The 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 this direction, I needed to do something about it to simplify. At the same time the world, the whole food truck/mobile business truck thing was exploding and somewhere in there the idea clicked and i was like "ART TRUCK!" Lets 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 the setting up the tent part since it's always set up. It eliminates me 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 for 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" and all i have to do is put the paintings out. Again, 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 and meeting tons of people and having the bestest times ever!

Unfortunately, Syd... it was a 1983 Grummun Olsen step van. It had 240,000 miles on it - when i bought it!  The problem with buying a vehicle that old, 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! 

For most of 2018, I had a vintage camper that I was using as an Art Camper - that failed miserably. It was something else, very old that needed an amazing amount of work. In early 2019, my dad convinced me that i had to get another truck... and so, I searched far and wide on and off line for months and months and eventually, my new-to-me truck, Sir Elton, was found!  

Sir Elton is a 2011 Morgan Olson Step van with 147k miles on it when I got it. Thats not bad for a used truck like this. It has the added bonus of starting when i turn the key! How nice is that?! (that was often a crap shoot with Syd ) AND the new truck gets 2mpg's better than Syd! Sir Elton's average is 10 miles per gallon. Yes, you read that right, Sir Elton gets 10 miles per gallon! -with these gas prices i don't go far. 

For the first year with my new truck, I just got it to a useable point. When you set out on something like this you have to take the truck, take out whatever is in it that you don't want, get to the bones and then start the rebuild. Since I'm a one man band... things just take time and it's a continual work in progress. 2019 was building the interior while the outside of the truck remained white. 

Then, as we all know, Covid hit. Every single one of all of my yearly events, canceled. (it's now 2022 and several events, like Artscape, the Food Truck rallies I did, events in DC are STILL canceled) but at the beginning of Covid. I didn't know if i was even going to be able to keep the truck because the payments, insurances, inspections, repairs all needed to happen whether or not i had events or income while the truck sat in my driveway for the entire time. 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.  This year, 2022, i started painting the outside of the truck! it's looking great. so far i have the passenger side and the front painted but then, of course, more covid issues have happened and paint, if i can get it, has super skyrocketed and some other things have happened i have to wait until things come back down to finish the rest. But so far, it's looking freaking GREAT i must say! 

Being a one man bad, i have to do everything when it comes to being an artist, building and maintaining the truck, all the social stuff, the "business" stuff, the... 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 of the truck to see out and see in. I've thought about having nice doors installed in the back - rather than the roll up garage door that's on the back. Maybe get a radio and other things but 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 or if it could but i do know of some other artist that have done their own art trucks now too and that's pretty cool!