It seems like a year ago I left home. I was late to get ready having missed a plane in Mexico and arrived the day I was to leave. My things were packed frantically. Most time allotted to the meticulous selecting and  loading of paint. Whirly the clown helped me get this done, only leaving the gate open once or twice but we quickly rounded up my dogs from the neighborhood. When everything was packed i slept till 4am and took off into the dark morning, I arrived early  on a sunny mountain day at a cabin in big that I was to adorn with woodland murals. My gracious host showed up during the expansive 3rd mural area and was pleased as I had gone over and above her requests. She matched my splendor with excess of her own the form of multiple breakfast crepes all of which slid down my steering wheel on to my lap while I slurped them up along the journey. I didn’t stop again till Vegas when I rolled into the triangle club for a meeting. I had already painted a mural there a couple years before and it was looking grand so I soaked up the fellowship and ducked out of the heat. Dada the hound hopped up into my arms to escape the heat coming off the asphalt and I knew it was time to go. In a desperate attempt to last min see the arches that inspired so many painting i stayed in Moab but the morning proved fruitless and they wouldn’t let me into the park without an appointment. Bummed I moved on coasting into my would be marble camp on the check in day morning. It was chaotic and cute at the same time. After picking out a spot and a stone we high tailed til to a hotel and then quickly rolled up to paint in glenwood springs. Ice cream parlor paint job meant 3 things, amazing yummy treats, low pay and creative license. Dada was comfy eating his treat and so was I. After painting I went to purchase some random thrift store items to serve as marble carving props. Then we hit a meeting which actually wasn’t happening and ended up going for tiramisu and dinner to go. Meanwhile back at the vintage hotel the basement room w no AC and bad reception started to fade in glory. The same can be said for the marble workshop.
No WiFi, no dogs, and me with no experience, asthma , a hound and a fear of what I had been told is the most dangerous tool in the tool shed – the grinder.  Dada served his service purpose and got a nasty bout of diarrhea which was the last push I needed to duck out of the marble symposium, thanks to dada for taking the fall. We rolled into paonia and visited a local sculptor friend who indeed needed a mural on the front of his gallery I was glad to oblige and thrilled he quickly snapped together a massive scaffold so I didn’t have to climb a ladder. The piece came out perfect in a couple hours. We got some contacts from Sean the sculpture and rolled back to Carbondale for a meeting and then to the hotel. The next morning I checked out, having failed at my marble mastering dreams, resigned to go paint some shit. Sean had already connected me to a winery that needed a piece so I rolled over and into that lovely property with two great big white fluffy dogs that we had to hide from dada. We did grapes and the name as big as possible to be seen from far down the road. Earned some cash and attempted to roll to a restaurant in Paonia to do my first app therapy session. It was a wash, the food was great , the vibe was great, the app would not accept the meager drip of internet that was the best I could find in the area. So I frustratingly discarded the app. Thankfully I know people. By this time Sean’s friend Alison had been in touch and I headed down the highway to paint her ranch buildings in Norwood. I rolled into that beautiful flat land and checked in with her just in time as she changed her mind from horses to rocket for the subject matter. I had fun with it nonetheless, and dada loved the wide open land. It was beautiful down there. Afterwards I connected with Demian thanks to my homies in troncones. I had painted for his mother upon her passing, and met him briefly. Little did I know he owned a bar right there in Norwood and he was happy to have me paint it, he commissioned an elk bugling.  I was able to paint the whole side in the dusk light into the night, then went off to find Alision’s home in town. It was just around the corner, she wasn’t home but had said I should stay the night. Thank goodness because it was late and not a hotel in miles. Her house was a pretty Victorian but in the darkness it loomed like a haunted tomb. I crept around to the side door with the hidden key and slowly made my way inside the pitch black, I imagined killers waiting in rooms and briefly exited to regain my composure. It should be said at this time that dada the massive hound dog was equally shaken and jumpy and we almost opted to drive off into the night. Instead, we persevered and stormed the house, turning on every light switch we could find, dispelling all demons in our wake.  It was a cute and homey abode once we saw it and Alison’s art pieces were all around making for an exciting and colorful space. In the morning I tried my best to leave things undisturbed and started an epic drive up the dirt roads to Montrose, we went thru magical lands full of happy cow families in pretty woods by streams. We rolled into montrose on July 4th and were happy to find a meeting still going on. Just 4 of us but a happy pack of triple dippers we kept the thing going almost a full hour. Perfect timing to roll back into Paonia and paint for local artist studios. The owner was friends with my friend Leah who had passed a year or so ago. Leah had been the real reason I had first started coming to Paonia. So we bonded over that and both being Greek and even sober. It was a great connection and I felt a little more at home for a few hours. Afterward I drove north back to glenwood springs and paint the rest of the ice cream wall, collecting more sweet treats. It was July 4th and dada was scared of fireworks so we drove towards Denver but stopped outside the city to sleep. In the morning I sussed out a meeting in aurora, more hoping to connect with a friends mom than anything else. And after that went and fixed my piece on larimer street in the hip rino district and the owner asked me to go do some florals at his house. The backyard was great for dada tho they weren’t home and I had to guesstimate the placement which I think they loved but later after I was gone wanted more. By then I had rolled up to boulder to see Joe, whom felt like a great homecoming as the last time I had painted for him he was beginning a battle against cancer and now I got to see him again having beat it. He also had a great charcuterie board laid out for me, which is the best way to greet any traveling artist.  The mural he wanted was beaches and surf and I hooked up his container where he kept his landscaping equipment. It was a fun little mural that made us both miss the tropics. With that I rolled north. Got to a cute meeting in Cheyanne Wyoming by evening. Thankfully Ag had booked me a cute airbnb in wheatsville for a couple days so I got to unload and settle for the night. It was a good time to do laundry and get comfy. In the morning dada and I took a little walk around the tiny town, picking up breakfast supplies we spotted the handiwork of a local artist that had been in touch for years on the web. He had offered to commission me to help him with some projects and teach him some tricks while I was in town. It turned out to be the best way to see the most of Wyoming. While I waited for him to get ready I took a short jaunt to see a freight lay up and ended up adorning an abandoned house with some bunnies. It was a beautiful setting by a lake and the drive was full of pretty scenery including trains on their sides. When I met up the artist he was driving a brightly spray covered print truck with lose drippy ads all over for what he called an imaginary paint company. He blessed me with a canvas and some cash and we were off. Each stop in Wyoming was about an hour from each other. We painted his art alley in Casper first, which he requested I paint some 80s actor in and i added a butterfly then we drove for a hundred miles or so, stopping to see some caged emus on the side of the road. We also stopped n painted some bunnies on some burned out gas station or something. When we finally got to Gillette we rolled into a salon he had been muraling and I was tasked to paint the face of friend of his, a very special girl from what I had gathered. Her face and sunflowers became her face as a sunflower and it was cute and pretty and I hope she was happy. Next we did a rooftop block buster for a political interest I really don’t know enough about but it was fun and I got to see an epic sunset from up there. Whether it was worth the 3 hour midnight drive to the wheatsville Airbnb is questionable. The next morning I rolled down to Laramie and got to do a happy little buffalo commission on the garage door of some folks who loved my work whilst in LA. We headed thru some wind and rain into Nebraska and tried to find some stuff to do but it took 3 tries to find a meeting and then we got a hotel and slept. In the morning we rolled to Omaha , happily a few people had reached out and I had places to paint and a little commission and a great new friend who took dada and I on a pretty walk by the river so he could run and I could put up some bunnies on a big cement wall facing Iowa. At that point the rain in Indy prompted me to swing north and head into Minnesota where we got to surprise kyle who was working on a deck at his dads house. We hung out with him and pipi for a few hours before heading east to Wisconsin. I was angling to knock Wisconsin off my short list of states I hadn’t painted yet. A pretty shop owner granted my wish the next day with two pieces in Waupaca, and she dressed me in a fresh new outfit as well. By this point I was a bit tired and overwhelmed by the looming workload in Indiana, so I got ag to book me a nice spa retreat at lake Geneva and I got my nails done, hit a meeting and had a massage before i hit the road refreshed the next day. A quick stop in the suburbs of Chicago to see and old friend and buy way too much British junk food at the little boutique where she worked and I was off! We rolled into Indy and dinner on Chad and Adolphus’ porch that evening. My broadripple paint fam was all ready for me.
Deborah’s awesome Airbnb loft was like coming home late that night and I crashed  out till morning when I rushed over to the carvel club for a meeting before going to Mary’s to touch up her sunflowers. Chad went over the list of a dozen or so people that loved our growing flower alley mural project and wanted a piece of it. I got started with Kevin who had actually been asking me to come for a couple years, he got one of the best murals on the alley. After a quick coffee break I went back into the Midwest heat wave to paint another spot on the alley with a lotus theme. Then me n dada walked the trail to get ice cream and collapsed that night. In the morning the stars aligned and I had backyard job to do in the south, and Raena my friend in St. Louis had a few days off and came up to help me. We painted all day in the heat and got the job done while the family watched from the pool. I took Raena out to dinner at the place that started it all for me in Indy the Beholder.  Jon the chef was happy to see us and we got a fab booth and ate to our hearts content. I added a little bunny to the front, in memory of the ones that caused such a stir in Indy. The next day we went over to a little ladies house and painted in her garden and she was thrilled. Raena had to leave and I was a bit bummed, it also started raining like crazy. So I did a little indoor piece for Deborah then went to the next flower garage spot. An awesome grandma who was also secretly a flower child I could tell. When I was almost done my friend kate arrived from the airport having decided to stop for a night and keep me company. We rolled over to a new restaurant an old client of mine was opening and I designed some mural work for their “buffalo room”. Afterwards it was so late the only thing to eat was dennys and we ended up enjoying it. We hit a meeting that morning and then drove to Carmel’s new winter market where we had to wait a bit for a lift but I did the entire outside in record time during the blistering heat.  I was holding Kate’s phone when calls started comin from her family that her uncle had passed she was as one would expect forlorn and left for the airport shortly after that. After a cold bath I headed back out into flower alley and painted a spectacular tropical mural.  The next day was hydrangeas for the big new house and then tulips for rosemary who had rebuilt her garage. Everyone came by a hung out and the mural was exactly the sweeping look that she wanted. That night I went up to fishers and hit a meeting, after dark I rolled to the motw coffee shop location and painted a massive mural into the wee hours. The next day I did a whole garden scene for a young mother and her baby on the wall of the neighbors garage that faced her yard. Then met up with Mary at her friend Kelly’s and painted her hibiscus onto the stark wall that faced her kitchen window. Kelly had also blessed me with Greek treats after finding out my heritage and Mary’s house was my morning coffee stop so it was fun to paint for them.  After that I ran to the other side of Indy and painted a racing car theme which was challenging but a nice change from the flowers. I topped off the night with another small flower garage mural a few blocks from the original flower alley. The next day a bunch of girls I knew came out to help me paint the last big garage on flower alley. It was a great group effort and it turned out pretty epic. My friend nancy stayed with me to go do one more piece on a brick garage down the road. The books were closed on Indy and I took off for Michigan early the next day. Drove all the way up to Atlanta Michigan which is so small that barely anyone in Michigan has even heard of it. But I got there quick and started working on my friend joes large motel mural right away. I took a break in the evening and ended up at a meeting with 2 old guys. A great spot that I never would have found without dada’s keen sense of direction. Back at the motel I worked into the night on one of the most detailed murals I’ve done. It was a good feeling to help transform a place which was said to have had a notorious past into a beautiful piece of art. I finished it the next morning and took off for harbor springs where I got to paint for an old friend from LA whom I hadn’t seen in years. We painted her pup like I had for her years before on canvas but this time a new pup on her house. Then she showed me around the pretty town and after lunch I got on the road down to Ohio. Thankfully Joe had an empty vacation rental he was working on so I was able to crash there when i arrived late that night. It was pretty and right on the water. The mural job he had me do was in addition to one I had done at their Sandusky glancing resort a year or so ago, this time to dress up the restrooms tho. After that I drove down to Columbus and did a blue butterfly garage mural for some people who weren’t home but they let me know via text what to do. Then I drove as far into Pennsylvania as I could till I had to get a room and sleep. The next day brought me to dansville and painting some animal portraits for a pet friendly restaurant opening there. I beat the rain the bloomsburg after and painted for a very old establishment there. The rain caught up with me and I got drenched. Dada hid in the car, I rolled into a pretty little inn that offered to do my laundry and hit a meeting that night then dinner at the brewery with dada and we curled up to sleep. The next day I met up with Connie from the Berwick art association and started a big mural for the ymca. There was a little panic about a vet dada was supposed to see incase we wanted to try and get on a plane to the fam in uk at the end of tour as was our tentative plan. Connie in true artist support mode to dada to the vet and to ice cream after while I wrapped up the intricate ymca mural. Then we went to paint a place where a terrible attack on a pride event had happened and we littered it with flowers and butterflies. Then I left. We drove all the way to Connecticut that night and kyle got us a posh hotel in Avon, a good meeting town. The next day I made it to Massachusetts and in shrewsbury painted the new motw coffee spot w a pretty mural. Instead of hangin in mass I decided to swoop down and catch my brother in Branford so I could see my little niece and we went for ice cream. By then I had found out it would be raining in upstate New York so my northville plans were postponed till the weekend. When i let my former mentor lady pink know I was in the area she invited me to paint with her and others at a wall in Astoria the next day so after saying bye to my brothers little family I drove down to queens and stayed there for the night the morning we all met up at the wall and had a fun time painting pinks cat theme. Dada made it onto the wall too by wearing cat ears in the portrait, and everyone rushed to photo him at his groggy best. I was happy to see a lot of old friends that day. Later I went into manhattan to meet up with phoebe and ended up at a Tiffany’s cocktail party for esteemed guests, of which dada and I were definitely the most underdressed and filthy, no one batted an eye. We cruised down 5th Ave with the top down and wandered around battery park before dropping into perry street then I drove her home to Brooklyn and I took off for Long Island. In the morning the mural wall wasn’t ready and I tried to hit a meeting but to no avail. By the time I got to the wall I was in a grumpy state of mind which was kicked into high gear by the landlord saying dada had to wait outside. I told my young client i wouldn’t be able to work and he soon straighten everything out. The next motw mural was born, I stopped at a great welcoming meeting in Hicksville and met some awesome people. Then I drove back to meet phoebe and Zack in nyc for dinner. After which I jetted to upstate New York and stayed up there for the night so I could have coffee with pink and Roger in the morning. Then on to northville where I painted a trippy bus for a very grateful couple of free spirits. After that I rushed to Binghamton and painted a portrait of a notable Charlie Ahern who had been born there. We had him in the wildstyle had lest he pass for just another guy instead of an esteemed creator of hip hop history. Late that night I started the trek down to Virginia but stopped to sleep in Harrisburg then dragged thru the DC traffic into fredrickburg the next day. Meeting Jen and her family