Life in the fast lane, never a dull moment

Yep, it's been a while since I've posted. Please excuse my neglect. You may have been wondering which ends of the world I have been wandering to, so far away from internet... yet the strange reality is that I haven't been far at all, except for a brief one month trip to Colombia in April.

As they say, sometimes traveling for so long makes you go and see home for the first time. In my case that is true. For so many years, I have always been about to leave for somewhere. Even when I was just getting off a plane in Ohio, I was always thinking of where I would be off to next. However, in January, shortly after my last post, there was an unusual string of events that changed my perspective, at least temporarily.

I began to date Jeff, who has been a friend of mine and my brothers for many years. He is just like me and I am just like him. It makes perfect sense. (Not to mention the fact that he speaks the same language as the rest of my family!) Then I met P.R. Miller, an unusual and eccentric hoarder... I mean, artist... from Akron. He makes sculptures of recycled stuff. He and Jeff knew each other through a long and complicated story involving anti-aircraft missiles. We went to his kaleidoscope house in the dead of winter (he has no heat but a small wood-burning oven) while he told stories of being a wizard. And while he does have a beard, he does not mean wizard in the usual sense, but as a "mover of energies." He then proceeded to give us keys to his studio.

And so we moved into this alleged studio, otherwise known as the illustrious 9 Ira. And not the Ira Rd. in the Cuyahoga Valley, but the Ira Ave. in the middle of the slums of South Akron. We are only three blocks from the projects, yet within those three blocks there are also five churches, one mosque and a Buddhist temple. Needless to say, the neighborhood has a little character. And the studio... well... it's about as authentic South America as you can get in North America, and that might still be generous.

The building is across the train tracks from the Firestone plant and was originally a boarding house for the workers (on the second floor). They would pay to sleep there for eight hours between shifts. Later it was converted to a cathouse. The first floor was home to a restaurant, a tailor shop, and a market... perhaps some other retail spaces as well. The basement included a pool hall and showering areas. Nowadays, the second floor is strange apartments filled with even stranger tenants, something similar to the most bottom-rung cheap hotel in Peru. The first floor is occupied by several artists: a comic book artist, a sculptor, an illustrator of children books as well as a taxi driver and a meat market. We have the middle apartment, which is also the largest. We also have the entire basement which is now stockpiled with P.R.'s random stuff. And when I say random, I mean REALLY random. Like hundreds of practice CPR mouths, ceramic kilns, old neon lights, oil lamps, gobs of silverware, old magazines, boxes of lace, hundreds of door knobs and feet of clawfoot tubs... etc., etc.

And with what pretense did we decide to live in this bizarre place? Well, to me, it feels like home. There are tall ceilings and plenty of room to make a mess. It's just weird enough to keep me constantly busy. And even though the neighborhood is one of the worst in Akron, it doesn't really matter. Life is too short to deny living somewhere because you think it might be bad. People get robbed and assaulted in even the best neighborhoods. The only way for a place to improve is to go there and be positive. I've lived in ghettos in Brazil before, where even a ten-year-old kid is walking around with a pistol, and I'd like to think that somehow it boosts the morale of a place just for it to have one more smile, or one person who is there willing to share something with their neighbor.

So, we started a garden, and then we started another garden. They are beautiful gardens, full of all different kinds of vegetables. I read everything I could get my hands on about planting and cultivating food. It was my first garden of my own and I'm very proud of it. As of today, it has fed more than twenty people, and we eat from it every day. Sharing is the key to making it a great garden. We even had guests from Australia. Jeff built a climbing wall. It is a small training wall, but many have come to climb as well.

There are bigger goals though for 9 Ira. Most of our front room is open space (other than some of P.R.'s sculptures that are very slowly moving out). We want to create a space for artists to come together, a type of artist co-op, for people to share what they know and learn from what others have to share. And of course, to do all this in a place that can get a little messy. And even more importantly, maybe some of this artist hubbub can be shared with the community, where it is needed most. So, we take things one day at a time. There is a lot of work to be done, but with patience we will make it happen.

Other than that, I have been playing cello for musicals, rock climbing, mountain biking, hiking... you know, the usual :)

Pictures and more will be coming soon!

And of course, if you'd like to be involved in this mighty project, whether it be coming to eat a salad or coming to make art... you know where to find me!