway, he’s the kind of guy you really want to know…very cool, very talented, and very family oriented.  Kevin was a part of a group of “dreamers” who decided to start up an art center in his hometown.  They got funding for a building downtown and worked hard to open it just in time for a pandemic to shut everything down.  It was such a welcome idea though, that it continued to be supported and now it is a thriving part of Summerville.  

Kevin sent me a text this semester and asked if I’d consider doing an exhibit at the place.  It’s called Public Works Art Center and he and the board were interested in me doing something similar to the exhibit I did at Lander in January.  You know, where I put my sculptures and drawings in the gallery and then drew all over the walls with paint marker?  Yeah, I was terrified about doing that crazy idea and I had no idea if it would resonate with people.  Kevin’s text was a nice validation and I jumped at the chance to do the weird exhibit again.  I was excited.  

He connected me with Jana, the executive director of Public Works and together we sort of figured out how this would need to work.  I’d be driving 3 hours to Summerville so I’d need a place to stay during the days it took me to do an original mural on almost every surface in the gallery.  Jana is really great at her job and in hours she had a local bed and breakfast donate the accommodations.  She was also very patient with me as I finished up my semester, taught the week-long sand sculpture class, and went on vacation all right before the installation week.  

I tried my best to work out the installation in my head before the week arrived.  Remember I did this only once before and had the comfort of doing it during winter break with no audience and on my home turf.  If I needed something, I could walk down the hall to my office or to the sculpture studio to grab it.  We advertised this one as a “live installation” which meant the public was invited to come watch me flounder about as I installed.  Jana hooked me up with 24 hour access, a ladder, paint, brushes, and air conditioning.  I ordered my new jumbo paint markers from an online source I’ll leave anonymous along with some smaller tipped markers to try out and I forgot about them.  A week later a box came in the mail and I saw markers inside, but only a few.  I checked the order online and the other markers were backordered.  I still had a few weeks so I didn’t panic.  After a couple of mail-less days, I decided to order a handful of jumbos from a different online source just as a backup.  The 6 backup markers arrived without incident later that week.  

Family vacation ended and I was mentally ready for the installation.  I set my alarm for 5:45am on a Tuesday, got up and ran 3.1 miles, had a great coffee, and merged onto the interstate with a truckload of art.  The FJ was packed with about 16 drawings, 4 sculptures, my mural toolbox, a couple of travel bags, and two pedestals.  I forgot my water bottle.  I arrived at the B&B around 10:45 am to check in and drop a bag and I was at the gallery by 11:00 to unload.  

Laying out an exhibit is not easy, even when it’s your work.  Or maybe, especially when it’s your work.  I know gallery people who have very specific and particular rules and ideas about how an exhibit should be hung or installed.  As an artist, I understand that this comes down mostly to personal taste, regardless of what aesthetic wordsmithing they may use.  Ultimately an exhibit is a work of design and all the elements and principles of design should be considered when arranging a show.  I considered those things, of course, but I also had the freedom of not having to worry about hurting the feelings of the artist.  I could seriously do anything I wanted.  I also had the design cushion of the not-yet-drawn mural which I could use to balance anything out.  So I laid out the show with drawings against the wall and sculptures imagined in spots.  Then I moved a few things and reconsidered.  After a couple more quick edits, I started hammering nails into the walls and the drawings were hung by 2:30 pm.  The sculptures were placed but then I moved them to safety because I knew I’d be dragging a ladder and a loaded paint marker around the space for the next several days.  

frame and title card drawn directly on the gallery wall

One of the fun and ridiculous aspects of these exhibits is that I get to frame the drawings after they’re hung.  This means drawing a goofy frame around each drawing directly on the wall.  I see this as extreme silliness and I love it.  It really sets the tone for the mural to follow.  I took out the first jumbo marker, broke the plastic seal, and gave it a good shake.  This is when the terror really set in.  I was about to freehand paint on a pristine gallery wall and I was completely freaking out.  Knowing this fear would paralyze me, I pressed the marker tip against the cardboard blotter from the toolbox and started the flow of paint to the tip.  Once the paint is on the tip, I need to move quickly so there’s no time to freeze up.  I started with drawing the frames because this needed to happen first in terms of wall space, but also because I was pretty comfortable making up frames.  It got things moving in the right direction and I felt better after something was painted on the walls.  

After doing all the frames I took a food break by walking next door to get a late lunch/early dinner.  A few minutes later I was back in the gallery staring at a rectangular column holding a marker in my hand.  I was about to draw the first thing.  The tall, skinny column made me think of a flamingo and wrapping the flamingo creature around the corner of the column seemed like a nice challenge.  It turned out ok and that helped me to feel more confident.  I added a few things to a nearby wall and around 6:00 I decided to call it quits.  That was a lot for one day and I knew the next couple of days would be just as long.  I drove to a craft store and picked up a couple of smaller tipped paint markers to get those corner spots better and decided to pick up a sandwich and some cookies to take to the B&B.  I was pretty wiped out so I added a few things to my sketchbook and thought about what I wanted to do the next day before sacking out for the night.

the Linwood Inn

the view from my window

I forgot to set an alarm so the next day started at 7:15 am.  As I headed out to run, Linda the innkeeper gave me some running route advice.  The B&B is a historic Victorian mansion built in 1883 and the entire property is a beautifully maintained southern garden with sand pathways.  It was like a southern novel come to life.  After my run, I cooled down by exploring the property.  Linda saw me outside and told me I should go have a dip in the pool.  I was ill prepared with no towel and didn’t want to drip in this amazing home so I skipped the pool but planned to be better prepared the next morning.  I found a local coffee shop on the way to the gallery and had a nice breakfast at Coastal Coffee Roasters with my coffee and then got another coffee to go.  I was pretty amped by the time I got to the gallery.

I honestly don’t remember much about Wednesday.  I know I worked from about 10:00 am until 8:00 pm and didn’t eat during that time.  I had a lot of water and I was in the zone most of the day.  I do remember talking with a lot of visitors during the day.  This was mostly a welcome distraction from thinking about art.  People were so nice and that’s a huge understatement.  When I say nice, I mean they treated me like a celebrity all week.  The artists in the studios joining the gallery as well as total strangers all came in and just marveled at what I was doing.  Some families came in with children and the children all seemed to want to draw on their walls at home.  A recurring theme was the inevitable question of what happens when the exhibit is over.  When they were told the walls would be painted back white again, everyone had the same reaction.  One child told her mom enthusiastically that they would just have to buy everything in the gallery and take it home.  If you’re wondering, I’m completely in favor of that idea.  After everyone had left for the night, I had a slightly unbalanced moment on the ladder and almost fell.  This inspired me to draw a falling/broken skeleton guy on the wall.  I also talked with the artists in the neighboring studios earlier and asked if they had any requests for the spaces near their doors.  That was fun.  I looked up some restaurants and noticed there was a Kickin’ Chicken just down the street so I stopped there for a quick dinner before heading back to my bed.

the end of the second day

I was up at 6:00 am on Thursday and I took a different running route.  There was a partial solar eclipse but I couldn’t see it from my run.  I took that dip in the pool after my run and it was perfect.  I got breakfast at the same coffee place and planned what I needed to accomplish for the day.  I may have even made a list.  I worked from 9:00 am until 9:00 pm with one break.  I went thought 6 jumbo markers and if that number seems familiar it’s because I mentioned earlier that I ended up only having 6 jumbo markers because the unnamed online company never shipped my backordered ones.  Now I was out and I had two more things I had to draw and one more thing I wanted to draw.  I could have lost my temper but that wouldn’t have delivered me a new marker so I did what any self-respecting human would do.  I got ice cream.  I also got some chocolates and took a photo of the world’s largest sweet tea.  Back at the gallery, I went back through the dried up markers trying to squeeze out any more paint they had to give.  This was enough to get the necessary things drawn but I ended up having to scrap the idea of drawing on this one cool surface.  I still had my smaller markers to use for touch-ups.  And I had ice cream.  I skipped lunch again but I was pretty exhausted.  The closest place that was still open for dinner was the chicken place again.  Not what I wanted but it was all I had the energy for before bed.  If we ever have coffee together ask me to tell you about the crazy conversation I overheard from the bar.

my big head and the world's largest sweet tea

Friday started at 6:00 am with my run and another pool dip.  I had another quick breakfast at the coffee place and was in the gallery early.  I had a few things to finish and some small areas to touch up.  By 11:00 I was documenting the space with photos and packing up.  The exhibit was now officially open and I was officially finished.  

It was interesting being on this trip alone.  I’m a hermit at heart so being alone was fine.  The B&B was so quiet I think I tiptoed every step I took.  My brain was very active while I was working and the down time was all silent time.  I guess, that is if you don’t count me talking to myself.  A lot of the time that I spent in the gallery there were other people around.  They weren’t always talking, but I had to be ready for that because I didn’t want to zone out and accidentally ignore someone.  A couple of the artists who came through made comments about how confident my lines were and I had to laugh.  They seemed surprised to hear how terrified I was with each mark.  I guess we all have a way of thinking everyone else knows exactly what they’re doing.  The truth is we’re all scared and just trying to figure things out as we go.  I don’t think “imposter syndrome” is actually a thing.  I think what we call “imposter syndrome” is just life.  If you’re lucky enough to be chasing your dreams there’s no way around feeling like you’re pretending.  The hope is that you’ve never done whatever it is before and that every new mark, every new dish, every new solution is off the map.  That’s what makes life an adventure.  

Sorry, that got a little philosophical.  The point was just to let you know that I have no idea what I’m doing but I’m really glad that I’m so good at making it up as I go that some people think I’m confident.  

I wanted to end this by talking a little about this exhibit and what it means.  All of the drawings except for one were created during 2020 and most of those during quarantine.  The sculptures in this show are a little older but they come from a similar starting point as the drawings.  They all begin with characters who exist in a setting and interact with other characters in a narrative.  Each drawing tells a story (or many stories) and they often deal with the intricacies of being a social human.  Some are about relationships within families, some are about friends, some are about people we wish we didn’t know.  All of them are about how we can try to find positive ways to deal with all those people.  

I approach the making of a mural in much the same way I create an ink drawing.  There are characters who exist in relation to one another.  I begin with one character or entity and once that one is drawn, I begin to create the narrative from there.  I do not plan these out before I go into the gallery.  I do not sketch pencil lines on the wall.  The mural narrative evolves in real time during the installation.  Most of the characters in this mural I’ve never drawn before.  Others have existed in my sketchbook in some variation but took on a new life in Summerville.  And yes, there are hearts, stars, and glitter in this exhibit.  All three break McAbee’s Cardinal Rule of Design, “No hearts, no stars, no glitter!”.  The invisible string that ties the drawings, sculptures, and the mural together is love in all of its variations.  During our temporary separation from society last year, love is the thing that we missed, it is the thing that held us together, and it is the thing that is most needed as we shift back into a normal existence.  Even when it’s dark, we have love.  Dang.  Maybe the title should have been “Especially When It’s Dark”.  Bummer.  

I hope you’ll get to experience this exhibit.  It is quite different from just standing in a gallery looking at individual works of art on a wall.  It is as close to walking inside my head as you’ll get.  The exhibit is on view through July 23 and Public Works Art Center is open 10:00 – 5:00 Monday through Saturday.