A Typical Day In The Life Of A Gunpowder Artist!

Here is a typical day in my life as a gunpowder artist.

Archie barks at 4:30 AM.  I take him out for a leak.  Then put him back to sleep.

I'm now wide awake.  So I check the premarket. This is an old habit.  Asia is up.  So it should be a good day. 

Now I read a bit.  I choose between action adventure and poetry. (I was seriously trying to read a trilogy of French philosophy but I can't keep my focus to get through two sentences. I'm stupid enough to think I will be smarter if I read it.)  These action and poetry books balance my art. Energy. Calm. Action. Peace.  Action adventure wins most days!

Breakfast.  A long walk with the dog.  Man it is warm.  I worry about the environment.

I head to my hut.  The office.  I push myself to do a bit to keep building the Stick Vega brand.  A couple emails. Facebook.  Twitter.  I work on a blog post. Then, a little work on the new Facebook ad. 

I try to write every single day.  Not all get published.  If I'm lucky what I wrote makes sense and I won't need to edit too much. 

Now it's mid-morning.  I head to the studio.

It's a mess here.  I need to clean up... well maybe tomorrow.

I sketch a few things drawings on my legal pad.  I've been working on a few more hand held fuse drawings.  I need some ideas. They are simple.  They are easy to sketch small.  It is so much harder when working larger and my marker is on fire. 

I better check inventory.  Fuse. Paper. Scissors.  Looks like I need more gunpowder.  Online order.  Boom!

At 11:00 I meet Renee  to watch an old episode of Bonanza!  I love little Joe's green jacket.  So much fun.

Lunch.  A peanut butter sandwich.  

Errands.  I need some large panels for two new commissions.   And, we need to go to DeForest for a bunch of lefse!

$65 of lefse! Yikes!

Back into the studio.  

I put on some music.  Jay Moran's new MadRockSteady.  It has  a good working groove.

Then I move a table, bucket of water, box of rocks, paper, lighter, fuse, gloves and my sketches to the outside blast area.  I tape some coated paper to a panel and lean it on the wall. I put on my gloves and light the fuse.  I draw with burning fuse.  The first one sucks. I throw the fuse in the water bucket.  I start again.  This one is better.

I find a spot with decent light and lean the artwork there. I take a couple of photos with each of the Sony RX100 (Harrison named this camera Maplethorpe) and the Fuji. I download and edit them a bit.  Hopefully one is meaningful enough to post.

I hate stopping.  But is has been a long day.  I make a list for tomorrow.  I need some digital sketches for a presentation and if the weather is good, I will cut and prep some panels for painting and explosions soon.

I get a beer and jot down a title for a new blog post.  "Energy. Calm. Action. Peace."

Maybe I can convince Renee and Harry to stop at Waypoint for a beer.

This is a marathon.

Boom! 

Stick Vega is the American Gunpowder Artist, former CEO, and author of LESS KILLING. Stick currently lives and creates explosive pop art at The Blast Factory in Madison, Wisconsin. Not limited to one medium, he works in gunpowder drawings and paintings, photography, digital art and writing. Please follow Stick on Facebook and/or Twitter.