So you want to sell everything and live in an RV??

So you want to run away and be an artist living in an RV?

DON’T DO IT. 

If I had a quarter for every time someone said “you’re living the dream” I would have more quarters than I would have if I had a quarter for every time someone said “wow, your work is amazing” or “I’m so in love with your paintings” or “if I won the lottery I’d buy all of these” (what? So never) etcetera etcetera, followed by a brisk exit from my booth before I even make an attempt to employ some of Grant Cardone’s sales closes.  At this point in my travels, my “over it-ness” is surpassing my desire and frankly my ability to be agreeable and diplomatic when I hear things that because I’ve heard 1000 times (also, please refer to previous blog post). 

And I totally get it, the idea of, and certainly the reality of not paying rent is great. And I can also see the romanticism of “the open road” wooooo… just opportunities everywhere.. I get it. I really do.  Even the part about the road, and as contradictory as it may seem, I hate driving. I do, that is a fact.  And even still, I get the appeal of living on the road. 
 

I think there are 2 ways to go about being in an RV. One, which is what I’m doing, using the RV basically as a mobile office and being confined to go where business takes you- ergo, not really as much freedom as you may think- not really that much at all.  The other is what people think I’m doing, but I can assure you- is definitely NOT what I’m doing, which is going wherever you want, whenever you want, touring the national parks or going on amazing adventures every day in beautiful parts of the country.  I did the latter a few years back.. sorta… But now I’m doing the former, so let me tell you about my dream, vs my reality.  I was actually living something very close to my dream before I “woke up” if you will, and decided to try out life as a traveling artist.  My daily routine in Hawaii began with waking up just as it was beginning to get light outside, getting a few hours of surfing in, being home by 9 or 10, making a big awesome organic breakfast with my roommates most of which we picked or harvested ourselves and then sitting in my living room studio and painting for the rest of the day while Dexter played continuously on Netflix in the background.  Now THAT, my friends, is living the dream.  And then one day, a friend said to me “hey, you should go on art tour, I would do it, but I’m married and I have kids and I don’t want to, so you should do it” to which I thought to myself “I trust this guy” and responded “sure, that sounds like a good idea” and the rest was history.  Alexa’s makin’ waves grand art tour 2014-15 was born!  
 

Last weekend was probably the most uncomfortable I have been since I started this.  I had a show in Oklahoma City over a 3 day weekend with a heat advisory every day.  Friday after setting up, I was lucky enough to lie myself into a shower on the community college campus where the show was held which is actually a pretty good story.  There is a shower in my RV, but I don’t use it, the whole bathroom is used for storage and I also don’t want to deal with the pain of emptying the grey water holding tank, so I’ve gotten pretty good at scavenging showers.  A girl from the OCCC newspaper had written an article about me for the show, so I actually knew one student’s full name and went to the gym, told the boys working there that I had left my ID (which you need to use the facilities) but gave them her name which they looked up, verified that I/she is indeed a student and let me in.  A shower usually makes for a decent night’s sleep in my world these days, but the low that night was a brisk 88 and even lying completely naked on top of my blankets with all of the windows and even the side door wide open, I was sweating and couldn’t sleep.  So I did what I used to do a few years back when I was living in south Florida after the AC unit broke one July, I decided to sleep outside. (yes I put on pajamas first). I laid down a towel on the grass next to my RV and slept there. Not well, but I slept a little bit and at least I wasn’t sweating. I did get some chigger bites though, so I guess you win some you lose some.  To look on the bright side however, I was somewhere safe, I could have easily been in a walmart parking lot and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to sleep outside there.  Statistically speaking there is a really significant chance that I would have been sleeping in a walmart parking lot, and that’s what always comes to mind when people assume that I’m “living the dream”.  I don’t know about you, but I sure as hell didn’t dream of sleeping in every walmart parking lot in the Midwest.  I never even thought I’d ever come to the Midwest.     

  

Maybe it’s the part about “traveling around and selling your wares” that is the dream to others, and I get that too.  I can just imagine driving around southern California in a VW bus selling paintings or hemp jewelry or whatever out of the back at the beach, and that sounds awesome. Once again, not my reality.  Some days are great and it can be a really addictive way to make a living when you have a good show or really feel like the people appreciate your work, but there have been multiple times where I pay my booth fee, drive however many hours, set up, and then it rains the entire time and I sell nothing.  So I basically paid $500 to waste my entire weekend sitting around and letting everything I own get wet. 
And if after you read all of this and you still want to sell everything, buy an RV, and drive around the country slangin’ art, you should do it! 

 And feel free to ask me any questions you may have