Happy Freedom

New Schwinn Admiral 700c at Whistle Stop Corner

Parked at Nueva Street Gallery- Sculpture?!

If you could see me right now, you'd be blinded by my big grin. 

The thing we kept saying when we found the property that would become Whistle Stop Corner is, "We can bicycle to work!"  And this week we have finally begun! 

First, I did my usual uberFrugal thing... and consulted the listings in Craigslist.  We met a man at a parking lot midway and I jumped right on the blue bicycle he was selling for oh-so-little. Even though I'd noticed that he'd Armor All-ed the heck out of the tires and even though it was an asphalt lot at 2:00 p.m. on a hot late-August day in Texas, I still took the first turn too sharply and the slick tires slid across that hot asphalt and I went right down on my keister.  My pride was the biggest thing hurt.  My keister was the next biggest thing.  Oooch.  But I paid the man and rode it to work the next day.  Imagine my glee!  I did love the idea of the bike, but not the actual bike, turns out.  I still found myself looking at bicycles online.  Apparently I had not married the blue bike... we were just dating.

On Sunday I found The Shiny New Schwinn.  I also got Accessories: a cute white wire basket that comes off and has a handle for carrying, LED headlight and taillight, a Dddling-dddling-dddling bell, and a Kryptonite bike lock.  She's white with red lettering, red sidewalls and red piping on the seat and red cross stitch on the grips.  She's a rolling peppermint! Hey, that's a good name for her, don't you think?  Peppermint, it is.   I have an electric bike, too, named Peggy Sue:  the down-home version of Pegusus... get it? ;-)

It takes 10-15 minutes to get to Nueva Street Gallery or to get home to Whistle Stop Corner, depending on lights and those minutes are spent smiling and saying Good Morning and Good Afternoon to everyone I pass, feeling the self-made breeze and the freedom and instant time travel to my youth. 

My happiest Christmas was 1966 when I was 11 and my parents gifted my sister and brothers and I with new Schwinn bicycles. Mine was pink and white. I loved it so. It put wings on my sense of freedom and expanded my territory in a big way. I'm 57 now and still can appreciate that feeling.
What does this have to do with painting or art?  A happy artist makes happy art?  Another action taken to fulfill our dreams makes us more of who we are?  I don't know... It does feel like it's part of my dream as an artist somehow.   It's also less gas used and fewer parking fees paid... always good.  But a sense of happy freedom - The BEST.