We are Back! lol

[AIR-Quarius]

Well I was gone for awhile as jonybgood here and now I am redhawkerII. I am re-born! We finally got back on here with our favorite group of people, 'The airstreamers!' We are full timers, and kind of in a different light, neither one drives (yet) but we are working on that. In the meantime we are still in our earley travelventures as artist (airbrush restoration) Right now we are in Altus Oklahoma (originated in Amarillo)...and are painting A carousel plus thirty some odd cast aluminum horses that goes with it. If you want a more personal view of us you can get on youtube and type in 'headacherack'..These are little primitive clips I have been practiceing with filming while painting in a handy backlot of a lumberyard here in this town....mind you I am not trying to sell anything! But you might see our 1970 Overlnder in the clips sprinkled in with cats (rescues). Our long term plan is one day travel around as part of the retirement. Well I have said enough, oh, no I haven't...We are also looking for a replacement window, and think we found it. Who knows, sometimes we joke to ourselves and talk about probably joining a circus or carnival and travel and work with them.......NOT!

[ROBERT CROSS]

WELCOME BACK...

Sounds like a cool adventure your embarking on, good luck!!

The Herschell Carousel Museum is here in WNY, they are so cool.

Here are some photo's of one we found in Caroga NY while leaf peep'n last Fall.

[AIR-Quarius]

Thanks! We are almost to the 'River'...years ago we painted murals and several of which are in central Texas, Breckenridge is the city had won us some awards in 1999 for the whole state of Texas...scored about thirty or so murals...and after that I figured this was enough 'running back and forth' and there has to be a way of taking all the recorded work and channel it into the internet..but I still have to work regardless,but our greatest reward was not really from all the murals, but rather the airstream we found (or rather found us three years ago). We knew that the economy was going to shrink and everybody was going to downsize somehow and having a home with wheels was the best bet. And it has paid off greatly and will keep everything interesting as we head towards more horizons. I swear some people have to HAVE a house to accommodate. And we know this airstream is going to provide for us. AMEN!

[Minnie's Mate]

...neither one drives (yet) but we are working on that...

This confuses me. Not difficult to do, mind you, but still confuses me. How do you move about if neither of you drive?

And welcome back!

[AIR-Quarius]

...we first started out way down the ladder as street urchins, my mother and step dad passed away and I had no real place to go, so I ran with hobos for about a year-got delivered to Munday Texas (hitch-hiked) ..And the nice folks there took me in and got me grounded. That was about fifteen years ago,maybe more! It was there where I met up with Angel...who was living on the front porch of his house and fixed lawnmowers to get by on, he had no utilities or water-just a empty house...I felt bad for him and as I got to know him better I realized he had a mental problem...I did not know he was (watch my spelling) schitzophrenic. So while in Munday both of us were without wheels and had to rely on others support to get around. I told Angel if we worked together painting murals, we could have a good chance at living like we were both doing...I myself was living in a little metal lawnmower shed behind an antique store a few blocks away...I remember during one winter scraping ice frost off the metal wall inside above the old couch I used to sleep and sit on...it was all the room I had! And I learned that metal radiates cold that year. There was a lawndry across the street, a few feet down the alley where I would load the machine with hot water first before putting in clothes- and took my bath like that without totally dis-robing mind you. Our fist step to working together was to plan a mural of some sort in a place where people could really see my stuff...so right across from the main grocery store, on the newspaper building across the street we painted a moderatly large coka-cola replica of a little girl with butterfly wings holding a coke banner...well, sure nuff people started to talk...and it was not to long before we were alerted to a wealthy rancher in Seymour Texas and his wife had just had a stroke and he wanted a very large mural painted on the side of a storage barn of his that sits right by the highway between Seymour and Wichita Falls. I told Angel that if we do this feat we will get discovered even better...we did it and it took about four months to do it and we would ride our bicycles each day four miles to the site until it was done. It can be veiwed if you google my name Bill Ines. Well.... ...and I hate to admit this but there was a booger bear we were taking along with us called alcohol and we thought 'wow we're making some real money now we can celebrate. We did not realize the consequinses (sp) of that mix...and we hit many bumps in the road for several years and lost lots of things and/or bad situations happenned. But the beauty of everything was that the lord was still delivering us as we continued to work...this campfire story gets even better and I should stop now...later we got 'discovered' by Main Street in Breckenridge Texas and literally threw our bikes in the back of a truck and went there to paint under there direction...word on the street was tht we were coming from being homeless and were churning out these amazing murals of tin type photo-reproductions taken by Basil Clemens back in the twenties...we did eight of them in different forms, while we were belting them out (I am very very fast) -at the same time we were trying to figure out the formula for painting an old photographic replica and taking every shortcut possible to get there....well (are you nodding off) We got elected to enter a statewide contest put on by the Texas Downtown Association) and this was all the doings of a superstar director with main street there at the time ...Shelly Hargrove - I told her once that the experience of working with her was like passing thru the tail of a comet...as I reflect back on all this, I keep realizing how strong the forces of God was working for us...both as individuals who needed the help to be helping themselves first. Later we went to Houston and walked away with first place honors competing against 138 other Texas cities. (1999) And then the wheels started turning really fast....I told Angel, we have created a monster. I hope I don't get into trouble being long winded...but you have to know this story...and I will finish by adding we got recognized by President Bush...received front page coverage everywhere we went as part of the award...we still do, but we are more pulled back now and are trying our best to retire somehow...Angel is on Meds now and we are living like real people unlike the wino pathway we were on back then...

[AIR-Quarius]

oh, and right now, if its needed we find someone or some service to 'move it', but we are here for now thru the winter and its got pretty good ice outside right now, but its beats a card board box in any alley U.S.A. ...you now sometimes...I will hear somebody thats doing pretty darn good with their life, and they will be complianing about something they don't have or need...and I am quick to suggest that why don't they go sit in a cardboard box out in the alley and pray about it...Ha! If they only knew...

[ROBERT CROSS]

God Bless....what a wonderful, inspiring story.

Would it be possible to post some of your work here....

People here LOVE Airstream Art and there are some comercial venders that might be able to toss something your way.

Again thanks for the story, gotta go now, can't find the Kleenex.

[Cathy Libby]

I enjoyed your story and your writing. Not only are you an artist but a good story teller. Thank you for sharing. I too would like to see your work.

Regards, Cathy

[AIR-Quarius]

when I learn how to shrink pictures I have in picasa and my windows photo gallery I can put my projects up..But right now I am in the middle of this blasted carousel and I have some clips on youtube under the name headacherack. Thanks for reading all that, I had to get it off and out to somebody that would understand, and who else better than the airstream people. One day the redhawker will fly into the fire and will arise, reborn agian as the great legendary FLAMINGO!

[Minnie's Mate]

One day the redhawker will fly into the fire and will arise, reborn agian as the great legendary FLAMINGO!

That's the way to go!

That would also make a great mural, too.

[danalee]

Neat images. How do you store all your art stuff?

[AIR-Quarius]

...As we (if this is what you mean)...started painting all those years back, we would keep a disposable camera on hand and would shoot as we processed. And I have three photo albums loaded with pictures of the 'whole enchilada'. I still have the books and am working on having those pictures burned onto a CD and will probably end up going to a production place, and pay to have it all 'produced well'. Now I use a digital camera.....oh, this wonderful age we live in....and I am able to send them into my pc in Picasa 3 or windows photo gallery. Angel, thru his ssi earned enough some time back, to buy this laptop (Toshiba/Vista) ...and there are movie making features that drive me nuts trying to figure out! The airstream has become a hobby of ours fixing it up and keeping in stock condition. This airstream was owned by an actress/model that installed leopard skin carpet and stored her clothes in here. I have already polished it with an orbital buffer once last summer and restored (painted) the faded graphics wrapped around it. Anyway if thats what you mean by 'art stuff'. I also keep very low volume bags of equipment for painting...I never have liked lugging around all the bells and whistles of art supplies, just a good double action airbrush, a mid-size paint gun and a compresser (oil type). Another upgrade we did to the airstream was to minwax clear polyurethane the wood interior. For the plastic type shell walls, when they need to be cleaned we use a spray called 'Bleche white'...This application literally melts residual buildup on contact and you just wipe it away useing a bucket of warm water, rubber gloves, and several clean sponges. Can't use it on glass though, nor the shell on the outside as it will marr the plasticoat finish. (I am entering the BLABBER ZONE)....But we are tickled to be hearing from all of you! Thanks!

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by redhawkerII

One day the redhawker will fly into the fire and will arise, reborn agian as the great legendary FLAMINGO!

You betch'a....

[AIR-Quarius]

Now that I figured out how to upload pictures....here's Angel pointing to the side where the broken window is...and a couple of horses I am airbrushing...man, this is great uploading pictures!

[ROBERT CROSS]

opp's....hate tit when that happens.

Please try again

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by redhawkerII

this is great uploading pictures!

Red,
When I first started here the photo's were a problem for me too. I ended up e-mailing them to myself and copying them to a folder, couldn't figure out how to re-size.....still can't. Computer goof here!!

Go to manage attachments under additional options at the bottom of the page, pick out your photo from your file, hit upload.

Looking forward to seeing your work!!

[bullydogsmom]

Whoa, What a story. You sound like an amazing person. Maybe you should do some kind of mural on the outside of your Airstream! Maybe paintyour journery through life so far or something as equally cool!

Annette

[AIR-Quarius]

ok I'll try again.

[AIR-Quarius]

I think what I did was upload a film clip by accident...what I do is pull some pictures together in picasa, then send them to a special named folder then picasa shows me where it put them (in the computer) then...I go back to right here like before and try again...but really I think I put a film clip in there without really seeing it. Let's see.... tick-tock-tick-tock-tick-tock...... ......tick-tock-tick-tock..............tap tap tap tap.........tap tap.............well, it did it again and said 'invalid post specified. If you followed a valid link, please contact the administrator..maybe they will see the four pictures and glue them into place for me...but I will persist and I will prevail. ha!

[vhord]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

opp's....hate tit when that happens.

Please try again

I don't hate them when that happens.