Once I hitchhiked to Canada
years ago before 9/11, before the border restrictions
no passport necessary
though the Canadians were very cautious about letting me into their country
with a backpack & a skateboard
my ride dropped me off before the border
and the guards interrogated me until they were sure I had enough money
and was going to go home again.
I’ve always been a big fan of all indigenous people
but am particularly fascinated by Indians & in particular NW Coast art and culture
much like some are big fans of sports teams or actors
I’m like this with the Haida, the Kwakiutl, the Tlingit
so I hitchhiked to Vancouver BC
just to go to the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia
carrying the largest collection of NW Coast art on the west coast
this after checking out every book I could with NW Coast Art in my local libraries & making a book of photocopies
studying forms and how it all works
What does it all mean?
Like some puzzle
difficult to decipher
perhaps part of the allure of the art
is that it is an abstraction of a real thing
but nothing is meaningless
just randomness
it all represents even in its most abstract form
real body parts in reality
real animals
& by a number of clues that repeat culturally
mysteries of identity are solved in every portrait
in every masterpiece
but only with a lot of knowledge
about what you are looking at
can you truly appreciate it
I spent days in the museum sketching artifacts
without a good camera
only a pencil and a sketchbook I still take ideas from today
though I have never, ever mastered the art
I do know what I’m looking at (sometimes)
after many years of studying
I don’t really know that I would use it because it isn’t mine culturally
for much more than what I do
painting forms on a skateboard
to entertain myself
I just make do with what I get
which ain’t much
but if you just sit there and say you have nothing
life never goes anywhere & you never get to do anything
you got to take your chances if you’re really poor
otherwise you’d might as well just crawl into a hole & die
as much as you’ll see & do
Found out there was a nudist beach right below the museum
had a weird time with a Greek guy who I thought was going to sell me to an Armenian as a sex slave
and ended up sitting on some other portion of the shoreline closer to town
listening to a bum play guitar
as the sun set & I had no idea what to do
but hunker down in some boulders along this park
luckily the homeless bum turned out to be a nice guy
and not actually homeless at all
so I stayed that night at a house worth 4x’s as much as my parents
on the bums brother’s couch
whom I’m sure was a little freaked out
but did very well not to show it
when he woke up to find a total stranger
in the house with his 2 year old daughter & wife
his crazy brother had brought home
nice people really
you always hear of bums being scammers
pretending that they are poor, then they have a nicer car & apartment than those they beg from
but this guy had some serious problems
nice guy
but just bent on preaching the gospel to people
not so noticeable while he had a guitar in hand
and he could talk normally
but as soon as we got on a bus in the morning
he was just talking, talking, talking all about God
to all these poor people whose body language and glances said it all:
“Buddy, I’m just trying to get to work here & I’m not at all awake nor prepared for this right now.”
Seriously, the guy could not shut up and just made himself a nusuance
like I do now to people on the internet
but I guess you don’t want to hear
I really
REALLY do have a message from God at this point?
Just want to keep doing whatever you were doing uninterrupted.
Got enough to worry about.
Sometimes it wasn’t about choice
it was about obligation
it wasn’t about giving you a hug
it was about doing the heimlich.
But yeah, made it back home, not a dent in the fender even after sleeping on the nudist beach the next night & being woken up in the morning by cops who pulled up in a hovercraft in the morning to tell me how dangerous it was to camp there. Thank you Royal Mounties!
the.bondage.queen 