Painting on Motorcycles in Miami (5 Minute Freewrite)
Our traveling home for our family of seven (plus our dog)
I've written about it briefly here before, but about 16 years ago, we lost our house and nearly everything in it to black mold. We took what we had left, bought an old bus and went on the road. We took our five children (at that time they ranged from 1-10) and lived on the road for almost three years.
While we were on the road, I painting and etched on motorcycles (and painted on leather as well) and between 'motorcycle rallies' we explored the country in between locations.
We always started the 'season' in Florida, because that's where it got warmest first. Since motorcycles aren't going to be out and about when it's cold, that was the start of our 'season'.
Florida was ALWAYS miserable. It was "unseasonably" humid or rainy or COLD every single time we were there (and every time SINCE THEN!) and I just have very few good memories of ever being in Florida.
Since today's prompt is "Miami" I'll just talk about the last time I remember painting in Miami.
First off, of course that was the year that it rained for the entire rally "Miami Bike Week". It rained so hard that there was no customers and my big plastic tubs full of my supplies, paints and equipemtn kept FLOATING AWAY.
We finally moved from that location due to the floating supplies, but before we did, I got a customer! He said, "Can you paint my leg?"
I said, "No, I'm sorry. The paint is lead based, so it would be toxic."
He replied with, "Oh, no problem." Then he proceeded to removed his fake leg and set it on the table in front of me with only the shoe holding it up. He then handed me the cash for the paint job and said he'd be waiting in the bar.
I painted "realistic" looking flames on his leg and heard about him off and on as the season continued. I can't find a picture, unfortunately.
art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics
byn, you have lived such an interesting life!! Black mold sucks!!!!!!
Yes it does! If not for that, we never would have considered living on the road at that time, so I'm SO glad we did. The kids all have great memories from those bus years that wouldn't have happened otherwise! Plus, it definitely got us out of the rut of trying to be normal :)
I think this is one of my favourite free writes ever. Considering it is a topic that does not really trigger great memories for you I wanted to thank you for writing it.
I have ink from some hard times, for a while I hated some of them as they were tired to those memories. As the years pass I accept myself I accept them too and they don't bother me like they did, and I have newer ones that definitely felt like a healing process, scorchingly healing.
I hope your stamp is one of pride and resilience to you. I look forward to reading more of your writing and checking out your posts.
Your art is amazing.
Thank you! I try to keep it real. I don't always write about life stuff, but I keep it real when I do. I've been struggling a lot lately with emotional crap, so it is really awesome of you to leave such a supportive comment. Thank you.
I am not at all bothered by my tattoos. Even the one I wouldn't have gotten if I could go back in time (and it wasn't this one), they're tattoos. They are just as much a part of my life as my memories and although I definitely have regrets in life, tattoos don't generally make the list!
I actually wrote posts for all of my tattoos to tell the stories behind all of them. They aren't all super meaningful or anything, but they do tell interesting stories of my life experiences and I love that!
WOW you are a talented artist, thats such unique and beautiful work you did on all the bikes
Thank you so much :) I don't consider myself an artist, because my skills can be very hit or miss, but I chose the ones that turned out well!
these all turned out super well :)
That was so nice learning more about you!! Annnd we're working towards buying a bus and hitting the road!
It was a wonderful thing. I definitely enjoyed the boat life more (and that was cheaper), but we will probably go out on the road again some day. It will just be vastly different since our kids are all grown now!
Boat life too? Wowzers! How long was that?
About two years. We sold the boat last fall, actually.