Amish Tuff Wheel?

 The old school BMXers remember the classic, 5 spoke, plastic-type stuff, Tuff Wheels that Skyway put out.  I found a great big "Amish" Tuff Wheel here in Richmond, this morning.  This is on 15th Street (I think), Shockhoe Bottom area.  Todd Lyons has this gigantic pair of Landing Gear forks in his garage, about the right size.  Who wants to build the rest of a Giganto-Bike up?  Heh, heh.  #RVAallday, #RVA

Winter photos 2018-2019

Graff writer/artist Pose at RVA Street Art Festival in 2012

I still haven't made it out to this spot yet.  But here's Pose, and a couple others on the periphery, putting up pieces in 2012.  The surge in murals here in Richmond seemed to be around 2010-2013, something like that.  I still don't have a real good feel on what's happening in the art scenes here now.  I've been busy doing my own thing, and just surviving.  Cool pieces, though.  #RVAart

Powers to the (BMX) People

This is the kind of thing I imagine when I think BMX comp.  Yeah, I'll watch the X-Games on TV sometimes, and it shows a lot of young kids the competitive side of riding, and gets them interested in BMX, but back lot contests on homemade and sketchy ass obstacles are always more fun. 

When I walked into a Greyhound bus station to leave North Carolina a month ago, having been stiffed on a $120 payment for a drawing that day, I asked the 16-year-old looking clerk, "How close to Chicago can I get for about $60."  It took her 20 minutes of typing to tell me I could get to Richmond, Virginia... if I slept in the bus station and left the next morning.  For some reason, no buses headed northwest, towards Scotty Z.'s house near Chicago, where I had an invitation to chill for a week or so, before heading West to Cali.  So I slept fairly well on a hardwood bus station bench, and made it to Richmond the next afternoon.  I had never been to Richmond, and didn't know a damn thing about it.

I had seen photos of the contest above, you can't forget the eyeball and tongue ramp, but since it was FBM, I thought it was up in Ithaca, NY.  I didn't know a thing about Richmond when I landed here, all I knew is that I spent 10 horrible years trapped in North Carolina, I never could find any "real" job there, and the year of taxi driving I did left me broke.  There was no BMX scene near me, and definitely no old school BMXers or skaters to talk to.  Winston-Salem had a really cool art scene for a mid-sized city, but not big enough for me to make a living drawing my Sharpie art. 

Within a couple days of being landing in Richmond with about $3 in my pocket, I started noticing murals, lots of really cool murals, all over this city.  That's freakin' cool.  Then I started talking to people in the Art District.  Then old BMX friend Steve Crandall randomly sends me a message to meet him at a shop here.  Much to my surprise, Powers Bike Shop, hidden away in the back of an old industrial complex, was the place I'd seen in photos, where the tongue ramp contest happened. But Chad, the owners of Powers Bike Shop wasn't there the day I met up with Crandall. 

We connected on Facebook, and I went by the day before yesterday to meet him at the shop.  Even though I looked, and smelled, like the homeless bum I am at the moment, he was totally cool.  We started talking BMX, and I told him a bunch of stories from random events back in the day.  Then he mentioned that he not only has a huge vintage bike collection, but BMX magazine collection as well.  He dug out the August 1986 issue of FREESTYLIN', which had the zine article, where my zine, San Jose Stylin', was ranked number one in the country at the time.  That issue also had the first freelance article I wrote for FREESTYLIN', covering the Tulsa, Oklahoma AFA Masters contest that spring. 

Much to my surprise, Chad asked me to autograph the page with that article.  So I signed my first autograph while being homeless, not counting the autographs on my arrest paperwork when I got arrested for buying donuts in NC last year. Even funnier, that's the 10th autograph I've signed in the 35 years since I got into BMX.  The other 9 autographs?  I signed them at the Tulsa, Oklahoma contest in 1986.  We all even signed some girl's arm at that contest.  When we asked why those kids wanted our autographs there, the arm girl replied,"You guys are the closest thing we ever see to famous people."  What really funny is that 14-year-old Mathew Hoffman was at that contest, his first AFA Masters, and flew under the radar.  By the  next contest, everyone in the industry knew who the Oklahoma kid throwing no-footed can-can's was, and he got sponsored.  He was not only on the BMX scene radar after that, he probably showed up on air traffic control radar at times.

Anyhow, while it's been rough living since I got here to Richmond (or RVA as locals refer to it), it's also been really cool.  I'm hanging with BMXers a bit again, I've lost ten pounds (homelessness or hospital stay, not sure), and I'm selling art now.  I'm even working on the first BMX drawing I've done in over a year and a half, and can't wait to see how it turns out. 

So thanks to Chad at Powers Bikes here for his hospitality, and for stoking out a Has Been BMX industry guy-turned art bum.  Not sure how long I'll be here, but it's a pretty cool city.  Who knows? 

Meet up with Steve Crandall the other day

 When I landed accidentally in Richmond, VA about a month ago, I didn't know a thing about the city.  I got a message the other day fromSteve Crandall of FBM, that he was going to be at Powers Bike Shop here.  I had no idea Steve spends a good chunk of time around Richmond. 

I met Steve and the early FBM posse on their first trip to California in 1994.  They slept on the couches and floor of the apartment I shared with Chris Moeller and Timmy Ball then.  When you were roommates with Moeller of S&M Bikes back then, the living room was a motel for wandering BMXers from around the world.

It was cool to see Steve, it's been 20 years or so, neither of us could remember exactly.  We're both old BMX guys who do art now, and it was great to catch up a bit. 

In the crazy bike collection at the Powers Shop, they had an old Skyway T/A with red Z-Rims and red check pads, nearly identical to my first "real" BMX bike, that I bought in Boise in 1984.  Steve had Donovan pull it down so he could get a pic of me with it.  Once you're a BMXer, it's always in your blood.  I was jonesin' to ride after hanging out at Powers Bikes and checking out the ramps, for a while.  Steve also hooked me up with an old phone of his, so now I FINALLY have the ability to take my own photos, and share them.  Somehow I've been building an art business without this ability.  He also gave me the hobo hook-up with some food, knowing I'm homeless for the moment.  Thanks for the help Steve, and thanks for letting me annoy Donovan at Powers Bike Shop with a bunch of old school stories.  I'm going to try to get back by this week and meet Chad, the owner of the shop.

Hello Richmond, my name is Steve Emig, and this is what I do...

 I draw pictures with Sharpie markers, in a totally unique way that I call "scribble style."  I drew this one for me, originally for my first show at Earshot Music in Winston-Salem, last November.  I'd been wanting to draw the Harley Quinn from the Suicide Squad movie, because... well, she's hot and crazy, which usually makes for good pictures.  Then I found this fan video to Marilyn Manson's cover of "Tainted Love," and thought it would make for a great theme.  A girl in the Arts District last night really wanted to buy it, but didn't have the cash.  I'd love to keep this one, but since I'm looking for bus fare north, I might have to part with it for $150.  Maybe.  These drawings take 30 to 40 hours to draw, on average.  I've been selling them pretty cheap, considering the amount of work involved, just to keep the cash flowing and build my body of work.  Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24", #sharpiescribblestyle.  
You can see more of my stuff here:
Facebook: Steve Emig (Winston-Salem) or Steve Emig: The White Bear for my fan page.  I'll update the city when I land somewhere permanently.
Pinterest: Steve Emig (Guys, Pinterest is a lot cooler than you think, check out my Bruce Lee board)
Google image search: #sharpiescribblestyle
I'm living without a phone for right now.  Yes kids, that IS actually possible.  But that's why I'm not on Instagram or Twitter.  I'll get there eventually.  Not so sure about Snapchat, though.  If you like the song "Tainted Love," check out these versions of it:  Gloria Jones, Soft Cell, Social Distortion, Imelda May, Marilyn Manson.

 This drawing was ordered as a birthday present for a young woman named Erin in Winston-Salem.  According to her mom, Erin was "over the moon" when she got this very unexpected present for her sweet 16th.  I love it when people are genuinely stoked on my work.  I also became a Lana Del Rey fan in the process.  Summer Wine and Old Money anyone?  Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24", sold.  #sharpiescribblestyle.  Strawberries, Sharpies, and an angel's kiss in Spring, my Lana drawing is made from all these things. 

 I'm old.  Bruce Lee was still alive when I was a little, little kid, and became my first hero.  The cool thing about Bruce Lee is that the more you look into his story, the more amazing he becomes.  This drawing is living on the wall of an old BMX freestyle friend's place in California now.  Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24", sold.  #sharpiescribblestyle

 My sister had me do this one for her husband's birthday.  The entire lyrics of "End of the World" are in the letters "REM, " believe it or not.  Really.  Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24", sold.  #sharpiescribblestyle

 This is the oldest of my drawings in these two blog posts.  Just wanted to show I don't just draw musicians.  I did a Yoda drawing with a bunch of his best sayings for myself in late 2016.  Then I decided I needed to so Princess Leia.  In a weird bit of negative synchronicity, I started this drawing the day before actress Carrie Fisher got sick, and was still drawing it when she died.  R.I.P. Carrie.  If you've never seen Carrie Fisher's one woman show, Wishful Drinking, I highly recommend it.  This one is now living in Chicago, in the house full of my drawings that I'm headed north to visit.  Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24", sold.  #sharpiescribblestyle

This is the last drawing I did for the couple in Kentucky.  The woman's mom is a huge Beatles fan, and this was a present for her.  Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24", sold.  #sharpiescribblestyle

There's some great art here in Richmond, Virginia

Since I had time here in my unplanned "layover" in Richmond, Virginia, I looked for a local art scene here.  After a few years in and around Winston-Salem, NC, I've been used to a mid-sized city with a really small town feel.  Winston had a great art scene for a city of its size, but it just wasn't that big.   That limits the number of local buyers of art, the number of people running the show in the area, and everything else.

Richmond definitely has a much more urban, big city feel, even though the city itself is about the same size.  But it extends out right into the suburban areas.  The Piedmont Triad/Winston-Salem area is three separated cities of around 200,000+ people each, with rural areas between.  So here in Richmond it's a much different thing.  It's more gritty here, the downtown is much bigger, threr are some empty buildings, stores, and the kind of places I loved exploring as a BMX street rider years ago.

There are also A TON of great murals, and some pretty good true graffiti here.  I took a weird bus yesterday, one that kind of circled through the city, in and out of different neighborhoods.  There were murals all over the place.  My goal was first to find a library, which turned out to be small, low budget, and in the hood.  But it was being well used, and full of people reading and on computers, making the most of it.

Then I walked about ten blocks  through an old, partially run down merchant district, still part of the hood, to one part of the Yuppie loft/art district area.  My destination was the huge studio/gallery complex above, Art Works.  Despite my sweaty, sketchy appearance, the woman in the sales office let me set my bags there and I wandered around the place alone.  It's freaking HUGE.  It just went on and on, one hallway full of studios leading to another one.  The artwork had a lot of painting, some photographers, some mixed media and more.  And nearly everything was really high caliber work.  All kinds of styles and mediums, no one's work seemed to copy anyone else's.  If you travel to this area and like checking out art from very talented people you probably haven't heard of, definitely put Richmond, VA and Art Works on the agenda.  The work of two photographers really grabbed my attention, Doug Turner, and Robert Papas.  I love photos of outdoors and animals and places where you look at the photo and think, "I want to go there." Or maybe it's just me jonesing to see the wide open spaces of the West again.

I definitely want to come back here and really dig into the creative scenes at some point.  There's another, better known Art District right downtown on Broad Street, which I got a quick glance at on the "Pulse" bus riding through downtown.  There are small clubs, vintage shops, and all kinds of creative nooks and crannies to explore here.

I showed the woman in the office my Sharpie art, pulling it out of my trusty trash bag covered sketch pad.  She seemed pleasantly surprised, which is always good to see.  I know I look like hell, and people don't expect much when I ask to show my stuff.  I didn't manage to sell anything here (yet), to finance my trip onward, but for two city bus fares I saw some great stuff, in the gallery and on walls around the city.