Toledo Trip

Going through my list of things overdue for posting: this is from 7 months ago, so the date is sometime in late February.

My friend Butters was going to a regional Dragonball-Z card tournament just outside Toledo with some other mutual friends of ours: Alex, Justin, and Butters (there are two of them).

The motel was in Holland, which is in Springfield Township. Not to be confused with the town of Springfield, OH outside Columbus.

It's been put off longer because of the seemingly endless line of BS problems I deal with, but I've been working on putting together a show to come back in big way. It's been a while since I've shown my work publicly. I haven't been completely unproductive though.
I've done a handful of commissions, and the Daily Sketches are still sporadically going - including some sketches and drawings from my Life & Travel sketchbook I haven't shown much of.

Going back to the show: it's a loosely-themed body of work, but the theme extends to every aspect of the show, and I have two (maybe three) other people interested in taking part in it. I'm hoping to get a few more people involved.

As I mentioned, I wanted to make this show a comeback in a big way. So aside from getting a good number of artists involved in showing their work, I wanted to have the show "tour" to a few different cities around here in the Great Lakes area of the Midwest.
I'd like to develop more of a presence in my state of Michigan, but I'd also like to have more presence in my overall region.

Toledo would be one of the cities I would like the show to tour through.

Sunday was not the best day to go. There were a number of galleries that were not open. I would think most people would have time to go check out a gallery on a weekend, when they aren't working. Especially Sundays, which a lot of people set aside as a day of rest.

The room and tournament were in the Spencer/Springfield Township area of Lucas County, just outside Toledo. The venue was this community hall called the Sultan Club.

We only had the room until eleven, and nobody else was coming back from the tournament before then, so I headed into Toledo to find someplace to post up until the few available galleries and places to eat actually opened.

Different cities have a different animal statue that they have replicas of in different places, and they're each painted differently. Mackinac Island had tortoises. Toledo has frogs.

I came across this little coffee shop, Claro Coffee Bar. It was open, and not crowded, so it seemed like the perfect spot to set up and figure out what my game plan for the day would be.

I made a few calls, and checked a few websites of places I was trying to check out.

They were a little light on food options, but the coffee was good.

Rustbelt Coffee also looked like a nice spot, but I saw it later when I was heading someplace else I was trying to get to at a particular time.

One of my first stops was this shop-venue called Handmade Toledo, which is right next door to Claro. They pride themselves on selling merchandise that supports the local area as well as locally-made art and craft-work - something I'm also very much about.

Entry to the hall in the back that can be rented out for a variety of different events.
The people working said they have regular craft shows.

While Handmade Toledo wasn't one of my planned stops in the search for a venue, it definitely made the Maybe List. Their staff is also very friendly and informative.

I moved on in search of other possible options.

There was this crazy broken-down car by the Paula Brown Gallery.

They had a really cool exhibition by Dr. Atomic (a pseudonym for collaborative twin artist brothers Mark and Michael Kersey) which I didn't photograph for policy and courtesy reasons.

I spoke with the owners, but they didn't seem especially interested in the show idea. To be fair, I couldn't expect too much asking what seemed to be fairly conservative people to exhibit  controversial work.

While the Kerseys' exhibition was cool in terms of technique and style, it also featured pretty tame subject matter and portraits of famous people.
Artist fun fact: if you paint famous people, no matter what style it's in or how good it is, people will hang it up almost anywhere. I'm not sure why that's never addressed, or if we're supposed to be captivated because we know who is being featured. Everybody losing their minds over recognition alone makes me less inclined to care or follow suit.

I know that sounds cynical, but it's true. It's not because I'm mad about it. Like I said, I knew not to expect much.

I stopped into Michael's Bar & Grill to grab a burger and a beer - and to do my Daily Sketch for the day. I don't think I caught her name, but one of the girls working there was also from Michigan.

I left the sketch like I do with all my napkin sketches.
If you haven't seen any of them, I usually post them to my Instagram (@d.sohoza) story. Sometimes I'll post them to my SnapChat (y0soho <- first 0 is a zero).
Since then I've made a Daily Sketch story highlight category on my Instagram in case you missed one during its initial 24-hour cycle. Admittedly, I'm still working on sticking to the "Daily" part.

Next I checked out 20 North Gallery.
They also had a cool exhibition on Dan Robbins, who invented the Paint By Numbers brand, that I didn't photograph for the same reasons I didn't photograph the other one earlier.
I also wanted to stay focused and not draw attention away from my purpose for being there.

The gallery manager Condessa seemed much more open to the show idea, but the gallery didn't have any openings to hold events until 2019. At the time that seemed like too long to wait, but as usual I'm encountering more setbacks. Maybe by the time I'm ready they'll have some openings. At the time my thoughts were not wanting to wait that long. At this point I guess it also falls on the Maybe List.

Another possible venue selection, with another frog.
The show is based on the concept of burning, so holding the show in a vacant firehouse or temporarily borrowing space in a running firehouse was my original idea.

I had approached one of the guys at City Hall in Romulus back in Michigan about possibly using a vacant firehouse they had right next door to their building. He seemed interested at first, but never got back to me after I had checked back in about the progress of the proposal.
That's alright though. The artwork was still in its earlier stages, and I have different plans about the local venues for the show now.

They had these artsy benches in a few different places around town.

I'm not going to lie, I have no idea who that is, but it's a nice mural.
Comment below at the bottom of the post if you do. I'm curious.

I had stopped at the tournament earlier to see how everyone was doing. I only had one gallery left to check out, and I thought I had time, so I headed back to the event to see what was up with the rest of the group. Then I was off again.

One of the galleries I had specifically came to see and speak to was closed, even though it said on the web in several places that it would be open. It was especially disappointing because of the few galleries that were open that Sunday, it was the last on the list.

After that didn't pan out, I decided to head into Downtown Johnny's. It was a nice day despite the short scattered showers, so they had the windows in the upper level open. I sat there for a bit while I figured out what my next move was.
The group I came with had started heading home already, since they had all been eliminated in the tournament, but I was waiting to hear back about meeting up with some people I knew in the area.

I still get something out of it even if things aren't working out in an obvious way. I plan on sending personal invites to Condessa and the owners of Paula Brown. If Handmade Toledo ends up not being the Toledo venue for the show, then the people working there will also be receiving invites.
I know where to go, what to have, and what I'll need to do to be more prepared next time.

I also found a bunch of good locations to put up promotional posters and leave event postcards (which I've already started designs for - they're almost finished).

I was able to meet up with my friend Nico. He's originally from Toledo, but I met him while we working on a farm out in Oregon.
He's a really good, positive person to be around.

After catching up with Nico for a bit, it was pretty late, and everyone else had already started heading back home - so I left. At the time I was still looking for work, and needed to get back to that.

It was a pretty nice, productive trip for being so short. I'll definitely be back soon though, because there're still a few more galleries I want to check out and proposition.

If you're from the Toledo area, and would like to help take part in making the show happen, feel free to reach out to me on my email: dereksohoza@yahoo.com, or if follow me on social media, send me a message (facebook.com/dsohoza).

Looking forward to next time, Toledo.

Birthday Presents

Another post that should have gone out a long time ago.
I know it doesn't sound good, but that's where I'm at. Ironically the pieces I made are meant to be motivating, but I have trouble motivating myself when it seems my efforts are overlooked or flat out ignored - in my artwork and my life.

My best friends and I didn't normally get each other birthday presents. We all mutually agreed way back that none of us made enough to get each other something we'd really want or would be useful, so we all just hang out together and drink on our birthdays.

The year I started making these I wanted to finally give them something. I still didn't make that much money, so I couldn't buy them anything super cool. I decided I would draw them something. They've each asked me to draw them some tattoo designs, but I wanted to draw them something they wouldn't be expecting.

I wanted each of the concepts to be positive overall; something that might motivate them to get up and take on the day.

A little bit of the process.

For the record, I didn't just copy the image I was drawing. The picture is made up of several different images I saw online, and I combined them in my head before putting them to paper.
The kind of energy ball Gohan is forming to attack is something I came up with without any reference. I figured it looked the part, and could be some cool, new move you haven't heard of yet.

King Gohan   18 x 24"

pencil & colored pencil

collection of Robert Hough

The round symbol in the background is a Japanese character called a kanji, and there are different ones featured on the uniforms of different characters. This particular kanji belongs to King Kai, and is also worn by Goku, Gohan's father. I used this kanji because it stands for "world king," which is more appropriate in the context of the image. The kanji on Gohan's uniform stands for "meal" or "boiled rice" - not very empowering or motivating. I could have just drawn Goku as the figure, but Gohan is Butters' favorite Super Saiyan.

The little guy at the bottom is Zeno, the Omni King. From what I've read and been told, he's the most powerful and revered being in all of the universes on Dragonball Z.
In this depiction, it's supposed to look like he's giving his power to Super Saiyan Gohan, which Gohan has acquired by wishing for it after collecting all seven Dragon Balls and bringing them to Shenron, the giant dragon.

He recently bought this shirt that I also felt was relevant. The girl, Bulma, is also from Dragon Ball Z. If you've seen it, you know she's not like how she's depicted there, and I'm pretty sure they don't have scenes like this, but she clearly represented one of the better-looking females on the show.

I decided I would leave them each a different message related to the imagery on the backs of their drawings as part of building up that motivating concept that the drawing is meant to convey.

He gave me a drawing in return. Being the one who's usually giving away the work, it means a lot to get drawings from friends and admirers.

Megin's birthday is a month after Butters'. So pretty soon I was working on her present too.

It was a challenge trying to figure out what to draw Megin that would include things she likes but could also be positive and motivating. That's not to say that she only likes dark stuff, but she'll tell you herself a fair bit of the stuff she likes is dark. I didn't want to repeat the same process of picking her favorite character from her favorite cartoon. I'm not even sure there's a cartoon she likes as much as Butters likes Dragonball Z.

I decided the piece would be transformative. Something dark that would be brightened and eased up. Megin has always liked horror films - especially the classics. Freddy Krueger is her all-time favorite horror flick killer. I decided this is where I would start from.
The idea grew and became more funny as I went along. The sick, twisted Freddy would be a harmless, pot-smoking, cat-collecting hippy getting over his past ways.

Friendly Freddy   18 x 24"

pencil & colored pencil

collection of Megin Bradford

If you're familiar with the original Nightmare on Elm Street, you might remember Johnny Depp being in it. While laying on his bed, he is sucked into it, only to shot back out and upward towards the ceiling in a gruesome, bloody display. That's what you see in the background there. I figured this could represent the darkness he is moving away from. It is literally and metaphorically behind him.

His expression isn't the friendliest, but I found the reference picture for this expression and I just pictured him hissing like a cat and holding his gloved hand up like a paw with talons.

 Following that concept, the stairs are meant to be symbolic of moving onward and upward in life. Moving towards brighter, better things.

All the cats in the picture are real cats Megin and Butters have, except two. The little black on the stairs is the back is Megin's girlfriend's cat, and the white one on Freddy's lap is supposed to be the cat-version of the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

"A húgomnak" is Hungarian for "To my sister."
I wrote it this way because Megin and I are both mostly Hungarian, and I would like to start learning and using our ancestral language more.
It would be nice if others wanted to learn and use it as well, but even if they don't, I'll continue on like I do. I'm sure they'll change their minds when I start saying things they can't understand about them.

They both really seemed to like them a lot despite how long it took for me to hand them over, which is good. They were also pretty quick to get them framed right away which I appreciate immensely.

These two have stuck by me through recent years when others have left, moved on, or stopped speaking to me. A lot of it has been fun, but the years also included a lot of struggle. It's during those times of struggle and hardship that you find out who is really there for you, and I just want them to know how much it means to me that they're still there. They have my back, and I have theirs.