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Today I had the great blessing of taking my show on the road.
Traveling up to the Great Pacific Northwest to do a few book signings and visit a few schools out there. Today I had a great opportunity to visit Woodrow Wilson High School, named after the Nobel Peace Prize winning President of the United States. Seems that quite a few high schools out here are named after presidents, must be a Portland thing.
As I was driving to and fro from the school, it struck how much Portland reminded me of my homestate of New Jersey. Seriously, all this industrial movement, except with more trees and foliage… lots of trees out here! And seemingly in the darndest of places, it’s no wonder Bigfoot lives out here… when flying in I looked out the airplane window and saw miles and miles of what appeared to be tundra… something I only saw in books. Miles of wilderness and snow, where said Bigfoot or Sasquatch can go run and hide. What does this have to do with art, or graffiti writing?.. absolutely nothing, but my mind tends to wander.
I arrived at the school quite nervous and full of trepidation… this is not the Bay Area and I wondered if what I was going to talk about… could they relate to any of it? I sat in the car and meditated for a bit… sipped my 4 hours old coffee and hoped that I would be able to say the right things and at the right times with the right motivations to achieve the right results… so ego settle down! As a matter of fact, Mr. Ego needs to be locked in the trunk! Also Mr Attitude needs to settle down, and Johnny Bad As# needs to go for a walk. So I breathe deeply, open the car door and proceed to walk into the future…
It was an interesting experience, being able to discuss how graffiti art has impacted my life. This presentation was titled “Where Does Your Creativity Come From?”… I shared a number of real life experiences that I hoped would shed light on their own skills and talents, and maybe just maybe do a little motivating. For some odd, strange reason I feel compelled to do this… I could be at home painting, but I have this drive to, I dunno.. share my stories I guess. For me I dig the Q & A portion, when I answer questions… many times its the standard “Have you ever been caught doing graffiti?”, but also so many times it goes deeper, way deeper. Questions such as “Did your parents understand your desire to be an artist?” hmmmm I can speak on that for a long while actually. I can just imagine my parents staring at each other lamenting just what did they bring into this world? Wondering about this precocious/crazy child that just can’t stop drawing on everything in sight!
Today was also quite interesting because they were doing what is called CAREER RELATED EXPERIENCE- REFLECTION QUESTIONS, and I was the subject… hmmm who wants to be me?
Well a seed was planted and it continues to grow. We will see how far branches stretch, and if the leaves go and drop.
Tomorrow will be a different day, and a new series of students to engage. Lets hope it turns out well. Mr Ego stay away! LOL!
