Richmond's Shockhoe Bottom in photos #2

 Continuing on with my wandering photo hike through the "urban jungle" part of the Shockhoe Bottom area in downtown Richmond, Virginia.  It was about dawn when I started snapping pics, and I walked around shooting photos for about an hour.  It's a really cool area with all the overhead roads and train tracks.  It has a sort of dystopian movie set feel, while having this crazy cool mix of shapes and light and shadow.  I started all this near 14th Street by the James River.  #RVA all day.

Richmond's Shockhoe Bottom in photos #1

 Last weekend, heading to a bus stop one morning, I wandered through the Shockhoe Bottom area of Richmond, the urban jungle area where there are all these raised highway and railroads elevated up high.  Walking by, I saw these pink blossoms above, totally backlit by the dawn sun. It seemed like a cool photo, so a snapped a few. Since I wasn't in a hurry, I wandered around a while, shooting photo of the weird urban landscape, which is this brutal mixture of concrete, metal, shadows, light areas, and lines and angles.  Then there were some spring blossoms as a total juxtaposition in places.  So here are the better pic from that outing.

Winter photos 2018-2019

Rock climbing wall and a river resident

 I saw three great blue herons on my walk along the river.  This guy was kind enough to let me take a close photo.

 I actually went down the riverside trail looking for a bunch of street art I know is there somewhere.  I went the wrong way for that, but found another really cool thing I'd heard about, this old bridge support wall turned climbing wall.  It's hard to believe now, but I got into bouldering (low altitude rock climbing without ropes) in '92, and maybe I'll get back to it someday.  This is some good motivation to keep losing weight.

 Sport climber nearing the top.

Another wide shot, with a climber hanging, trying to figure out the next moves.

RVA Street Art Festival 2013

Murals, murals everywhere.  That started to dawn on me after I landed here in Richmond in August. As I wandered around on buses, I just kept seeing murals, and that's the thing that first made me think I might want ot stay here a while.  Here's a cool time lapse video of the 2013 RVA Street Art Festival. 

For those of you outside this area, basically everyone who checks out my blog, "RVA" is the official, or at least publicly accepted unofficial abbreviation for Richmond, VA.  It's on big signs and stickers and car window stickers everywhere.

My first First Friday Art Walk in Richmond: 10/5/2018

So... you'd think there would be a few videos of the First Friday Art Walk from Friday on YouTube.  But most of the videos are from 5 to 8 years ago.  WTF?  If you want to promote your art scene people, throw some vids on YouTube, not just Instagram.  And I couldn't make the few photos I took make the cyber jump from the new (old) phone to my laptop.  I have that problem sometimes.  So here's a video about the Richmond mural projects. 

Anyhow, I DID make it to First Friday two days ago.  I posted up on an empty storefront on Broad, next to a gallery that had people making little, crafty lantern things.  They had a crowd, and that slowed people down a bit for me to yell, "This stuff was made with Sharpies!"  I put my just-done Sumatran tiger drawing, my old Gwen Stefani drawing, and four smaller ones up, just masking taped up on the window of the empty store. 

My last First Friday scene was in Winston-Salem, NC, where the art scene is packed into three blocks, and people meander slowly around the blocked off street.  The Arts District here in Richmond is so big that people walk by at a "I'm late for a meeting at the office" pace.  Seriously, I needed some speed bumps.  Many didn't even glance at my stuff.  No prob, it ain't for everyone.  The people who did slow down and give it a good head turn, I'd say, "this was all made with Sharpies."  That stopped quite a few, they thought my stuff was just some more paintings as they strolled by.  Once they heard it was done with Sharpies, they looked close at the pics.

I wound up talking a bit to maybe 40 people, and had some serious conversations with about 6 or 7.  It was really cool, I met a handful of local, young artists, sold three small prints for $5 each, got three new Instagram peeps, and met a couple people who may want me to do a large drawing soon.  For being a complete unknown posting up on an empty storefront, that's a win.  I talked to a guy named Jay, an artist/rapper, another young rapper nakmed Chieftane, and "vandalismart" (Insta-tag, forgot his real name already).  I also met a young woman who was such a diehard Johnny Cash fan, that her dog is named Cash.  I gave her one of my Cash prints.  Just had to. 

The art scene here in RVA (that's Richmond's rapper name, like RUN-RVA or The Nortorious RVA), is freaking huge.  There are a ton of young artists of all kinds, many from  VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) which is one Pulse bus stop away from the Arts District.  Some are from other colleges, some high school up and comers, and then there are a ton of older artsy people as well.  Rather than one tightly packed scene like back in Winston-Salem, it's a huge mishmash of interconnecting scenes here.  It will take a while to really get to know what's going on, because there's so much.

So I met a few people, talked to a bunch, and got the ball rolling in this new city's art world.  Looking forward to seeing where things go next. 

Tornadoes in Richmond today

This happened in the last couple of hours, about 9 miles from where I am.  There's one person confirmed dead, in this building you see getting destroyed.  I'm in the main Library in downtown Richmond. 

We were asked to go down into the basement a couple hours ago because of a tornado warning.  I've done that many times as a kid in Ohio, and sheltered in place (no basement) ready to go into the apartment bathroom in North Carolina.  One tornado touched down about 10-15 miles from us in Ohio once, and one about 20 miles away in North Carolina once.  I didn't expect much.  The library staff put the local news up on a big screen downstairs. 

Last I heard, 8 confirmed tornadoes in the Richmond area today, at least a dozen more radar indicated, possible tornadoes.  Three confirmed tornado touchdowns in Richmond area.  One known fatality.  One car on its roof.  At least three or four cases of serious roof/structure damage.  Crazy day.  Even crazier seeing as I'm homeless and sleeping outside tonight.  Homelessness, it's not just pathetic, it's an adventure. 

Oh, and the local news station, CBS News 6, got struck by lightning while I was watching a little while ago.  Crazy.  These storms are the remnants of Hurricane Florence.  Guess Richmond didn't totally escape he wrath.

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

Hangin' in the Richmond VA Arts District

It continues to amaze me how a city, like Winston-Salem, where I was living, or Richmond, Virginia, where I',m hanging at the moment, can have a really cool arts scene, but not have any good videos of it.  If you've got something cool, people, let the world know.  Blog, Instagram pics, You Tube videos, whatever.  Get the word out about your scene.  This video shows a bunch of the street art, and a few murals here.

I just found this video which shows some of the street art and murals here in Richmond, Virginia.  I kind of got stuck here last week, as I bailed from the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina, and headed towards Chicago.  I spent this last week earning some money by drawing this picture of Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin.

 I finished the drawing yesterday, and shipped it out.  I realized that I needed to sell one or two more of the finished drawings I have, as well, to pay for my bus ticket to the Chicago area. 

I planned to hit up some local record shops, to see if anyone was interested in buying a drawing.  But it took me longer than expected to find a post office, and I changed my plans.  I learned the other day that there's an arts district in downtown Richmond, centered around Broad Street.  So I took the (relatively) new Pulse bus down Broad, and parked my ass on a marble block next to the big statue of Maggie Lennard.  She was a pioneering black business woman, newspaper publisher, and all around bad ass lady of an earlier generation here. 

I wanted to hang for a while, check out the local arts scene, and see what the vibe was here, and see if anyone wanted one of my drawings.  So I held up the big Bob Dylan drawing in front of me, and waited for some response.  There actually weren't that many people walking around.  I expected it to be more crowded.  But eventually, people started walking by, and some commented on my drawing.  Most would say, "nice painting" from a distance.  When I told them it was done with Sharpie markers, they would walk right up to it to check it out.  I had some great conversations with a bunch of people, and a couple of people really wished they had some money to buy one of my drawings.  They gave me ideas on what to do to sell the pics locally today.  I gave people flyers to check out my other work.  So it was a good night all around.

I'm going to make the rounds today here in Richmond, and see if I can sell a drawing or two, and buy that bus ticket to Chicago and continue on my way.  But I really dig the mural and arts scene here, and I want to visit Richmond again when I have a little more money to get a decent place to stay, and time to wander around and check the city out more.