Sweet sweet lemonade - just had the best night in years.

So I'd mentioned before that I had some art pieces that got seleced by a jury to be in an art gallery showing this month at the Greater Flint Arts Council. Tonight was the opening night and it was epic.

I actually had a great day all day working in the garage with my youngest, Gage, who is almost 5. At 3 we picked up the other 3 from school and I took them to the batting cages where they had a great time. I know the guy who owns the place, and it was slow, so he then let them play on all of their inflatables for about 30 minutes for free and they all had a BLAST, which every parent loves to see.

After that, our plan was for the 6 of us to grab a bite to eat before heading downtown, and before it even happened, we turned into a party of 12. Dinner was great, then we hit the gallery where I was surprised by even MORE friends and family that came to check out my work. I honestly thought I'd be fairly indifferent to the whole thing, but I couldn't help but it. The atmosphere was incredible, there was a band playing that was pretty dang good, the artwork on display was absolutely legit, and it was just the coolest feeling ever to watch people strolling and glancing, then actually stop to inspect my artwork, stand there in silence, then just go " .......W..... WOW!"

My other piece that was selected wasn't my favorite. It was called a blind contour drawing, which means that you draw an object without looking at the paper. You trace your eyes along an edge, and tell your hand to follow, and hope for the best. I wasn't that jazzed up about the jury selecting that piece of mine, but I guess I should have been. We checked out the entire gallery and there was only ONE blind contour drawing in the whole dang place, mine. That also felt pretty cool once we realized I had the only one in the house.

Here is my better piece of the two. It's a still life charcoal rendering of some stuff that was on a table in the middle of the room in our art studio. I think I may have shared it before, but it's relevant again here, so too bad.


and in the gallery:


And here's me next to my blind piece:


We only took that pic because - even if the piece is a stinker - it's realistically probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to stand next to your own artwork in a gallery. The names of the artists are displayed next to every piece, and another interesting thing I noticed was that I didn't see anything there from any of my classmates.

From there, we walked further downtown and watched a street artist making some cool pieces with only a crate of spray can paints, checked out 3 other collections on display, and since the kids all behaved perfectly - I thought it'd be fun for us to end the night by going and getting an ice cream.

And when I say that WE got AN ice cream, I literally mean that WEEEEE got ANNNNN ice cream. The place is called Tony's and it's been on one of the food network TV shows. Their bacon sandwich is made with a full pound of bacon, and here's their standard order banana split:


It was bigger than my head, and it took all 8 of us there to kill it. As I'm sure you can imagine, the kids had a BLAST all diving into one ice cream sundae from all angles. It was the perfect closer to a perfect day.

Anyway, getting kicked out of the nursing program a year ago was one of the deepest lows I'd ever lowed - and tonight was 150% - hands down the highest high I've flown since then, and it felt really, really, REALLY damn good. Really. And the best part was that I got to share it with some of my closest friends & most of my family, my wife looked like a million bucks, and this was the first time in over a year that I was truley able to replace the feelings of "I'm only here because I totally effed up the nursing thing" with "I'm here because I totally rocked the art thing, and I rocked it because this is right where I belong!".

Sorry if I bored you, but I wanted to share.

Peace,
John

nice,...

Awesome man! Congrats getting your stuff in the gallery. You got a lot of talent and it shows!

Good looking kiddos too. Glad you got to have a fun family night!

As for the ice cream....I could do it! Ha!

Thanks for sharing!

-Mike

Dam nice work on the chalk artwork. You my friend are very talented. And holy crap that ice cream is huge. And I Couldn't Do That! LOL.

Flame On! Awesome John, glad you had a great day, you certainly deserve it.

That charcoal piece just goes to prove your mad skillz. Seriously, I recall you saying how you HATED charcoal and now look a couple months later you have one in a gallery.

Could it be that charcoal makes a flame, I dunno but that drawing is certainly hot.

That's awesome to hear, John! Best is that everyone was there! Sounds like an epic day! I'm so happy for ya.

If I'd only lived closure, I woulda been there, too!

And that charcoal is pretty kick ass.

Mad props, broseph. For realz.

Congratulations John, getting you drawings in a gallery, and on display is pretty cool.

You're livin' the American dream my friend, great family, good friends, good food, good times.

Mike

Congrats on the juried show! Awesome!. Did you ever think of doing t-shirts for us wagon folks?

(only kidding)

Glad to hear that a direction in your life is going the right way for you!


Dave Buchholz

Congrats John. What an awesome experience that must have been.

Thanks guys!

What a great night! Congratulations!

John your post was anything but boring.The farther I read the bigger my smile and now my
mouth hurts from smiling more than I have in a very long time.As far as your art goes,I knew
you were well qualified to print T-shirts but I had no idea how talented you really are until I
saw your still life charcoal rendering.I am hardly knowledgeable in art but I feel very strongly
that getting the boot from nursing was the best thing that could have happened to you.I know
that artist struggle and do a lot of things to make ends meet but you are definitely wasting
your time and talent on T-shirts.When I decide which T I want,it wont be worn but it will be
framed.In fact if you could somehow make a print of the charcoal piece in the gallery I would
love to have that on my T.
Remember your wagon buddies when you are famous John
Jim Gordon

Hey thanks! The T shirt thing is just for fun and to make a couple bucks on the side. Please know that I really am still focusing on artwork and have airbrushing classes 2 nights a week - and feel like I'm getting stronger every class.

I just did this piece in that last class, then matted and framed it and gave it to my parents. They seem to really like it - hung it in their living room immediately and called and invited the neighbors over - and everyone that's seen it says that it looks much better in person. I don't know about that, but I do know that I was happy with it - and it's a great example of how those classes are working to shape me in to an overall artist who will be able to do alot more than just flames. I still dig flames and will likely do them the most, but the last thing I want to be known as is a one trick pony.



The one I'm working on now is completely different yet again from the flower. We went from the rose to doing this guy:


It's not necessarily my thing, but it's been a great tool to help us excercise and better understand creating depth, layers, and shadowing, etc that will apply to everything else we could paint later on. The next class is going to be fun too, since it covers how to create ripped metal, lightning, and traditional flames.

Thanks again,

John

Good stuff Johnny,made my day, Lorne.

John:

You are well on the way to being able to do something very few of us ever get a chance of doing. Make our living doing something that we are truly passionate about. Lose the whole nursing thing baggage. You have shown exactly where your talent truly is.

Learning first how to do it old school is a real plus. If your this good using just a chunk of charcoal, imagine how much better you will be using the new digital stuff. Puts you way out in front of the pack. I can see lots of opportunity for you in a miriad of different industries. Just stay focused and learn your craft. You've got a great start. Just don't turn all "prima donna" on us.

Good work.

Bill

Glad things are looking up for you. Let me know how adept you get at the Molly Hatchet type drawing.

John,do you think that charcoal portraits would be something interesting to do?If so I have
am going to PM you with a request.
Thanks
Jim Gordon

Good to see things are working out for you John, keep up the good work!

Bewber wrote:

t the last thing I want to be known as is a one trick pony.




John

Now thats funny right there,.true it is a horse,. not a pony,.

Nick

Will love to see how you make out on this horse and rider.

Thanks again guys, I'll be sure to post pics of the Molly Hatchet horseman when I'm done, and I actually LOL'd at the thought of myself turning into a prima-donna.

Not gonna happen.

Nice work, sir. That Molly Hatchet cd looks like Frank Frazetta's work. If you are interested in that style, Google his name for some ideas.

That is a Frazetta. I'm not doing it because I'm interested in that style. I'm doing it because that's what the project is for my class. Thank you though.