That one time I was painting at the fair on 1 hour of sleep. Daily work of art #2,630

I was invited to paint live at the San Diego Fair.  The theme was Oz, and they decorated the fairgrounds quite beautifully.  Near my (gianormous) booth (when I came to inspect it the other day, there were 3 people in the booth) was hanging a big ol' hot-air balloon, so... it seemed like a fun way to 

Oh yeah... here's my booth.  It's like 20 feet across.  No pressure, right?

I had 2 paintings on hand, but they were on loose canvas - meaning, they needed to be placed on a stretcher... but... I hadn't enough time to get them stretched. Back to the ever famous "How hard can this be?" -- so... 4:40am, I finish stretching them, after a long day of running around to 2 Home Depots (one of which, my GPS took me to twice - with San Diego afternoon traffic, good times.) to get the tools and lumber.

For those who haven't read my introductory post (what are waiting for? Go read it!), I create a new work of art every single day (today, #2,630) -  What that means = No art = no sleep.  

I loaded the car up with my 2 paintings, the photo of me and Alice Cooper on stage with my paintings, and the 2 55" TVs I bought (more crazy errands from yesterday), and then worked on a quicky painting for day 2,629.

Yeah... I should be able to do this with no sleep... Just go to the fair and do the thing... but - I only got 2 hours the night before (I keep saying 2,630 days- that's a lot of art, a little bit of sleep), so at 6am my head starts falling down whether I want to or not.  Better snooze for an hour, so I don't die on the drive there.

I set 5 alarms 2 minutes apart, this was not something I wanted to miss. Got up on the first one, got in my car, and hauled ass. Hooray, holidays... No traffic at 7am on 4th of July.

Still needed a power strip-  stopped by Vons grocery store at 7:30... Please be open!  It was.  There was a cluster of employees standing there, one says "You look confused."

"Story of my life! Though, in this case, it might just be sleep deprivation. Got a power cord?"

She wasn't sure if they sell them... "Oooh, looks like there's only one. Guess it was meant to be." - and she walked me to the register, opened a new line - I didn't have to wait...  Hooray some more.  

Skipping ahead to the end of the day - I managed to set up on time, no one could tell that I had no clue on stretching my canvases. It turns out that I can paint live in front of hundreds of people.

Highlights of the day:

* Seeing the looks on children's faces as they are truly inspired (and I encouraged the shit out of them to learn and practice and not listen to what anyone else says).

* Many people told me that they used to draw / paint / etc... but haven't in years... So, I gave them a bajillion reasons to get back to it.  Those that said you can't make money as an artist I pointed out that my Alice Cooper Painting sold for $10,000, and that the 2 55" TVs I had were paid for by a painting I sold yesterday.  I gave them many of the reasons from this post I wrote on Steemit, "Many reasons you should make art, how you can get started (or even be pro) on the cheap, and even get great!" I'd keep going until you could see it in their face that they're going to do it.

* Being offered a mural gig - been wanting to do murals.

* Having the discipline to eat 3 cheese sticks and prosciutto instead of eating the Triple Cheeseburger between 2 Krispy Kreme donuts.

* People's reactions to my ORIginal works of Oz Art (I posted one on Steemit - I"ll post more in an upcoming post) 

* I kept my energy up so that I could provide the booth visitors a great experience filled with humor, stories, and enthusiasm.

* The fact I made it "home" (A friend's house - because I currently am living in Mexico, and didn't feel like risking being late to the fair because of border crossing) -- I was so tired by that time that I got out of there, that I was swerving a tiny bit... Fighting sleep in the car was not fun... And since it's 4th of July, I know there's cops out looking to arrest those with swerving tendencies.

So... that's my day at the fair.  Hope you like the painting....  Now, for some much needed sleep (I did get a 2 hour nap when I got "home").

Oh yeah-- one last random piece: While I was painting it, I was listening to the music of Infectzia, a really cool Israeli band that doesn't exist anymore... I think they're really talented, so thought I'd share. Even if you don't understand Hebrew, their music is pretty awesome (They even have Eye of the Tiger in Hebrew).