Drawings getting shown and crazy taxi stories coming...

As many of you know, I just spent five years in a really toxic living situation.  I did that because I thought I might be able to get a small business going and get back to making a decent living again.  After three blitzes of job hunting, I couldn't find a job, even a lame one.  I just never heard back from businesses.  Too old?  Too fat?  Too crazy because I had been a taxi driver?  I don't know.

So about a year and a half ago, starting literally without a dime, I stepped up my artwork, and began to sell drawings.  I didn't sell them for huge amounts, but I did start selling them.  The bad part was that the place I was living in was in continual financial crisis, because I didn't handle the money.  So every time I made $50 or so, a "crisis" would be created that sucked up the money.  I was never able to get traction, reinvest money in my art, and get things going.  So at this point, my artwork is still a "hobby" and not a real business.

To leave that situation, I had to become homeless.  I've been there before, so that didn't worry me as much as it would most people.  Homelessness is by no means easy or fun, and on any given day I could be attacked and/or killed by cops, thugs, a black bear, stray dogs, or get bitten by a poisonous snake.  A homeless man here in Winston-Salem wound up in intensive care after a beating by young thugs a few months ago.  It can happen.  I've only run across one snake, and it was a little, tiny one.  Unfortunately it was in my tent.  But I was able to catch it in a little box and relocate it.  And the black bear spotted a few miles away didn't seem to come my way. 

What I wondered was if I could actually make the jump from homeless guy to working artist/writer while in Winston-Salem.  People here aren't used to those kinds of success stories.  In L.A., it happens all the time, it's actually a cliche' in the entertainment industry.  I once went from sleeping under a bridge to staying for free in a $2 million house in two weeks.  But there's a much bigger prejudice against homeless people here in North Carolina.  A lot of people honestly think that homeless people are being "punished by God," and therefore deserve to stay homeless.  I've run into that attitude over and over and over.

But not everyone thinks that.  In the sketchy 7 weeks I've been on the streets, I've been blogging and drawing non-stop.  And it's paying off.  Tomorrow I will drop off two of my drawings to be included in a local art show (details on where and when soon).  For a mid-sized Southern city, Winston-Salem has a really good art scene.  I'm working on becoming part of that scene.  I'm stoked that in 7 weeks of homelessness I've been able to do something that eluded me for five years while I had a roof over my head.

But I'm still homeless.  Many people look at it as a life sentence.  But homelessness, like pregnancy, doesn't last forever.  If I only sell seven of my original drawings (now $150 each), that's enough to rent a cheap motel room, start eating healthier, and be able to work many more hours a day.  But at this point, it would be hard to get that many orders because few people know who I am here, and my online friends who wanted drawings already have them. 

So I'm going to start writing and publishing my crazy stories from my years as a taxi driver.  Every time I share some of these stories with people, they tell me to publish them.  So I'm finally going to do that.  I'm starting with the sex-related taxi stories.  A couple of Facebook friends suggested that when I asked what subject to start with.  I'm going to do a good-sized zine, and add some goodies into the package, and sell them.  Each zine will be signed and numbered, and it will be a limited edition.  If you're interested in some funny and crazy reading, let me know on FB.  Details should be out tomorrow.

This IS NOT porn.  You can buy the 50 Shades trilogy and urban fiction at Wal-Mart, even here in NC.  None of my stories will be that graphic.  But they are weird, crazy, and often funny stories.  Hopefully with this zine and some drawing work, I'll be able to make the jump from living homeless to renting a cheap room and eating real food again.  We'll see.