The glamor of the road.

I recently had the opportunity to travel on the road with two of my favorite artist, Vortman and Chris Cank. The collaborative team that make up Vorcan. Under the name Vorcan these artists paint to live music all over the US. Here is how the trip went:
First I was told that we were going to Canada to paint the group Eoto. We made it as far as Olympia, Washington, painted Eoto, then turned around and headed south to Eureka, CA to paint the BLVD at the Red Fox Tavern.

This was my first lesson of the life on the road with Vorcan:
Expect plans to change.

The drive down to Eureka was beautiful and we got to stop at a small beach in northern CA for a minute to check out the beautiful sunset over the Pacific Ocean. This still didn't make up for the fact that we weren't going to Canada...

Blvd is an electro-hip hop group based out of San Francisco. They were happy to let us paint during there show and invited us to SF the following night for their CD release party.
Here I am to the left painting to BLVD. And below is a picture of Chris and I painting to the opening band On The One. These guys rely on sales of their art at these shows, to pay for food and gas to make it to their next gig. Life isn't always easy on the
road. Good night = sleeping in hotels. Bad nights = sleeping in the tour bus, which for now is a silver Scion, packed full of art supplies. We hit the road after the BLVD show and made our way further south to San Francisco.









We all took turns driving and catching up on sleep in the vip lounge (aka the back seat).
A huge part of success on the road is attributed to the kindness of friends and strangers. A great gift came from our friend Tim, who graciously let us take showers at his house the morning we arrived in SF. And to our friend Anna who let us crash at her house the following night.

Getting gigs isn't always as easy as having the band invite us to continue painting with them. Below is Vortman painting to the BLVD at their CD release party at Slims in SF.

We were pretty successfull at that show and decided to try our luck the following night in San Francisco as well. Calexico was playing at the Fillmore. Since we hadn't previously contaced Calexico or the Fillmore we had to rely on luck and being in the right place at the right time. We arrived at the Fillmore during sound check to try to catch the band to ask permission to paint. This is where the real majic of Vorcan happens. It is alot of waiting outside behind the venues and hoping the right people come out. Hoping they will take a minute to listen to what we want to do, be excited, and allow us to paint them. Fortunately the members of Calexico are awesome, and were excited to have us paint them. Unfortunately their show was sold out and the folks at the Fillmore shut us down. Such is life on the road as a live painter. We decided to take that night off and have a delicious sushi dinner before heading back to Portland. I was happy to be invited to travel with Vorcan, and to see what a challenge their job is.
To read about thier travels in their own words go to www.50dollarlunch.com.