Starving Artist<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When I was really poor and competing for public art projects, I would have to go to various states for finalist presentations, usually competing with 3-5 other poor saps hoping for the same lousy commission.\u00a0 Once, on a project in Portland, Oregon, my arts commissioner recommended a \u2018reasonable\u2019 downtown hotel for me to stay at, probably 3 times what I\u2019d ever spent on accommodations.\u00a0 I told her, gee thanks, but I\u2019ll find something more in my price range and she replied, \u201cI don\u2019t want you sleeping in your truck.\u201d\u00a0 I assured her I wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What I found, 20 or 30 miles outside Portland, was a $23 a night hellhole in Vancouver, Washington, a motel where, if you wanted a TV was $5 more.\u00a0 If you wanted a shower, $5 more.\u00a0 If you wanted a key, yeah, you guessed it.\u00a0 I chose the basic plan, slid 23 bucks under the bullet proof glass in the stainless steel bowl below and took occupancy of my suite.\u00a0\u00a0My neighbors, judging by the water bowls and dog dishes outside their doors, were long termers, Lifers, I\u2019d have to say, one step away from homeless or sleeping in their cars, running or not.\u00a0 The residents I met weren\u2019t looking for hellos or companionship or even a drinking buddy.\u00a0 They were folks who wanted to be left the hell alone.\u00a0 Misery, by the way, does NOT love company.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I have stayed in plenty of fleabag flophouses in my day, none as cheap as this dive, but unlike the others, my life wasn\u2019t threatened by surly neighbors on the great escalator down at this one the way it has been at some of the others.\u00a0 When folks reach rock bottom, I guess aggression is one of those virtues they abandon along with hope.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In case you\u2019re interested, I did not win the commission for the Portland Health Clinic even though I offered them a serious amount of glass for the project.\u00a0 I lost to a person even my art liaison at the Washington Art Commission disdainfully characterized as \u2018no artist.\u2019\u00a0 So I was out 23 smackers plus tax.\u00a0 Gas, food and a helluva lot of pride.\u00a0 I swore next finalist presentation, no matter what state, what country, whatever, I would just sleep in my truck at the nearest rest area.\u00a0 You want to be an artist, forget about the Ritz.\u00a0 Or even Motel 6 \u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Starving Artist When I was really poor and competing for public art projects, I would have to go to various states for finalist presentations, usually competing with 3-5 other poor saps hoping for the same lousy commission.\u00a0 Once, on a project in Portland, Oregon, my arts commissioner recommended a \u2018reasonable\u2019 downtown hotel for me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[4740,4738,4739],"class_list":["post-15572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rantings-and-ravings","tag-motel-dives","tag-paying-your-artistic-dues","tag-starving-artist-on-the-road"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15573,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15572\/revisions\/15573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}