Have Art. Do Travel!
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THE ORIGINAL — THE FIRST SOGH ART TRUCK
Back in 2012, before there was an Art Truck, while getting ready for a festival one rainy evening in June, I was hauling a load of paintings up to my car from my shop. All of my paintings are on reclaimed and recycled wood — one painting doesn't weigh much but 50 paintings weigh a lot. The situation was made worse by the really crappy shoes I was wearing. In a split second, I wiped out, paintings went flying, and I screwed up my lower back really good. I laid there for 15 minutes in the rain looking up at the sky going — O! U! C! H!
Quickly, I realized doing a full tent set up (which already took hours to do) was 1000x's harder with my back the way it was. If I were going to continue in this direction, I needed to do something to simplify. At the same time, the whole food truck/mobile business truck thing was exploding — and somewhere in there the idea clicked and I was like "ART TRUCK!" Let's make the first one! And so, thru luck and a great Kickstarter campaign in 2013, Syd became my first Art Truck!
The benefits were great. It completely eliminates setting up a tent — since it's always set up. It eliminates hauling paintings in and out of my car with every event. Once I put a painting on the truck it stays on the truck until someone takes it home. AWESOME! AWESOME!! AND AWESOME!!!!!!!!
(Unless you work festivals, events, or art shows you don't know how much lugging you do with everything from the ground up each and every event. If your creations are heavy and bulky — like mine — it makes it all that much more difficult. For me, the truck does ALL the heavy lifting and it's always "set up." 1 painting at a time isn't that heavy... 200 is like moving a house — by yourself. uphill. in snow. both ways! 🤣 Then when the show ends at the end of the day, the break down and unload when you get home — hours and hours of labor each event.)
My Art Truck and I pounded the pavement, putting art on wheels and taking it all around to events, meeting tons of people and having the bestest times ever!
Unfortunately, Syd was a 1983 Grummun Olsen step van with 240,000 miles on it when I bought it. It constantly broke down, repairs just kept happening — and eventually, in early 2018, my beloved Syd, my first Art Truck, went to the great Art Truck Heaven in the sky. Sad. It took all my money and I couldn't afford to get it fixed, yet again. Here's to you Syd. 🙏
SIR ELTON — THE NEW SOGH ART TRUCK
For most of 2018 I had a vintage camper I was using as an Art Camper — that failed miserably. In early 2019, my dad convinced me I had to get another truck. I searched far and wide for months and months and eventually, my new-to-me truck, Sir Elton, was found!
Sir Elton is a 2011 Morgan Olsen Step van with 147k miles on it when I got it. Not bad for a used truck. He has the added bonus of starting when I turn the key — how nice is that?! (That was often a crap shoot with Syd.) AND Sir Elton gets 2 mpg's better than Syd! His average is 10 miles per gallon. Yes, you read that right. 10 miles per gallon. With these gas prices I don't go far.
Then, as we all know, Covid hit. Every single one of my yearly events — canceled. Payments, insurance, inspections, repairs all needed to happen whether or not I had events or income. I'm one of those gig workers that all the sudden relied on unemployment for the basics. But somehow I managed to keep Sir Elton.
In 2022 I started painting the outside of the truck — and it's looking GREAT! Being a one man band, I have to do everything: artist, truck builder, maintainer, social media manager, the "business" stuff... the... the... ALL the stuff. And I'm slow. So things just take time.
One day I hope to have a large window on the side to see out and see in. Nice doors in the back instead of the roll-up garage door. Maybe a radio. We'll see. In the grand scheme I had hoped to have many Art Trucks going to many events throughout the country — giving many artists an incredibly cool platform to show and sell their work from. Not sure how that would happen, but I do know some other artists have done their own art trucks now too — and that's pretty cool! 🎨