So Here Was This Creature Standing In Line

I lost a good friend in Gloria Himes a few weeks ago.  We were pen pals...modern day pen pals using Facebook Messenger to visit each day. She was a sounding board for me, someone I could write to about my day.

I wrote to her about a homeless woman at Starbucks. Here is the message I sent her.
_______________

Feb. 23,  9:23 am

Greetings from Pad 39A on a Thursday morning. I'm all set up for a full day of work in the studio. I came by bus, the best way to travel when the weather is nice. I walked a couple of blocks south to the Starbuck's to get my coffee before walking on further south a couple of blocks to Pad 39A. I need my coffee!

The homeless people in San Francisco are everywhere. They are so prevalent in some areas you hardly see them, they fade into the background like part of the fabric of the inner city. Mostly they stick to themselves and don't beg, so it's easy to just pass them by without notice. This morning, however, I saw a person who just broke my heart.

She was probably five feet tall and slumped over a bit. She was standing in line at Starbuck's with an empty plastic cup and I could tell she was just going to ask for some water. It was impossible for her to have any money.  She was wearing the strangest clothes. I first noticed her shoes did not match. On one foot she wore a yellow battered Crock sandal.  Her bare heel was exposed out the back and it was black as tar. On the other foot she wore a black tennis shoe that was two  sizes too big, and it was laced tight. Her pants were a cruddy, soiled, striped black and white pajama bottom. The material was not very heavy. She had a muddy green windbreaker wrapped tightly enough around her. She was obviously cold. On her hands she wore plastic surgical gloves, like the ones I use to paint with in my studio. Hers were dirty brown from use and I'm sure she was trying to keep her hands warm. Her hair was filthy, cluttered with various kinds of debris as if she had been sleeping in a pile of leaves. A thin scarf was just barely hanging on around the back of her head. She would tug st the scarf to hide her hair, and she would sheepishly bow her head as if to hide herself from those in line around her.

I looked at her face. It was filthy. She had three pieces of tape or worn out band aids covering portions of her features. She had one piece of tape on her nose, a small corner was hanging down and looked as if it might come off at any time. She apparently had some sores or perhaps skin cancers she had covered with whatever she could find to stick to her skin.

So here was this creature standing in line at Starbuck's. I was watching her intently and was thinking all kinds of things. She wasn't that old, and thought "how does a young woman find herself in this situation?" I was also thanking about how lucky I have been in my life to have escaped such a state. I've been poor and in need, but never near the shape this young woman was in. I was thanking how blessed I was to have a place to sleep, and a studio full of paintings, and food, and money to buy a cup of coffee.

When she approached the counter she asked the girl at the cash register for some water. An Asian man was paying for his coffee and had his wallet out. She looked at him and he immediately handed her a dollar. I reached into my pocket and moved past the man in front of me and shoved a $5 bill in her hand. She looked up at me, smiled, grabbed her cup of water and moved on.

Every once in a long while I'll run into someone like this who touches me, for whatever reason. Sometimes it's the blessings in my life that serve to highlight a person like this who is so broken and helpless. The homeless and helpless are everywhere, and for the most part I leave them alone. But now and then I see someone who grabs my attention and I just can't turn away. She did more for me this morning than I will ever be able to do for her. She reminded me how lucky I am.

Updating Blogs Can Be a Major Hassle

I have myself to blame. Trying to provide content on my web sites is a hassle and I should know better. I spent an hour this morning updating AikenWriter.com, my website hosted by WordPress. Writing the content is easy enough, and adding images works fine. But making sure the page loads properly on Facebook turned into a nightmare.  Having various web sites appear correctly on social media is a major hassle.

I have one WordPress blog site, AikenWriter.com. That is it. My other blog site, Aiken1.com, is hosted by Blogger, which is owned by Google. So, when I want to update and add content to Aiken1.com I must first make sure I'm logged in under the correct user account at Google. At WordPress, they don't care about Google. At Wix.com, my other websites are up and running at last. However, making all of these various sites work together and post correctly on social media calls for a lot of patience.

I know what you are thinking, "why all these sites?" I wish I knew. I guess the main reason is: I have a lot of various interests and its too confusing to place on just one site.  It becomes easier to steer people directly to what they are interested in, without having then wade through a sea of other content they care nothing about.

Adding to the confusion are the various accounts I have at Google. As of today I have eight Google accounts. They have a limit, which I have not reached yet. Why so many Google accounts? Free storage. A Google account comes with up to 15 Gigs free storage space. Do the math. I have at least 120 Gigs of free storage space at Google alone, not to mention my Cloud account and Dropbox.

Its all very confusing and makes it a hassle at times to get all the various parts to behave, like corralling unruly children in the backyard.  No one said this was going to be easy.

Final Project Critique Scheduled

It has been long road to get to this point. Finally, my final project critique has been scheduled for May 16, 11 a.m. Assuming I pass, then I'll graduate two weeks later with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting.  My final critique will consists of eleven paintings with the series title "Purgatory: The Chair." Here are a couple of paintings from the series.

"Lady with Floral Hat" 24x30, charcoal, shellac, oil, on canvas

"Child Playing Games" 24x30, charcoal, shellac, oil, on canvas

Last Days at Pad 39A

Pad 39A is the name of  my studio space located near Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco. It's been my home the last year as I work toward my Final Thesis. Why "Pad 39A"? Pad 39A was the launch pad used by NASA astronauts for the first moon landing, which took off on July 16, 1969.  Apollo 11 safely landed on the moon on July 20. I thought it would be an appropriate name for this studio. I am launching my own mission: twelve paintings for my Final Thesis Project.

Pad 39A, Chestnut Street, San Francisco 

My time is coming to an end at Pad 39A. I'll be moving to  Laguna College of Art & Design after graduation, assuming I pass the Final Project. I remember the empty wall space the first day I moved in.  My paintings began to inhabit the space after a few weeks,  amid the chaos of supplies I was collecting: art books, tubes of paint, old shirts, cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, a space heater.

The studio of an artist becomes a piece of art. I love looking at the studios of other artists for this reason. It reveals a lot about the character and work habits of the person working in the space. Are they sloppy or clean? Do they have supplies piled up like junk, or is everything systematically placed on shelves, in drawers? The studio of Francis Bacon, for example, looked like a garbage bin. It reflected his maniacal personality. I think I am somewhere in the middle...organized, but messy. Anyway, Pad 39A has been a great place to work. One small step for an artist, one giant leap for my career.

I'm Worn Out!

The bike ride to the grocery store today certainly wore me out, but that is not why I am tired. Organizing a marketing plan online has really worn me out.  I have a handle on things, I hope.

For starters, my domain names are registered and properly forwarded to the right sites.

• Aiken1.com:  this domain was as simple as I could imagine, given the available domain names.  It will be my MAIN domain location, and will bring people here, this website at Blogger.com. I have had this account since at least 2007, maybe longer.  It contains the traveling blogs I wrote while on the road for over a year.  Links to all other web sites I run will be here.  If I ever get lost, I will know I can come to Aiken1.com and find what I need.
• AikenArtist.com:  this domain leads directly to my artwork posted online.  The site will contain my current paintings, drawings, exhibition information, and an art blog.  If I can figure it out, I also will include access to my store at Etsy.com for the sales of prints and other items.
• MitchellAiken.com and MitchAiken. com:  I have had these domains registered forever, and I'm really glad. Other "Mitchell Aikens" exist, three that I have seen online.  I'm glad I was early in registering my names. They both will be forwarded to either my art site at AikenArtist.com or here at Aiken1.com. 
• AikenVideo.com: will lead directly to my account at YouTube and will contain, obviously, my videos. I hope to include some art instructional videos in the future. 
• AikenWriter.com: is under development. As a screenwriter and graphic novelist, I wanted a separate site to contain my work as a writer.

As time goes on, each of these sites will grow and develop. Now that I have them set up, content will be easy to upload as it becomes available. When I shoot a video, it will be at AikenVideo.com. When I attend a screenwriter workshop or work on characters for an upcoming graphic novel, the work will be seen at AikenWriter.com. My visual art, especially paintings and any exhibition information will be at AikenArtist..com. Here at Aiken1.com, all things will be linked and brought together under one roof, like the Mother Alien watching over her brood of acid bleeding face suckers. 

Massive Reorganization Underway

Holy Cow,

It is amazing how much work it is taking to organize my online sites. Along with the social media sites, it has become a nightmare. But I'm slowing getting things done. The domain names MitchAiken.com and MitchellAiken.com are being forwarded here, to this Blogger site. I started this blog years ago, and it seems prudent to just keep it.

This will be my personal blog, as it always has been. I'll ramble here, with no apparent specific topic or subject. It will be the place I write stuff just for the hell of it. We all need a place to just let ourselves vent and post things that are on our minds. This will be my place to get counseling, therapy,  through writing what I want to write. 

For example, as an artist I have web sites devoted to my art. As a writer, I have a web site devoted to writing. Keeping it straight in my limited brain is a challenge. My motto has always been "keep things simple." But then, I hate mottos.

I have accounts on Instagram, Facebook (along with some FB Pages, which is another time-sucking task), and Tumblr (don't ask). I had to put a stop to all this madness, so I no longer Tweet. I feel someday that Tweeting will disappear anyway, Trump notwithstanding.  I have narrowed down my online social networking to just these three: Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr. Screw the rest of them. I don't have the time.

I spend one day a week, Monday, devoted to keeping this stuff updated and organized. It takes a plan, which I have, to keep things straight. Posting content on the various sites takes effort, though I have recently started using apps to help me. Crowdfire, for example, helps me schedule posts for Instagram and Facebook in advance, as does the scheduling on the Later app. I really need a full time assistant, but for now that is a pipe-dream. 

At last count, I have nine domain names. I must me out of my mind. 

I've started taping brushes together in various sizes. It allows me to quickly switch brushes, plus the added length gives me some room to step back from the canvas, increasing my reach. I spoke with Rosemary Brushes about manufacturing such a brush. They call a double-ended brush a "kayak", but have a very limited capacity to make them, mostly in the small sizes. The bulk purchase of brush stock, especially the handles, makes it difficult to create a new style of brush. They purchase handles in bundles, like a thousand units. So, I'll keep using tape.