our boogie shoes (a song reference for people my age)

Violet and I were invited down to the Edisto Blackwater Boogie again this year.  Her Fall Break aligned perfectly and there was no Cross Country meet on Saturday morning, so the timing was perfect.  I'm assuming you're interested if you're still reading.  Here are some photos and stories from that trip:

We were able to get up and leave Friday morning after my run and after enough breakfast to hold us until we could get to our favorite spot.  We drove straight into downtown Charleston and parked for free long enough to get our empanadas and Cuban coffees from CafeCito.  

We had to stop by Far Side vintage shop and while I love this Keith Haring Pop Shop shirt, I hope to never pay $100 for a tshirt.  (I used to say I'd never pay $30 for a tshirt, but look at concert tee prices now and you know I have a couple of concert shirts.)

This is my 3rd year doing live drawing at the EBB.  Remember that first year when we rolled up and saw that my tent was right beside the main stage and that literally EVERYONE could watch me draw?  Well, now I know what to expect so I was less freaked out.  We brought some swag to sell and got everything set up before the music started.  I regretted my procrastination on coming up with ideas while I sat in a chair and hoped the art gods would smile on me.  

We enjoyed the music all afternoon and the temperatures were so nice.  I brought a hoodie but forgot to pack long pants so I was afraid I'd get cold.  The fear kept me warm, apparently.  We were thrilled when Kennedy came to hang out.  We love Kennedy.  

I zone out when I'm in a drawing and I know the music is pumping in my ears, but I don't really hear it.  The music is great, but you wouldn't know it looking at my camera roll.  I was finished with the first drawing when Admiral Radio came out and I got to really hear them.  I even took a photo.  Violet and I met them a year or so ago and they are so nice.  I remember a lot of the music from year to year.  Last year there was an R&B band that I heard over all the noise in my head and thought it was great.  This year they were back and I made sure to note the name, Summer Royalty.  Dude sounds like Stevie Wonder.  It's great.  I talked to him after his set and he's also nice.  That's one of the many cool things about this music festival.  You have to be nice.  Dan knows all the great musicians, but he only invites the ones who are nice.  I love that.  

I was finished drawing by 7:30 and we had time to hang out and get some food.  Oh, we should talk about the food.  Last year there was an amazing doughnut truck.  We were devastated that they were not back this year.  But....the Fed Up food truck was back.  They've been a favorite every year.  I had the Hawaiian pig bowl and it was so delicious.  Violet gets to title the drawings.  After we ate and chilled a while, we headed out for the night.

The boogie puts me up at a hotel in Summerville.  This year we had an entire college football team in the hotel too.  They were nice and well-behaved.  I rode the elevator with one of the coaches on my way to run on Saturday morning.  I wished them luck.  I do love my running trail in Summerville.

We love to support the vendors but who can resist a gas station honey bun?  Every time I'm in Summerville and it's morning, I have to go to Coastal Coffee for coffee and breakfast.  We saw Danielle and this beautiful young lady took our order.  I got my bagel to go and we stopped for water and snacks before arriving at the state park again.  I stopped drawing long enough to refuel with the honey bun.  Fun fact, turns out the young lady at the coffee shop had a brush with fame during quarantine and her mom is a famous HGTV person.  Violet and I discussed how some people just have a spark that you can see.  Interesting.  

So, Dan puts this event on.  Jana, his wife, is amazing too, and takes the weekend to help out.  Their kids Oscar and Forest are always around, and this year Forest was driving an official golf cart around, ferrying people from place to place.  She stopped long enough to put on the duck costume and dance in front of the stage a while.  Then she carried a bucket around taking donations for WNC hurricane relief and raised over $1,000 in just a few minutes.  I love them all.

This is what's happening behind me while I draw.  People are hanging out, listening to music and having a good time.  They get up and walk around the tents and many of them say nice things to me as I work.  

This is the view from where they are.  My tent is just to the left of the main stage.  The sky was blue, the temperatures were perfect and the moon was full.  Violet and I had time to do a few laps after I finished the last drawing.

We also got to walk down to the river.  

It was beautiful.

We hung out a while again and enjoyed the music.  My legs were sore from holding myself in odd positions to draw lines and I was very tired from not sleeping much the night before.  We said our goodbyes and packed up.  Soon we were at Page's Okra Grill in Summerville for our treats.  We were tired and we smelled like campfires, but we feasted and had a fun waiter at the counter.  Oh, more food, Violet loves Crumbl cookies.  She said she deserved another treat for slinging merch and making me some money.  I gave in and we got a couple of those giant cookies before heading back to the hotel.  I'm just not a fan.  It's a weird tasting cookie.  Judge me if you will.  

The next morning Violet needed to run with me, so we got up and ran all along Sigma Drive which is apparently funny because some kids say "what the sigma" all the time.  I don't understand it, but I know the importance of a photo.  

More food again....have you heard of Cane's?  I think it's technically "Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers" or something.  Everyone in the family love it except me.  The closest one to us is usually Summerville so anytime we're near, they scream for it.  This is what Violet wanted for breakfast so we drove there before heading home with some to-go chicken for G.  If you're concerned about my contrary ideas about some foods, I would be all about Cane's if they had BBQ sauce.  If you don't serve BBQ sauce, don't look at me.  We can't be friends.  

There's no photo but there was a big, delicious nap for me when I got home.  

music and art trip (edisto blackwater boogie II)

Last year my friend Dan invited me to draw during a music festival in Ridgeville, SC.  It sounded fun and I love Dan, so I happily agreed to try something new.  It was a great experience so when I was invited back this year, I didn't even think before saying yes.  Then, like all far away calendar events, I forgot about it and moved on with life.  When October rolled around again, I stocked up on markers and made plans to be near Ridgeville for the festival weekend.  

Last year, I freaked out a bit when I saw I was drawing in front of everyone beside the stage.  This year I saw the map ahead of time and was able to prepare myself.  I loaded up my drawing box and hit the interstate.

I drove straight into Charleston because it was a beautiful sunny day and I love Charleston.  When I walked by St. Matthews, the door was open so I decided to walk in.  The interior is so beautiful and I haven't been inside in several years.  If I ever move to Charleston, I look forward to converting so I can go here.

My next religious experience was just up King Street at Cafecito.  This little Cuban place is a must-stop every time I'm nearby.  I grabbed a lunch sandwich and this perfect coffee called a Colada.  It's meant to share with 4 people, but I've never shared one.  

Caffeinated, fed and sugared up, I was ready to get set up for the festival.  I drove to Givhan's Ferry State Park and got everything ready.  The music was set to start in the late afternoon on Friday and I wanted to be ready to begin because I knew it would get dark earlier than I would prefer.

 

The location of my tent was perfect and I stayed out of the afternoon sun.  The ambient light was enough to finish that first drawing.  The big perk of doing this festival is having good music playing all around me while I work.  

After I finished the first drawing, I was able to relax a little and notice what was going on around me.  I got to see this lady do some fire dancing before I clocked out and headed to the hotel.

There was a nice little running path near the hotel and I was able to get breakfast and coffees at my favorite little Summerville coffee shop, Coastal Coffee Roasters.  The coffee was great and I got to see art by my friends Kevin and Andrew.

Saturday was going to be a full day so I wasted no time.  I arrived early and decided to get started with my first drawing just as the first set started.  One of my personal favorites of the weekend was Meredith Foster.  There were a lot of sound issues early on, but she powered through a great version of "Oh Carolina" by Needtobreathe and I was hooked.

This year I was smart enough to do a little bit of brainstorming before arriving.  The first drawing took about 4 hours and that's not a sustainable plan for the weekend.  Starting early on Saturday helped, but I also worked fast and got the second drawing finished by noon.  The third drawing also went pretty fast and it was ready for some finishing touches around 2:00.  This was about the time Violet arrived.

One major difference from last year was that I was alone for the first half of the trip.  Violet loves the festival and she was with me last year as my merch-slinger and assistant, but this year the festival fell on the same weekend as the State Cross Country Meet in Columbia.  Violet qualified to run State so she planned to join me after her race was over.  G drove her down and she was able to enjoy the music with me for the rest of the day.  

One of my favorite parts of the festival is the inclusion of the Edisto Natchez-Kusso tribe.  As the original inhabitants of this area, Dan makes sure they get a spot in the lineup to share some of their culture with us.

These two kids dressed in their traditional outfits and demonstrated a couple of dances before inviting everyone to participate in a group dance.  It was very cool. 

The people-watching at any festival is fun and this one always provides fun moments.  I thought this one was odd until Violet told me the name of the band performing had the word "crow" in it.  Still a cool mask.  There was also a kid wearing a wolf mask for reasons we couldn't guess.  

Last year we tried several foods from vendors but this year the best thing we had was the doughnuts.  These were french toast glaze doughnuts from the Donut Daddy truck.  We absolutely devoured them.  They were so good.

The other favorite part is always Dan.  Dan created the Edisto Blackwater Boogie as a way to provide an opportunity for regional bands to play original music.  It has grown steadily into what it is now and Dan is the reason.  His wife, Jana, is equally amazing and thoughtful and she secretly ordered t-shirts that read "Let's Give It Up For Dan Riley".  She distributed those just before his band went on and we all gathered in front of the stage.  We put on the shirts and then cheered loudly when they came out.  Dan was moved by it and, oh man, does he deserve a show of affection like that.  He then played the best set ever with a full band.  He's awesome.

Awesome people have awesome kids by default.  Jana and Dan's children, Forest and Oscar danced and played while Dan's band performed and it was so great to watch.  Oh, and Forest decided to wear a duck costume!  So cool.

I finished the last drawing just before Dan's band went on.  I was well ahead of schedule because there was still daylight left.  This gave me time to put finishing touches on all the drawings and give them all titles.  The four large drawings were then auctioned off to raise money for making the state park more wheelchair friendly.  

After dark, Violet and I were both pretty exhausted.  She ran a super-fast race that morning and I had created 4 large drawings in a short span of time.  We loaded up our gear and headed out to get some food and rest.  We were probably both asleep well before our usual bedtimes.  

The next morning we headed back into Charleston to meet a friend for breakfast.  We grabbed our coffee on the way and were delighted to find googley eyes on our cups.  

Kennedy was our breakfast friend.  We had a good breakfast and catch-up time at Big Bad Breakfast and then took our photo with Bill Murray.

Violet was adamant about having Cafecito before going home.  I was more than happy to help with that.  We walked down King Street and went in a few shops.  We also happened by Marion Square and noticed some colorfully dressed people walking there.  We knew something was going on and decided to investigate.  Turns out it was a festival called India Fest.  We watched a guy lead a group meditation and then saw some cool dances.  

Then we saw the henna tattoos and jumped at the chance to get some.  Violet got a more traditional one.

And I went for the skull and crossbones.

We got our Cafecito and enjoyed our time in Charleston.  I had a moment when I realized there were so many cool things going on around me at once and decided to take this photo.  I was standing in the Holocaust Memorial in Marion Square with a Christian steeple in view.  Church bells were ringing and Indian men were drumming beside me.  Everyone was happily existing in the same space together, fully present. 

"We remember the holocaust to alert ourselves to the dangers of prejudice, to express our outrage at the scourge of racism, and to warn the world that racism can lead to genocide."

 

the boogie man

 

So I have this cool friend Dan.  Dan had the idea of creating a music festival for musicians that would be all about doing good and giving back.  He found a state park in his area that needed more accessibility, musicians who wanted to play the songs they wrote instead of just a bunch of overplayed covers, and he found some local businesses that he wanted to support.  He jumped through the hoops of asking permission, applying for grants, and organizing a team of people and he made this dream a real thing.  This is year three of Dan's festival and this year he wanted to find a way to include some visual art so he invited me to think about how I could participate.  We discussed some ideas and eventually settled on me doing some live drawing on site during the festival weekend.

I put this on my calendar and and shelved it on one of those back shelves in my brain.  You know how you have the idea about how something will work or what something will look like in your head?  Is that just me?  I had an image of the festival layout where the bands were way up there with lights and attention and the vendors were back in the back just kinda hanging out.  I saw myself back there with the vendors, not taking any attention away from the music.  I saw myself cruising in with some vague ideas, drawing some fun stuff while listening to music and then driving home.  The fun thing about these mental pictures is that they're always wrong.

Violet loves Dan and his music...and music in general...and she didn't have a Cross Country meet that weekend.  She volunteered to sacrifice a day of school to be my assistant for the weekend.  So on Friday morning after my run, we hopped in the truck and drove towards the coast.

Since the festival was just a little bit inland of Charleston and I needed to deliver a drawing to Charleston, we did the two birds, one stone thing and drove to Charleston first.  After dropping off the drawing, we parked on King Street and enjoyed the beautiful morning and that gorgeous Charleston light. 

Then we found a cool little Cuban place called Cafecito for lunch.  Dude, this place was great.  Great coffee and great food.  Highly recommend.

After a quick drive along the waterfront in Charleston, we headed to Summerville and got checked in to this beautiful place.  South Porch Artists Residency is a cool, historic home that offers gorgeous accommodations and studio space for artists throughout the year (southporchartists.org).  We dropped our bags and headed out to Givhans Ferry State Park to get set up at the festival.

This is where things got interesting.  After checking in at the guard gate, we drove into the park and Violet opened the map to figure out where we were going.  She's calling out the things we're driving past and she finds my name on the map with a location.  She says, it looks like we're going to be between the main stage and the side stage.  I figured this was a general location she was indicating until she held the map up and showed me.  Fear started rising.

Then I saw this.  My name was printed in the map.

And then I saw this...

So, there on the right is the main stage.  And on the left is the side stage.  Right there in the middle?  That's my spot.  Fear was immediately replaced by anxiety.  What did I just get myself into?  Violet was laughing.  I was repeating, "oh no, oh no, oh no".  The week leading up to the festival was one of critiques and grading and introducing new projects.  I wanted to put together some ideas for what I might draw but I just never got to sit down and do that.  Now I was sitting in my truck while Violet laughed, wishing I was more prepared.  

Soon Violet shifted into cheerleader mode and started hyping me up.  She told me I could do this with no problem and that it would be fine.  This is the stuff I say to my students when I'm not sure they can do this and I know that it may not actually be fine.  (Please don't tell my students that.)

The whole place is buzzing.  We carry our stuff over to the tent and I'm immediately tackle-hugged by Jana, Dan's wife.  Once I recovered from that, everything in the tent looked great.  I tried desperately to NOT think about how all these people were going to be forced to watch me draw and I had no idea what I was going to be drawing.  I tied my new banner up while Violet alternated between giggling at me and encouraging me.

After the banner was up and everything was situated I needed to do that thing that creative people do.  Procrastinate.  This is difficult to explain to non-creatives but if you are a creative person you'll get it.  I had a lot to do and a quick deadline.  It would have been smart to get started on the task at hand right away.  Knowing that, I still would have done literally anything other than getting started on the task at hand.  Violet and I walked around, we looked at vendor tents, we got some food, we ate, we chatted, I panicked a little more and then she started telling me I needed to get to work.  The music started.  I watched a cool duo sing about 20 feet beside us.  I thought about drawing but I didn't draw.  5:00 pm came.  Then 5:15. 

With great hesitancy, I got up, shook my first paint marker, and fearfully put the marker to the surface. Once I made the first mark, I was fine.  The panic left.  Most of the fear subsided and soon I was in my own world.

The sun went behind the trees without much notice from me.  I was in my groove now.  Still, there were many directions I could go with these drawings and I was making decisions on the fly.  This is a terrifying feeling when you're creating and that terror is amplified when there's a few hundred people watching.  I brought some new color markers to try out and I decided to go for it.

Just a little while longer and it was too dark for my old eyes to see what I was doing.  The plan was to finish 2 drawings each day.  Drawing one was not finished at the end of Friday.  Clearly I had a terrible plan.  I mean, starting after 5:00 wasn't very good planning and at that point my plan was very unrealistic.  This is what the first drawing looked like at the end of Friday.  Violet and I had a little clubhouse set up behind the large easels and I joined her back there to rest a little before we drove back to town.  We had been up since 6:00 am going strong and when we arrived at South Porch Artists Residency around 9:00 pm, we were already talking about going to bed.  I had no cell service at the festival and so I flopped on my bed and checked messages, emails and opened Instagram and Violet said she was out.  Our two rooms adjoined and I saw her light go out and heard her put her phone down.  I decided to follow her example and we were both asleep by 10:00 pm.

We're in the thick of Cross Country season so we were up early the next morning to go for our run.  Violet joined me and we took a nice, cool run through Summerville.  I was reminded of all the fun I had there a couple of summers ago doing a week-long installation and then doing a weekend mural painting.  It's a beautiful little town.  Violet had joined me for an overnight trip there during my exhibit and I took her to this amazing coffee shop called Coastal Coffee.  They have a really good breakfast menu but their coffee is as good as my coffee.  Almost no one makes coffee as good as my coffee.  After our run we showered and packed up before stopping by Coastal Coffee for fuel.  

We drove to the festival with a lot more confidence and two very positive attitudes.  One of us also had a bit of a coffee high because he insisted on having a second coffee to go.  It's that good.  This is my mural box.  I love it.  It makes me happy and it really sets the mood for creating.  Once the box was open, I was rolling.

The music had started, alternating between the two stages on either side of us.  By the time I finished the first drawing, it was after noon and the place was really starting to fill up.  There were already more bodies on the lawn and it was only going to get more crowded through the day.  This is what it looked like over my shoulder during the morning.  

Soon it was time to put the first mark on the second panel.  I could feel people watching as I moved to the blank piece of wood and stood before it with my marker.  I felt all their weight as I drew that first line.  But I did it and I felt confident.  I tried not to look at people or even notice when they walked up to watch more closely.  I smiled, I tried to speak if I was spoken to, but most of the day I was in the zone.  The music from the main stage was loud enough to shake my chest but I really didn't notice it.  I couldn't tell you who played until Dan took the stage around 4:00 pm.  

I forget when I took this photo.  Maybe when we stopped to get Violet dinner?  The Fed Up truck was her favorite vendor aside from the Pourly Grounded Coffee dude.  After the good breakfast, I didn't really think to eat the rest of the day.  I picked up a big cup of boiled peanuts but quickly realized I couldn't eat them without getting the brine all over my hands and that wouldn't be good for the drawings.  

Oh this was very cool.  The Edisto Natchez-Kusso tribe is indigenous to the Edisto blackwater area of South Carolina.  This land was their land before the westerners took it.  Dan invited the tribe to perform several dances with drummers during the afternoon.  It was so cool to see the handmade outfits and to watch the various dances.  At the end of their time, they led everyone in a group dance of unity and it was a great moment.

And then it was time to see Dan play.  

This was something Violet and I were looking forward to.  Dan is a really great singer and songwriter and we got to see him sing and play with his kids at a thing a couple of summers ago, but we had never seen him do his own stuff.  He released an EP of original songs the day the festival began but he was too overwhelmed with things to even remember.  I tried to keep drawing because I had to, but I stopped every now and then to just watch.  So good.

Then it was back to work for me.  When they print the number of drawings you're going to make on the official signs, you kinda have to make all four don't you?  I actually just now noticed the number was printed on the signs.  That would have been even more pressure if I had noticed earlier!  The whole idea of me being at the festival was to make drawings that I would donate to be auctioned off for charity.  By early afternoon, festival goers were coming by to write their bids on a clipboard at our table.  We had some shirts, buttons and stickers out for sale and Violet was doing her best to sell the merch.  I felt so much better when I saw people were actually bidding on the art.  I had that secret doubt voice telling me how embarrassing it would be to make these drawings and no one want them.

Drawing number 3 went very fast and with drawing number 4 I really didn't know what I was doing when I started.  It was important to get that first mark down so I did and then I had to just make up a narrative and a composition on the fly.  It was great!  People who were bidding started asking questions and I got one lady to tell me what she thought was happening in the drawing.  I drew steadily as the sun slipped behind the trees again.  The place was packed.  People were everywhere.  I put the finishing touches on the final drawing and I walked around the easels to where Violet was and announced I was probably finished.  

One of Violet's jobs was to title the work. One less thing for me to have to think about.  She did a really good job.  Here's the result of our work:

"When It Rains"

drawing 1

"Pelican's Playground"

drawing 2

"Storm of Magic"

drawing 3

"Love Takes Flight"

drawing 4

The sun was setting and it was getting dark.  My legs were tired and a little sore from standing in awkward positions for the last day and a half.  We were both over-stimulated and as Violet started talking about what we could eat for dinner, I started to realize that I was hungry.  

We walked around a little to speak to a few people and we sat in our clubhouse and just rested.  We kept talking about food and soon we were packing up and heading to the truck.  We hugged Dan and thanked him for making this beautiful thing and we drove back to Summerville with no music playing.

We thought of a place to eat and when we drove by it was packed out.  Then we remembered Poogan's Kitchen a short drive away.  They were preparing to close but we got in and got our food before they closed.  We both got chicken and waffles and it was delicious.  We were full and happy.  We were also tired.  I think we were a little later than 10:00 pm getting to sleep but we were still in bed early.

The next morning Violet stayed in bed while I ran through town alone.  I didn't get to visit the inside of Public Works Art Center, but I did say hello to the exterior.  It was cool out and the sun was rising over the town.  It was a nice little run.

This was a travel day for us but we were in no hurry so we had a nice breakfast at Vicious Biscuit and then stopped by a few stores before heading out of town.  We were hoping for some Crumbl cookies but we found out they were closed on Sunday.  We needed cookies so we quickly made a new plan.

We decided to stop off in Columbia on the way back and hit up Insomnia Cookies instead.  Not as good but still a cookie.  

Ok, I got a little distracted from the story by food and running, but the point is, we did it.  We said yes to a potentially scary opportunity.  We put ourselves out there.  We were terrified of all the things that could happen but we did it anyway.  We did it afraid.  And when we did all that, it worked.  We didn't fall on our faces (even when standing precariously on a folding plastic chair to reach the tops of the drawings) and we didn't fail.  We met some new people, made some new contacts and we helped a really good cause.  We also had a lot of fun.