Chico V Chapter 32 Sept 88 to May 90 After going to Portland and considering that as my next home and spending over a week there I went on up to Mt. St. Helens and Mt Ranier, and took poloroids. In the news was the fires all over the place where I wanted to go to take pictures for making paintings from. I was driving past scenery that needed to be painted every few blocks, so I turned around and headed back to Portland. I drove past mile after mile of the devastaion left by the recent eruption of Mt. St. Helens. I got to Portland and got a motel room. I got my stuff out of the storage unit I had rented to make room in my car for painting on location. Yeah, Chico would be my home. I got to Chico and started looking for a place. I looking in the classifieds and at every number I called I had to leave a message. So I gave the phone number of the motel and my room number. No one ever returned my call. Pretty soon I went to Reno. I looked at places for rent there. It took a lot of overhead to get a place and some required you already have a job. I thought that if I were going to do a handyman gig in addition to becoming an artist, I would do better in Chico. I went back to Chico, I found a place in a nice bunch of big trees. it was small, but I fancied I could do my artist thing there. I tried to get it. I had to fill out a bunch of forms. I would be in competition with a few dozen other artist-grade applicants for the place and was told by the machine voice that I would be notified of the decision of some committee, in a few weeks about their decision as to who would be so privileged as to live in this cheap studio apartment. I started looking elsewhere. Depressing. I headed toward Reno, and considered Reno again. Then I returned to Chico and found a place in Open Circles, because someone didn't finish their lease. I had my own bathroom, and kitchen and shared a porch with my next door neighbor. *** A year and a half later I put everything is my storage unit. But during that year and a half I did the following: 1.Got my art career started 2. worked as a freelance handyman. 3. help a contractor build an addition to a house. 4. got a settlement from my car accident. 5. attended classes in art at Butte Community College, some at Reno High School, and some at the new campus of Butte C.C. Southeast of Chico a few miles. 6. sold paintings. 7. held weekly art shows in the green house that I had converted into an art gallery/ art studio/ handyman work shop. 8. participated in three art fairs. 9. filled out 22 pages of tax forms that documented how I had made my money during this time 10. made many friends. |
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