By ronthroop on Skatehive
This! 2026. Oil on paper, 18 x 24" Some more paintings keeping me grounded in explosive spring. Tomorrow I’ll finish the big piece upstairs. During break time, I met a new next door neighbor. I was taking the garbage out dressed in my painting suit. He said “Oh, you paint, but not just houses!”. I said “Yes” it’s what I do. Then he said it was a nice hobby to have, but nobody wants paintings. Maybe they will in 100 years. This is par for my course of life. I live in hell whenever I let myself out. I didn’t look at his clothes and guess a career choice. How could he imagine, in working class America, that an adult of this neighborhood would choose to be an artist? It must be a hobby. He assumes I’m retired, and took up painting to pass the time. That’s all anyone can think about art getting made ever, because I live on a street that exists in a bubble where freedom can only come from a hobby. Usually fishing, or refinishing a big boat. I nodded, and commenced a brief lecture on having a