I left Boston on Sunday morning around 8am, heading out on a 5-6 hour drive to Philadelphia to do a painting for my friend Tommy. I spoke with my mom the day before, and we decided to have lunch together in Princeton, NJ, which is on my way to Philly. Perfect! My mom gets my favorite sandwich and fries from my favorite college spot - Hoagie Haven, and we both arrive back at her home around the same time. Love good timing!! We hang out and have lunch at my mom's place - talk about my travels and her work. I'm dead tired from the last few days, so I take a nap and then head back on the road for another hour until I get into Philly. Get to my buddy Tommy's house, drop my bags, and head to a little plaza nearby where he is promoting his side-company - a spice company called St Lucifer, which is doing extremely well right now. Hard not to be proud of my friend. We hang out for a bit at the mini-festival and then head back to Tommy's house for some freshly made tuna appetizers. After eating for a bit, Tommy, his roommate Brian, and I head to a BBQ restaurant nearby for some grub. My friend Big AL eventually meets up with us. I've mentioned him before but Big AL (or just AL) is an amazing artist living in Philadelphia. He went to college at USF (University of San Francisco), which is where we met, though he's been back in Philly, where's he's originally from, for about 7 years. He's my craziest friend, and I mean that in the best way. A true artists. A true madman. A lover of life and of living without limits. It's always an inspiration to be around him. Of course Big AL shows up to the BBQ place a big tipsy. Apparently he had been visiting a wealthy friend at her mansion all day in the burbs of Philly, where she bestowed upon him a roll of canvas that is from the 1930's in France. Unbelievable. This canvas is worth an extraordinary amount of money, but more importantly it is AMAZING for painting. It's huge - probably 12x30 or longer. I'm interested to see what Big AL does with it, or maybe I will come back to Philly to work on it with him. We spend the night hanging out at a few bars in Philly and then head back to Tommy's place and call it a night. Big AL stays over and then misses work the next day (classic), and we hang out in the morning. I go to an art store with AL and get a bunch of canvasses which I will use for a painting at Tommy's that night (Monday). I get back - start painting, and then take a beautiful bike ride with Brian through the city. Man I love Philly. It's definitely a blue-collar city, but it's also rich with history and just has a good feel to it for me. If I had to move to another city Philly would probably be the top of my list. It helps that it's so close to my mom as well. Back from the bike ride and I decide to pass out for the night - too tired to keep painting. Wake up Tuesday morning around 6am and am painting by 7:30am. Finished around 12:30pm and could not be happier! The piece is called Dissolve Into Chaos, and it starts out very uniformly and then changes into more chaotic textures and colors. I love it. The idea behind the painting is that sometimes in our lives we have a set plan and a set lifestyle, but then big changes comes and the old reality dissolves into this new world. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad. In this case, it's a great thing :) Oh! On one of the paintings in my piece, I decided to put a bunch of St Lucifer spice on it!! It actually looks really cool, and was the first time I ever did that in a painting. Def not the last time I'll do it! I hope Tommy likes it. I pack up my car and am on the road by 1pm - heading down to Annapolis MD to visit one of my best friends of all time - Bernie Marczyk. I call him Vern though...
No comments:
Post a Comment