Slept in the back of the truck after the show at A.K.A. Gallery, so waking up and going was pretty easy. Hard wood truck floor + cold = get up and head to Springfield. The drives on this first leg are proving rather long . . . and expensive. How much diesel does a truck really need? The gas station in Joplin is playing Tupac — awww California.
5/16 : Carthage, MO – Precious Moments Chapel. Ladies my grandmother’s age very sneakily creep up behind you to tell you how adorable they think everything is. Damn those orthopedic shoes are quiet!! We did find the creep-tastic version of Jamie Johnson, painting a bunny, haha to the irony. The strange truth is that this audience’s interest in Precious Moments schwag mimics our interest in our gallery and our expected audience. The difference being, we’re not in the middle of MO, on some huge plot of land – we’ll at the moment we are, but we’re MOBILE.
Onward to Springfield = flat, flat, flat. How would we find an art scene if we didn’t already have a contact or have phones with Google maps and search capabilities? Not a clue!!
Nick Tarr. Lemon Drop Gallery. Spacetones, Sincerely Yours with Nick Fury. Unsung Hero. Francois Lariviere.
Spacetones – when a white dude in short shorts, with a big red beard, starts dropping rhymes, and shocks you, you listen. Then you look at the person next to you and mouth, “WTF?” Francois’s multimedia approach dominates all corners of the show with paintings and sculptures throughout the room. I met his mom and she is justifiably proud of him, which is great to see. Unsung Hero showed some awesome work too – really digging his painting style – on canvas and rattle can. Check our facebook for more images, please.
We went through the night and talked to a lot of randomly awesome, new friends who dug our concept and came out to support our midwestern friends. If this is Springfield, what else do we have in store? Ooooweeeee, cannot friggin’ wait.
5/17: ‘Twas a good ol’ party in Springfield. Still worried about gas money though. The Fuel Fiend, now named Eileen because of her proclivity to bear the weight of the added gallery floor, needs a fix. She’s the Keith Richards of diesel-fueled, mobile-art galleries. Also, one of the most difficult things to do is to stay organized. It feels like we are losing a few things with bags all over the place and moving all over the place. What are you going to do? We’re 2 guys, on the road.
