Rockaway Peach
Price: $187,200
Materials: Colored pencil on paper
Dimensions: 8 ⅜" x 5 ¼ "
Created: 2019
The Story: If the Galactic Council is giving out medals of honor once there's open contact my ex-wife is for sure getting a big one.
I had many nicknames for her but my favorite one was Peach. She brought me pizza and kombucha during visitation hours for 19 days straight while I was in the hospital. Glass wasn't allowed in the cafeteria and she'd go through the trouble of transferring it to a paper cup every time. This was also in the midst of her opening her brand new brick and mortar location for her non-profit. She was never one to be driven by money. I had a routine in South Williamsburg that anything other than those extreme circumstances would not have shaken me from. It was her idea to move out to Rockaway for my recovery and she was bringing printouts of apartment listings to me along with all that pizza.
Experientially it felt like I got picked up by a tornado like in the Wizard of Oz and magically landed on that beautiful peninsula upon waking.
I exited the doors of that medical circus a mixture of Bernie from Weekend At Bernie's and Pig-Pen from Charlie Brown. I might as well have been dead and I was being swarmed by all the negative energy I had picked up and been injected with from that place. Then, throw that thing where we all had to start wearing masks on top of that a few months later too. Those were some super dark days and my ex is a hero for sticking by my side as long as she did.
This drawing is from inside the walls of that circus where I was imagining my new life by the beach. On the previous page of my sketchbook I had drawn another one and you can see the words Home Sweet Home subtly indented from it on this drawing.
This one truly makes me laugh every single time I look at it.
So far there are only two chunks of land on this planet that bring tears to my eyes when I think about my connection to them and Rockaway Beach is one of those places. I spent many sunrises on that beach without another human in sight and it is a sacred place to me. I wonder how much of that has to do with the fact my Mom grew up on those shores and if it wasn't for the winters I might still be there. Who knows, maybe one day I'll snowbird from time to time.
I also never would've gotten into surfing without my ex or that place either. I was such a cool guy skateboarder that for a long time I truly thought surfing was lame; even while I was editing that doc about Balaram.
Nowadays I consider myself a surfer first and when I skate I imagine I'm throwing spray out the back of my tail. Cruising on my pennyboard from my parking spot to the grocery store has me cackling with joy in a way I never experienced while getting tech down the Roslyn Banks. I'm going to write an essay on that whole journey another time. I have a whole lot to say about surfing, skateboarding, and spirituality.
Half the proceeds from the sale of this drawing go to the subject. I'm new to this whole selling art thing but if other people aren't doing this that seems fucked. Especially photographers. Thanks again ol' bud 🏄♀️ 🍑 💛 I can't wait to cut you this check and if they make custom ones with peaches on them that's for sure what you're getting.
Rock Rock Rockaway Peach 🎶
Notes: All of the artwork I'm offering for sale is incredibly meaningful to me. Prices are based on what I would actually consider trading it for. I have been shedding material possessions left and right but this is about acquiring things for the sake of having new experiences and doing new things creatively. In this case that is exactly four years of tuition at the School Of Visual Arts. That is currently $187,200 and does not include room and board or other associated costs.
This is not to enroll in SVA. I already did that.
It's to get a reimbursement.
I'm so glad I didn't go for illustration because this masterpiece would cease to exist. After the first semester I became so uninspired I just started mailing it in, drinking 40's, and only editing. That dude Nick Patrick from Jersey was cool but otherwise video class at Northport High School was far superior. (Ms. Levin, you were the best.)
All of my favorite artists are untrained and that degree and dusty award SVA gave me are meaningless. I only dormed the first year but those places were absolute garbage. My Mom told me my Dad broke down in tears after seeing that shit hole in the George Washington building I was living in. I'm pretty sure there were ghouls in there and I'm regretful for not dropping out and getting banned for tagging up the hallways like my friend Ryan. My Mom started working retail at Barnes and Noble and I was trekking out to Flushing to run an after school skatepark for the YMCA to make ends meet back then.
My loans are long paid off but I'm considering this as a means to receiving a partial reimbursement. That fruit hanging ten in this drawing has not one, but two degrees and I'm sure she'd put the money to good use too. SVA is not an exception and there's a reason SUNY Purchase is referred to as SUNY Poor-Choice by many former students. Whoever came up with that deserves a Clio and a Vermonster with a cherry on top 🍒
Institutions with money are not the authority on art. Nobody is.
Except, maybe children.
That $999,00 home I mentioned in the other drawing for sale has a detached garage. The things I could do and the art I could create by using my $93,600 share from the sale of this drawing to turn that into a creative studio seems endless. I get giddy just thinking about the possibilities.
I turned a 160 square foot cellar space filled with junk on S. 5th Street into something truly beautiful and I'm ready for an upgraded round two studio in Hawaii.
Please know the condition of all of the artwork I'm offering is also imperfect. They have travelled around the world with me. They have been in and out of frames and matte boards. What you see pictured is their current day actual condition but there may be some imperfections or weathering that cannot be perceived through the photos. I think it adds to their character and significance but I want to be transparent about that. Tax and shipping are included in price. Please contact me if you'd like to pay with a method other than Stripe.
Mahalo.