The Year of the Tent #12: What can one homeless person accomplish in a year?

Unable to find any job in Kernersville for years, in November of 2015, I decided to focus on turning my weird Sharpie artwork into a small business.  I started literally without a single dime.  I had a place to live, a $60 refurbished laptop running Windows XP, a sketch pad, and a bunch of Sharpie markers.  I sat down for a couple of hours and looked at all kinds of art online.  I had one question in mind, "What could I draw that I would want to put on my wall?"  I ended up doing this simple drawing of Bruce Lee, my first hero.  I've been drawing, honing my skills, progressing, and promoting myself ever since.

One year ago, on June 1st 2017, I decided to come to Winston-Salem, because I couldn't re-invest the money I was making back into my art in my living situation in Kernersville.  I stored my few belongings in a friend's closet.  I moved into a patch of woods in Winston-Salem, since I wasn't able to afford any place to live.  I had about $15 to my name, a few clothes, and my art supplies.  I lived in a tent for 9 1/2 of the past 12 months.  

This post, and the previous 11, show you what I've done in the past year as a homeless artist.  I just recently was offered a place to stay, so I'm not homeless anymore.  I'm making consistent money from my art, though not all that much.  I make about what I'd make as a part time restaurant employee.  But I draw and work on the computer all day.  I've created my own job.  I have a two month backlog of work to do at the moment.  My prices aren't that high, but they're increasing bit by bit.  The money will come.

My goal was to create a small business from my art and writing.  Along the way, I've blown most people's stereotypes of what a homeless person can accomplish, which is a nice added bonus.  Scroll through the pics and enjoy.  Here's my info:

Facebook page: Steve Emig (the only one in Winston-Salem).  I have an FB group about Winston-Salem Art and Creative Scenes that you can join (if you friend me) or checkout at any time.
Pinterest: Steve Emig  stevenemig13
Email: stevenemig13@gmail.com
No phone at the moment.  Really kids, that's actually possible.
You can see my work in person at Earshot Music (3254 Silas Creek Parkway), and maybe at 625 Trade Street.

Media:
Winston-Salem Journal- Artist Profile- November 1, 2017
Fresh From The Vine Radio show- WDRB Radio Charlotte- April 8, 2018- interview at 23:40
WGHP Fox 8 News- Interview by Allison Smith- May 17, 2017

The Year of the Tent #11

 Stevie Ray Vaughn/The Sky is Crying, 18" X 24," Sharpies on paper.  One of my favorites of the favorites I've done in the last year.  This drawing is now in Kentucky with several others of mine.  I got to actually see him play in a bar, on Sixth Street in Austin, Texas in 1987.  I didn't know who he was then.  Freakin' amazing bluesman.

 My tools.  Most of them.  For the last crazy year, I've carried my art studio wherever I go.

 Be weird.  "Most progress in the world comes from the Freaks, Geeks, Dorks, and Weirdos."  This drawing, and the one below, are now on the office wall of Ms. China Krys Darrington.  She works in the trenches helping people recover from opiate addiction and similar issues.  Keep up the great work China.  These two drawings, and several others of mine, now live in Ohio, where I was born and lived as a kid.

More good advice (in my opinion), "Do the impossible, it really pisses off normal people."

The Year of the Tent #7

 Michael Stipe/REM, 18" X 24," Sharpies on paper, sold.  My sister had me do this one for my brother-in-law Nathan.  He response, mostly because I'm a (until recently) homeless loser, was, "eh."  If you're an REM fan and want to tell Nathan you actually like this drawing, send him a POLITE email or message to his business, here.

 My take on the badass Bruce Lee poster that made me a fan of his in about 1971 when I was 5-years-old.  18" X 24", Sharpies on paper, sold, living in SoCal.

 Michael Jackson tribute, 18" X 24," Sharpies on paper.  This drawing went on tour at Delurk Gallery here in Winston-Salem as a part of their recent "Creatures of Fortune" show.  It's now back in the front window of Designs, Vines, and Wines/Studios at 625 on Trade Street.

I did this drawing of poet Mary Oliver, and her really cool poem "Wild Geese" about three weeks ago.  I'd never heard of her, and was glad to find out about her, since she grew up a few miles from where my late Grandma Kate grew up in Ohio.  It took 4 or 5 days to draw, like all my large drawings do.  This drawing ended up sparking a firestorm.  I didn't get paid right away, which turned out to be because of a lost piece of paper, and a big miscommunication.  Several of us have been getting a lot of pressure from the forces at be in the world, and the miscommunication looked like a intentional act from my point of view.  I made a business decision that threatened one of the best relationships I've developed I've made here in the Winston-Salem Art scene.  I'm sorry about all the pain that caused.  I'm also sorry that so many lame people will go out of their way to keep creative people from making a living, because of some 80-year-old stereotype of artists not being responsible people or able to run a business.  Communication people.  It's important.   

For anyone bothering to read this, let me tell you how I operate:

If you ask me to do a drawing, and I know you at all, I usually give you the benefit of the doubt and draw it without a deposit.  When I 'm done with the drawing, I ask one of two things from you.  1) You pay me  immediately, take your drawing, and we're both happy.  2) Tell me you don't like the drawing.  In that case, you keep your money and I keep the drawing.  We're both slightly less than happy, but still civil.  But if you don't pay me promptly, or you EVER fuck me over.  That's it, game over, FOREVER.  Period.  I will be asking for 50% deposits on commissioned drawings from now on, unless we already have a good working relationship.

The Year of the Tent #6

 Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood, 18" X 24," Sharpies on paper.  Gift for my friend Ben who's been storing my stuff for a year now.  I'm gonna drop it off some day Ben, really.

 Jerry Garcia #1, 18" X 24," Sharpies on paper.  Might be sold.  Might be on display on Trade Street not sure.

 Jerry Garcia/The Grateful Dead #2, 18" X 24," Sharpies on paper.  And I've never even done acid.  My brain is this weird normally.  This one is sold and living in Southern California.

James Brown/It's a Man's World (at least it was before the the #metoo movement), 18" X 24," Sharpies on paper.  Sold.

The Year of the Tent #4

 Tupac Shakur, 18" X 24", Sharpies on paper, sold,

 I bought this backpack for $4 at a swap meet in Costa Mesa, California, in 2007.  I'm still carrying it.  It's been with me so long, I call it R2D2.  I'm going to retire it soon.  The best $4 I ever spent.

 Above: "Tainted Love- Harley Quinn/Joker" drawing.  18" X 24", Sharpies on paper.  This one is mine.  Below:  Me in front of Earshot music.

The Year of the Tent Art #1

These are some of the drawings I was doing in early 2017 while living with my mom in Kernersville.  We didn't get along.  We never have.  I couldn't find a "real job."  I started focusing on my art in late 2015 as my best shot of actually making a living again.  But the household I was living in was continually in financial crisis.  Every time I sold a drawing for $50, most of that money was needed for the crisis du jour.  For a year and a half, I was never able to re-invest the tiny bit of money I was making.  So one year ago today, after a really heated argument with my mom, I came to Winston-Salem to strike out on my own with the goal of turning my artwork into a living.  I came here with about $15 in my pocket, a box of Sharpie markers, a big tablet of sketch paper, and my niece's old Dell laptop.  In the next several posts, I'll show you what I've done in this past year.