Todd McFarlane and the creating of Spawn

Many years ago, Todd McFarlane was an artist who led a defection away from one of the big comic companies.  He thought the artists should get a bigger chunk of the profits of the characters they drew day after day.  So did the artists who followed him, and they started Image comics.  Todd's first story was one he'd thought up when he was 16, it was called Spawn.  The new comic took off, and Spawn now ranks as the 15th highest selling comic book series ever, with over 150 million issues sold.  This interview is probably the best I've ever seen of a creative person taking the DIY route, and starting their own business.  Watch this video if you have any interest in making a living at art, writing, or other creative works.  

 

Why I started selling my artwork... without a dime to my name

Lana Del Rey drawing I did as a commission earlier this year.  It was bought by a mom, as a gift for her daughter's 16th birthday.  Young Erin, who received it, was "over the moon," upon receiving her gift.  I felt the same way when I got the photo of Erin, with a huge smile, holding this drawing.  That's a big part of why I draw these pieces.  I want you to see the people you admire in a new way. 

I grew up in a world where art was a hobby and everyone was told to go get a "real" job.  And that's what I did.  I had a whole bunch of real jobs, some cool, many of which kinda sucked.  From my early 20's on, after unexpected success in the BMX bike industry, I was still struggling with personal issues.  You know, all those wonderful (ahem) mental blocks, negative feedback loops, and emotional baggage that come with growing up in a family that's more dysfunctional than most, less dysfunctional than some.  In other words, I stumbled into a couple of dream jobs, and was still miserable.  I had shit to work out.

So rather than focus on going to college a few years later than most, my aim was to work through my shyness and other issues.  I didn't really give a damn about a traditional career path.  I worked a whole series of odd jobs through the 1990's, from a crew guy on the hit TV show American Gladiators, to bummed out telemarketing guy, and many in between.  It's a long story, but this, and an injury, led to taxi driving in 1999, and through much of the 2000's.

What I didn't plan on was new technology destroying the taxi industry, even before Uber and Lyft came along.  The switch from CB radio dispatching to computer dispatching changed the whole game, and forced us all to work 7 days a week.  That led to living in my taxi for about four years, working 14 to 18 hours most days, gaining over 150 pounds, and three bouts of leg infections that nearly killed me.  The declining business and my poor health led to the point where I could no longer make the $600 a week to pay for my taxi, and the $300 a week to pay for gas.  I walked into the taxi office the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2007, dropped off the keys, and walked out onto the streets of Orange County California with about $15 in my pocket.  My health was so bad, I assumed I would die within a few weeks.  Obviously, I didn't.

After a year on the streets, panhandling to survive, and unable to find any way to earn  living again, I called my parents.  They'd offered to fly me to North Carolina, where they, and my sister and brother-in-law, had wound up living.  We're from Ohio originally.  I never wanted to go to NC.  But I just couldn't get things going again in SoCal, so I accepted their offer.  I flew into Raleigh, and they drove me to Kernersville, in the Piedmont Triad area, near Greensboro, in Central NC.  That was mid-November 2008.  You know, back when the entire world economy was collapsing.  There were no jobs to be had.  In fact, except for another year of taxi driving, I never did find ANY "real" job in NC.  My dad died in 2012, I moved back in with my mom, who I'd never gotten along with.  By the time November 2015 rolled around, I knew I had to do something to start creating my own job.

We were living off my mom's Social Security, which is actually a decent amount.  But handling money is not my mom's strong suit, to put it mildly.  She got her check, I drove her on a couple of all day shopping expeditions, and then we were in financial crisis mode for the next 27 days.  Same thing, month after month.  The only thing I did that made me any money was my weird Sharpie artwork.  I drew pictures of kids' names in their favorite colors for $20-$25.  So I decided to focus on that, and work to turn it into a business.

My first step was to take stock of what I had to start with.  I had a small bedroom in a quiet apartment.  It was a completely toxic environment, but it was free.  "Free" meaning I chauffeured my mom around to stores, and an endless list of doctor's appointments.  I paid a huge emotional price getting berated all day, every day.  But I didn't pay money for rent.  So that was good.  Kind of.

I had a bunch of Sharpies, a cheap, 12" X 18" art pad, and a card table in my room to work on.  I didn't have a cell phone, much less a smart phone.  To communicate with the outside world, where I would have to sell my most of my artwork, I had a refurbished (like $60) HP laptop, still running Microsft XP in late 2015.  Perhaps most important, I'd built a small, but fairly hardcore following online, blogging about my days in the BMX freestyle industry when it was just getting going in the 1980's.  I got depressed and deleted my three best blogs shortly after my dad died, but I'd re-started one of them.  So I had a small, but legit, audience online.  Most had become Facebook friends as well.

What I didn't have was money.  I LITERALLY did not have a dime.  In my mom's apartment, if I had any money she knew of, a "crisis" would arise that needed all that money.  If I made $20 for a drawing, and spent $4 on some Ben and Jerry's ice cream to celebrate, a crisis would erupt that needed $16.  If I had $1.43 to my name, my mom would have a crisis, usually involving chocolate, that needed $1.43.  So I started without a dime.

My first step was to sit down one night and ask myself what I thought was a simple, but smart question.
 "What could I draw that I'd actually want to put on my own wall?"
I sat down at my mom's computer, which was faster than mine, and looked at all kinds of art.  When I was homeless in 2007-08, I discovered Banksy and became a big fan of Street Art.  Graffiti, from the collage-like look of layers of tagged walls, to huge, colorful bombing pieces, was another huge influence throughout my life.  I also like M.C. Escher as a kid, and the wildlife painter Bev Doolittle (Google her "Doubled Back," I loved that as a kid), and Russian Surrealist Vladimir Kush, who i met at a show.  I  looked at the western art of Frederick Remington, and the "masters" we're all supposed to like.  But I kept coming back to stenciled street art, like Banksy, Shephard Fairey, and others worldwide.  

I found a simple stencil of martial artist and actor Bruce Lee.  He was my first hero as a kid, and a guy that got more and more interesting the more I learned about him.  So I printed it out.  I borrowed a couple of bucks from my mom, and blew it up on a copy machine, and transferred the simple image onto my art paper.  I colored it in with my Sharpie "scribble style" that I'd developed years earlier while actually living in an indie art gallery in California.  I put words in the background, quotes from Bruce Lee.  It came out cool, I actually did tape it up on my wall, and I knew I was on the right track. 

So while I grew up in a world where everyone told me that art was "OK as a hobby," but that I needed to get a "real job," that had changed by 2015.  I still couldn't find ANY "real job."  So I took to art to begin to earn a living when regular work just couldn't be found.  My world had reversed itself.

In the next art post, I'll talk about HOW I started selling drawings with no money and just an old laptop to reach the rest of the world.   

How I built an art business with no money while living in the woods

Yesterday I realized that tomorrow will be the one year anniversary of my first art show, at Earshot Music in Winston-Salem, NC.  Here's my artist profile from the Winston-Salem Journal that accompanied the show.  This is the Kurt Cobain drawing that was in the Earshot show, and Phred used as an online flyer.  It sold an hour after going up on the wall, the day before the show, for $120.  Since that sale, it's been ON.

See more of my work:  #sharpiescribblestyle on Google Images or IG.  @steveemig43 on Instagram or Pinterest.  I have a fan page on Facebook: Steve Emig The White Bear, or just Steve Emig (in Richmond) on Facebook.

I just figured out that in the last year, I drew, and sold, 38 large, 18" X 24", original drawings, 28 of those I sold for $100 or more, a couple sold for $250.  I drew 9 smaller drawings that I sold, with prices ranging from $25 to $40.  I don't really show art much, I SELL artwork.  My situation is far from optimal right now, but considering I started literally without a dime, and I lived in the woods in a tent for over nine months while making and selling art, and also during three months of recent homelessness here in Richmond, selling that much art is one hell of an accomplishment.  Keep in mind that my large drawings take a full week or more to draw, 35 to 45 working hours each.

It's a long story, but an injury in California in 1998 led to taxi driving in 1999 and on into the early and mid 2000's.  Technology that I didn't expect, in the form of computer dispatching, completely ruined the taxi industry, and I wound up working 80-100 hours a week just to survive, while living in my taxi.  I got fat, I got sick, I got burned out, and eventually I simply couldn't make enough to pay the $600 a week taxi lease and then put $300 in gas in my cab each week.  I dropped off my keys on Sunday at the taxi office, and walked out onto the streets or Orange County, California in November of 2007, in such bad health that I was expecting to die within a few weeks.  I wound up surviving, and living a year on the streets, panhandling to survive, and unable to create any real stream of income.

I took my family up on the offer to fly me to the Greensboro area of North Carolina, where they had wound up living (We're originally from Ohio).  In the move, I lost all my BMX magazines, raw video footage, video masters that I had produced, and copies of all the hundreds of poems I'd written.  North Carolina turned into ten years of living Hell.  I couldn't get hired for any job, except taxi driver, which I did for a year.  I quit after my dad had a stroke in 2012, and it was apparent he would die soon.  The day of his death, I moved in with my mom.  We never got along before, and it didn't get any better as time went on.

 Dr. Maya Angelou drawing, which sold for $250.

By mid 2015, I had applied for over 140 jobs in the Kernersville and Winston-Salem areas of NC, over a couple of years time, and only heard from one.  That was a Wendy's restaurant, which turned me down on sight.  Too old? Too fat? Too many bad teeth?  They never say. 

The only thing that made me any money was my weird Sharpie scribble drawings.  So I sat down one night at the computer, spent two hours looking at artwork online, and asked myself one question.  "What could I draw, in my style, that I would want to put on my own wall?"  My answer was a stencil painting of Bruce Lee, my first hero as a kid.  I printed it out, drew it in my Sharpie scribble style, and taped it on my wall.  I knew then that drawing people was the direction I needed to head.  I drew a few more drawings, Deniro from the Taxi Driver, a BMX guy doing a lookback, a couple of skater drawings.  Then I got online, showed my stuff on Facebook and my blogs, and started looking for people I could sell drawings to.

Because my mom lives in continual financial crisis, I started, quite literally, without a dime to my name.  I had a place to live, free but verbally abusive and drama-filled, I had a box of Sharpies, a small sketch pad, and a refurbished HP laptop still running Windows XP in 2015.  That was it.  But I started showing my drawings around locally and online, and started selling drawings, large 18" X 24" ones, for $50.  Those early drawings took me 18 to 22 hours each to do.  I did a Go Fund Me campaign in early 2016, which basically turned into an order system, and I made $1,000 over a four month period from drawing.  I've been drawing nearly every day since.

 Selfie in front of Earshot Music above.  Yeah, I'm old, fat, and ugly, but I draw cool shit. Below: My drawings on the main wall in Earshot Music at the show.

After getting bit by new technology in the taxi industry, and getting seriously into blogging after I landed in NC, I knew this old dog needed to learn new tricks to make a living again.  So I started self-educating on YouTube, with free ebooks, and online articles.  I learned how blogging works, what it's good for, and why few people actually make money from the blogs themselves.  I also learned that blogs are good for building a following, which I inadvertently did at first, and then worked at it, with my old school BMX story blogs.  Basically, I did memoir blogs about my days in BMX freestyle when it was just becoming a sport and industry.  My BMX blog following is where most of my early drawing orders came from.  That was a key factor.

As time went by, I found the handful of people who understood how the internet and social media were changing the business world.  Seth Godin taught me a ton through his talks and books.  Mitch Joel's books added to that.  Then I heard Mitch mention some guy named Gary Vaynerchuk in an interview, and I consume a ton of his content these days.  I also produce a ton of content, text and photos, because I didn't have a camera or phone to make video content. 

I gave away my stories of BMX days, I wrote about other topics I'm into, like macroeconomics and futurist thinking.  I became a "content producer," giving stuff away fro free and building a reputation and good will online.  Then I started showing my drawings to my Facebook friends, and orders started to trickle in, and then come steadily after a while. 

By late spring 2017, my mom and I were arguing more than ever.  When I drew a picture, sold it, and got paid, I usually spent a few buck on some sweet food and a couple art supplies.  Then my mom  immediately created a crisis of some sort that "needed" every dime left from what I just made.  This is a lifelong habit of hers that grew exponentially after my dad's retirement.  I was never able to re-invest my money into actually building a little business.  So I left June first, 2017, and moved into a patch of woods in Winston-Salem, which I knew had a good art scene.  I didn't know a single person in that art scene, though.

I went to the woods with about $15 in my pocket, some clothes in a backpack, my niece's hand-me-down Dell laptop, and my art supplies.  I stored the rest of my stuff in a friend's closet.  I didn't go to the woods to "suck the marrow out of life" like Throeau.  I went because my artwork was the only way I'd made any money in North Carolina, and I bet everything on my ability to turn it into a viable living eventually.  There was no Plan B.  Either I died, or I succeeded at some point.  I'm still working on that, it's not an actual living income yet.  But I'm well on my way.

I built a lean-to and slept in the rain and or chill for three nights, then I met a guy who gave me a big, but kind of old, tent.  I set up the tent in the woods, and slept there at night, through rain and crazy Carolina thunderstorms.  I even found a baby snake in my tent once.  I spent my days scraping up money by pushing shopping carts for quarters at Aldi's grocery store, and drawing either at McDonald's or a library.  I heard about Earshot Music from some hippies at McDonald's, and Phred and Jane, the owner and the art director, liked my work, and put a couple drawings on the wall right away.  Soon Jane asked if I could do 8 pieces for a full on show.  I spent September and October drawing those pieces, all music related.  I also got arrested for "trespassing" in Aldi's during that time.  A cop working security told me to leave the property one day, and I did.  But I was hungry, so I walked back in and bought a pack of 12 donuts.  I got arrested for that, and spent three days in jail.  To make my jail experience more interesting, they put a federal inmate, headed back to the pen on a parole violation, in my cell.  He'd been in a holding cell all day, and was not a happy camper.  That was interesting.

 This is me holding the drawing of legendary BMX pro (and my old roommate) Brian Foster.  I did this one for Chad at Powers Bike Shop here in Richmond, shortly after landing here by accident.  Or was it fate?

I stayed with my mom for a month after getting out of jail, the arguing started up again, and I moved back to the woods in the winter.  My art show at Earshot Music gave me an opportunity. I used the show to jump start sales, and started selling drawings for $120 on a regular basis.  I've been drawing and selling my large drawings, which have become more detailed, and now take 35 to 45 hours each, ever since.  I struggled to survive, getting more and more determined along the way.  My arrest charges were not dropped, which seemed odd.  I did part of my community service, while drawing all day long to make food money.  I couldn't pay the fine.

I also went to the First Friday Art Hop on Trade Street in Winston in November of 2017, met a few people, and made inroads there.  Rachel at Designs, Vines, and Wines really liked my stuff, and put some up in her studio and really helped promote me.  I didn't sell a lot there, but I became known in the Trade Street art scene of Winston-Salem.  My Michael Jackson drawing was in a juried show at Delurk Gallery thanks to Rachel, and she got my Maya Angelou drawing on stage at a gala for Dr. Angelou's 90th birthday celebration.  Maya Angelou lived in Winston-Salem for the last decades of her life, and I met her niece and archivist at the birthday gala.

Tupac Shakur drawing.

Through all of this, I was writing this blog, which bounces from old stories from my BMX days, to economics and futurist thinking, to art and random ideas.  I've been blogging since 2007, and I've had about 30 different blogs, four of which drew good followings.  But I thought it was time to bring all my ideas into a single blog.  So I started this blog in late June, 2017, about three weeks after moving into the woods.  I've written thousands of blog posts.  I'm pretty good at it, and people actually read my blog.  I'm creeping up on 55,000 page views as I write this right now.  My top three earlier blogs had over 220,000 total page views in their time. 

But in the Spring of 2017, my blog came to the attention of some of the good ol' boys who run Winston.  And they didn't like it.  My views on economics, and talk of a recession I saw coming, didn't jibe with their Conservative Republican views on Trump's economy, apparently.  In addition, my blog got a lot of the organic internet traffic when people searched "Winston-Salem," and they didn't like having a homeless guy "representing our city," as I actually heard them say a couple of nights while standing near my tent.  Somehow it was my fault that their internet and social media game sucked.

By late May 2017, I was doing a drawing a week that I was being paid for, making $500 or so a month.  The good ol' boys were pissed about me blogging, and my new court date came up.  Since I hadn't completed my "first offense program," I got my sentence for my very first EVER (I'm 52) criminal offenses, 2nd degree Trespassing and Resisting Arrest (I turned away when the officer grabbed me from behind).  I got a $632 in fines and fees due in 30 days, 50 more hours of community service in 60 days, AND 30 days in jail, suspended sentence, if I didn't complete those.  I don't know about you, but that seems like a bit much for a minor first offense by a 52 year old guy.  Like I said, they REALLY did not like me blogging.

Things really came to a head on the night of May 14th, 2017.  I walked out to my tent, 50 yards into the woods far behind a park.  I laid down and got into my sleeping covers.  I soon heard guys walking towards my tent.  For the next hour, while laying in my tent, several men stamped around my tent, at least 8 to 10 guys, some saying they had baseball bats and wanted to beat the fuck out of me if I didn't stop blogging about the economy and stuff.  I told them I was going to keep blogging, it was (and still is) my First Amendment right to free speech, and it's a subject I've studied my whole adult life.  When they said they were going to kick in the tent and "teach me a lesson," I said, "Do it."  And I just lay there waiting.  They didn't know what to do.  Apparently they'd never seen anyone stand their ground (OK, I was laying down) to a Carolina lynch mob before.  A storm was rolling in, and eventually they left without physically attacking me, just before the rain began.

My first drawing of The Notorious B.I.G., one of my favorites of all of those I've done.

I tried to sell as much art as I could to pay my fine, which I got a 30 day extension on.  Once I knew I could manage the fine, I planned to knock out the community service.  During that same time, everything at Rachel's studio, most of my art, just stopped selling.  It appeared someone had put pressure on her to not let me pay my fine by selling art.  I still sold some elsewhere, but it was just paying for food, bus fare, and necessities.  As the clock ticked down, and I didn't have the money to pay the fine, I realized that there was no reason to stay in such a toxic environment.  Why make art in a place that actually hated artists, and especially writers.  I spent most of my adult life in Southern California.  I knew that most of the country does not operate by North Carolina good ol' boy rules.  So I left.

I planned to take a bus to Chicago to stay with a Facebook friend and old school BMXer for a bit.  They day before I left, I finished a commission drawing for $120, and told the buyer I needed to get paid quick because I was leaving the area.  I never heard from him, he just ghosted on me.  So I went to Greyhound anyway, with about $70 to my name.  I asked how close to Chicago that would get me.  After 20 minutes of typing, the girl said I could get to Richmond Virginia, a city I'd never been to before, and knew nothing about.  I rolled into the Richmond Greyhound station in early August, planning to get paid for that drawing, get a bus ticket, and move on to Chicago.  I never heard from that guy who ordered the drawing, so I just started living on the streets of Richmond, and working to make a name for my self as an artist here.  I had about $3 to my name when I got here.  I left about $1900 worth of art in Winston-Salem (gallery prices), that I know I'll never see a dime from.

I started seeing all the murals around town.  "Dang, there's a lot of art here," I thought.  Then I learned there's a huge art scene here, or rather, a collection of many scenes.  Then I connected with an old friend from the BMX world, Steve Crandall, who I didn't realize lived here, and started meeting others.  I'm planning on staying here in Richmond, and re-establish myself, then I'll figure out what to do at that point.  This is a cool city, the more I get to know it.

It's been a really tough year since that first art show at Earshot Music.  I'm in a new city, one I'd never been to before showing up at the Greyhound station.  I've sold some artwork.  My goal is to start selling enough, and buy and sell other stuff (legal stuff, like flipping thrift store or garage sale finds), to rent a "cheap" motel room, and stabilize my life.  Once I get to that point, and have a little breathing room, I can start thinking about longer term plans.

This is Erin, who her mom said was ""over the moon" after getting this Lana Del Rey drawing I did for her 16th birthday.  Erin's mom is Winston-Salem journalist Lisa O'Donnell, who did this artist profile on me for that show art Earshot Music.  Big thanks Lisa for all your help!

I just started an original art & zines buy/sell/trade/ group on Facebook for Richmond area artists to sell their work.  It's a beginning.  But the simple fact is, through all that crazy drama and day to day survival crap, I built a small business actually selling art.  OK, it's not an official business earning me a decent living yet, but it's a sprout of a business.  I didn't have a dime to start.  I lived in the woods in a tent for over 9 months, through the coldest winter in recent memory in Winston-Salem.  Now I'm on the streets here for another three months, working to get my name and work known in a bigger metro region, and get my stuff selling consistently again.  Imagine what I could do if I could actually raise some money and make prints of my work, rather than working all week to sell a single original drawing.

I'm looking forward to the next year, and what I can accomplish now that I'm in a place with a huge art community and thriving BMX bike scene, which is my background. 

To all the artists reading this:  You can sell art.  But you have to work at it.  You can build a business out of it.  It's not easy, you'll have to learn new skills, and work hard and work consistently.  Find your niche, plug away at it, use the internet, social media, my new FB group, and whatever else you can to make it happen.  If I could sell nearly 50 original pieces through all this drama, what can you do?  Let's do some cool stuff in late 2018 and 2019.  Sound like a plan?

My Facebook group is called Richmond Original Art & Zines buy/sell/trade group.  Join up.

This is my Sumatran tiger drawing I did a month ago, to show at my first First Friday Art Walk in Richmond.  This big kitty is still for sale.  ($150- stevenemig13@gmail.com if interested) 

I'd like to give a huge thanks to my friends Rick and Ben in NC, Phred at Earshot, Jane Buck, Reece Johnson, L.B. the Poet, Scotty Zabielski, Steve Crandall, Chad Powers, Sam Weber, Barspinner Ryan Brennan, and everyone who's helped me out here in Richmond.

The escape from homlessness... California Dreamin'?

In early 2008, singer/songwriter extraordinaire, Kerry Getz, managed to get three members of the legendary Wrecking Crew and some friends to perform in the Anaheim, Marriott lobby.  Why?  It was during the huge NAMM music trade show.  I was siting on a couch next to Jerry Cole's wife and her friend, watching this performance live, fifteen feet away.  That was an epic experience.  A decade later, I've been doing some California dreamin'.

About ten months ago, I came here to this city in Central North Carolina to focus on turning my artwork and writing into a small business.  It's been sketchy as hell, months in a tent, a colder winter than usual here, but I'm now making a little bit of money consistently.  It's time to start looking ahead to trying to get out of the tent and into a room of some sort.  In my situation, the next step is usually a "cheap" motel where I can rent a room by the month.  In reality, "cheap" motels are anything but cheap.  No deposits, no credit check, that part's good.  But the cheapest one here is $740 a month.  The cheapest with wifi is $800 a month.  I MIGHT be able to rent a room in a house for $450 to $600 a month.  But thee are very few of those.

Just on a lark, I pulled up Craigslist for Orange County, California.  There are a lot of rooms for $500 to $700 a month.  Not in the hood, either, I know that area, they're in decent locations.  I literally could put a roof over my head in Orange County, California for the same amount of money that I could here in the Triad area of NC.  Except, there is 1,000 times more opportunity to make money out there.

On the bus back to the area where I "live," it dawned on me that I don't have a fucking single reason to stay in North Carolina at this point.  OK, I have one good friend I hang out with.  My family is here, but I rarely see them.  There's a cool art scene here, but that's it.

I'm trapped here until mid June, when I have a court date from my trespassing arrest.  I could wind up with some other kind of punishment for my actions.  I'm not sure how things work here.  But after that, there's literally not a fucking reason to stay here.  Hmmmmmmm...

Decisions, decisions.  I'll think it over as I spend another night in a tent during another Carolina thunderstorm. 

Update:  I managed to get a room that night and miss that particular thunderstorm.  Still not sure about the future, though...

Check out my art in person or create a project of your own while here in Winston-Salem at Designs, Vines, and Wines.

Art business: stage two

This rocket is what my little business feels like right now.  Like all rockets, it takes a tremendous amount of thrust (effort) to get things off the ground.  Once you get moving, there comes a point where you have some momentum, but you need to ignite the second stage, like this rocket does at 1:00, 1:19, and 1:40.  That's where I'm at.

All last year, after coming to Winston-Salem with art supplies, about $15, and no place to live, I've been focused on selling my original drawings on a continual basis, and turning my art and writing into a business that will support me.  Like I've said many times before, I'm creating my own job.  At this point, I've done that.  It just doesn't pay very well yet.

After a rough winter, I got to the point where my original Sharpie "scribble style" drawings are selling for a halfway decent amount, and I have orders heading into the next few weeks.  I'm making about $450 to $600 a month at the moment.  But I'm still homeless, living in a tent in the woods.  While I like camping, this is not the way I want to live for much longer.  And I'm pretty sure the neighbors and local authorities aren't too happy with it either.

So, like this pretty amazing rocket in the video clip does at about 3:20, I need to kick off the booster stage and light stage 2.  I've got some momentum, I'm moving in a good direction, but I need to make about $600 to $800 more a month to support myself. For me, that means drawing things I can make copies, art prints, or posters of, and opening an online store to sell my stuff, as well as continuing to sell original drawings.

I got paid for my latest drawing yesterday, a picture of Bob Dylan (sorry, didn't get a photo of it), and I'm working on the last in a series for the couple who ordered that one.  I have about 4 more original drawings lined up, mostly large ones, so that's a month of work.  I'm also doing blogging and soon social media for Rachel at Designs, Vines, and Wines, in a trade for some wall space in her studio/gallery.  So I need to spend a bit less time each day on the original drawings, and more time on creating items for, and actually building my online store.  And, I have to get myself turned into an actual business, gets the books up to date, and handle all the legal responsibilities.

I'd like to shout out all the people who have bought drawings from me over the last couple of years as I got this idea going from a piece of crap old laptop, no money at all, and a bunch of Sharpie markers.  A huge shout out goes to Alma Jo Barrera, Scotty Zabielski, My sister Cheri Durham, and Catherine and Ian Holbrook, who've all bought multiple drawings from me.  Also, huge thanks go to Phred and Jane from Earshot Music in Winston-Salem, and Rachel at Designs, Vines, and Wines for putting my work up walls to get seen, hyping my drawings, and actually helping me sell a bunch of them.  Thanks to all of you!

Hopefully, like the the rocket in the video above, the second stage of this thing of mine will light up and launch fairly smoothly.  And that, FINALLY, will get me a decent place to live and work, soon.  Onward!

4/12/ 2018: Balancing entrepreneurship with homelessness

I know being a "homeless entrepreneur" seems like an oxymoron.  On one hand, my original drawings of rock stars are gaining in popularity, and keeping me busy.  But they're not popular enough for me to charge a ton of money for them.  I'm making $4 to $5 an hour for the drawing work I do.  That doesn't count the hours spent on blogging and social media promotion, or the hours spent learning new technology.   But that's the game, and I keep at it.

When you're starting a business, which is what I'm doing, though very slowly, you do a lot of work that you don't get paid for.  That's just the nature of things.  If you do a good job, get a solid business up and running, then there comes a time later on where you get paid for a lot of work you're not doing.  I know that, which helps me plug along day after day.

At the same time, I still can't afford a place to live.  I have a little bit of money coming in on a steady basis, FINALLY, which is something I really struggled with the whole decade I've lived in North Carolina.  This just isn't a highly entrepreneurial culture, like Southern California is.  So people around me just don't get what I'm doing.  Most people here don't know a single person who has started and built a good sized business.  I know many.  I know dozens of people who have started successful smaller businesses.  I've worked at some of those businesses in my younger years.  I understand the basic process.  I've seen it happen.  But most people here haven't, so they just don't have a frame of reference for what I'm doing.  They just look at me, see that I'm sketchy looking and drawing pictures all day, and say (or at least think), "Go get a job."  If I could have done that here, I would have done that years ago.  But I couldn't get hired for anything.  So I created my own job.  In the coming years, millions of Americans will have to do the same thing. 

At the same time, I still wander into the woods and sleep in a broken down tent every night.  The temperature has warmed some, which helps in the mornings.  Waking up in a tent in the woods isn't bad.  People go camping for fun all the time.  But waking up in a tent when it's 40 degrees and raining, that sucks.  We've been doing Spring on the installment plan this year here in Central North Carolina.  It would warm up to the high 50's or 60's for a day or two, then drop back down into the 40's and 30's for a few days.

The biggest thing I've learned about building a business from my friends' companies is this:  Get up every day, make a list of what needs to be done, and do it.  Day after day, just put your nose to the grindstone and do the work.  So that's what I'm doing. 

I've been working on turning my drawings into a business for about 2 1/2 years now, and I started, literally, without a dime.  So I've been plugging away for a long time, and now it's just finally getting to the point where other people are starting to believe that what I'm doing may actually work.  Another 6 or 8 months and I should have a legitimate business, a halfway decent place to live, and be on my way to a reasonable level of financial success.  But for now... back to work.

Wintry mix sucks: 3/12/2018

I saw a dusting of snow and had sleet falling when I headed out this morning.  Halfway to the place I eat breakfast, a few big, beautiful snowflakes started coming down.  It was snowing heavy by the time I got there. It's about 35 degrees, deep slush all over the place, and I was walking around a bunch today.  I had to go to the library to print a photo, then walk to a place to make some photo copies.  I don't have boots, so I was doing my best to keep my feet halfway dry.  It didn't work.  But I did.  I got started on the next drawing I have to do today.  I work seven days a week, I'm working on building my art and writing in a business, after all.  It doesn't matter what the weather does, I need to keep going, and get as much done as I can.