Combat Art Boots: February 2011

DAY 1:
WEDNESDAY January 19th.
Early MORNING: 6:15 am

On January 19th, I woke up very early because I was so anxious about the long trip to Utah. I haven't been in a trip since I was 9 years old.

I woke up and went straight to Wesly's room and got him dressed for school.. he was begging me not to go because he says, that he has nightmares, and me staying will prevent him of having bad dreams. I smiled and reassured him that I will return to him and that I expected him to remain well, and to behave. As I was telling him this, many things crossed my mind and I started to tear a little bit. He understood and went on with our usual school preparation to go to school.

I woke up Tomas, my older brother who had already packed and pretty much was waiting on me to tell him " LETS GO ".
Moving around the house, gathering my stuff, I starting to get anxious about the whole idea of leaving New York City grounds, and being on a plane. I stood in the hallway dressed with my coat and all, my huge luggage ready, but frozen because I really didn't know how to disconnect myself from leaving my home...

I snapped and went out of it and told Tomas "lets go", and off we went. We went out side of the main doors, and saw already parked on the sidewalk, a huge black private car with my name on a large white paper, on the driver's side of the window. " I looked over to Tomas, with a huge grin and I asked him, was he "ready?" as we both approached the car.

The car ride to the airport made us act like we were two little gitty kids, giggling and cheery, still trying to realign our excitement, but nothing prepared us from seeing the JFK airport from the car.
The getting of our tickets, .....SMOOTH
The getting our luggage checked in ......SMOOTH
The getting into the plane, ......SMOOTH

THE PLANE RIDE As we got our seats, we also remembered that we were in a unique sitting placement, for we were at the emergency exit seats, on the right side of the wing. I didn't think nothing of it as I bucked up, but once we took off.... My heart was racing! ( again, it didn't seemed real to me that all of this was happening...)

The Most humbling experience being up in the air, was when we were reaching a 20 minute wait into getting close to the Salt lae City Air Port, was those HUGE MOUNTAINS that I saw from the sky. NO real natural history program on TV can ever capture what I saw with my own eyes. I cannot describe properly how I felt, but it was in totally memorization, in a total state of being speechless. I cant believe Mountains so huge can be seen this way, and they look so majestic with the snow covering its tops. WOW dinosaur HUGE ... ha ha ha...

We landed in UTAH:
(still my mind was on.. yeah its a dream.. lets go with the motion... ).. as we were heading to get our luggage and into our next task.

Stranded a bit at the airport, we were finally able to get a shuttle van that pick us and other passengers to our hotels. It was at least a 45 minute ride. And all along, my sweet son calls me to ask me how I was doing! I LOVE my son!

As soon as we reached our hotel, I was told to Check in, and gear out to the SUNDANCE CHANNEL HEAD QUARTERS with all my art materials ready to work. I was a bit winded and out of breath as I entered our gorgeous hotel. Gitty still, we checked in, went to see our beautiful lavish one room apartment, and re focused out into a WORK - MODE status.
Out the door, across the street, we both stood there, waiting for the shuttle bus that states MAIN STREET to arrive. Both myself and my brother were wide eye at this point, checking out everything and feeling and adjusting our senses to the cold winds of the Utah air. Once out the bus, we rushed quickly to our destination, excited, bewildered, and ready to work. Once at the headquarters, we had sometime to eat and then familiarize myself with people that I had already met in New York City, as to the staff of this unique head quarters.

I finally linked up with the Art Coordinator who's art design of the entire Sundance Head Quarters J C, also know and Jean Claude___. He showed me and my brother around the place and then showed me the wall that I needed to make that " BRICK CITY " mural.

I got the art materials, mapped out the mural, and then when prepping the outline, I realized I wouldn't be able to finish this mural in one day, but needed some help. I was so lucky to have my older brother with me, for he helped me tremendously finish this mural in two days. He is very good with lettering and graffiti, and this was so helpful for me to complete this task. Wednesday felt like forever, because we were so engaged with the mural that my body started to feel so drained from the high altitude we were in, and the lack of food we got for the duration of the day. Day 1 felt like day 8th.... towards the end of this night, Tomas and I took with us, 2boxes of canvases, which I needed to pre prime for the next day. Once back to our Hotel, I layed all the canvass and made my pallate with its colors.

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DAY 2
Thursday January 20th
Early morning 7am

Woke up early and got dressed. We got all the canvases that I primed, back into the boxes, and off we were to the Sundance Channel HQ. Day 2 went pretty fast, because both Tomas and I had to finish the mural for the next day. Also not only did we finsihed the mural late Thursday night but I was able to start my very first celebrity portraits. I was so nervous, but I kept it cool knowing that this is a very unique opportunity for me, so I couldn't let my nerves take over my focus.

Three gentlemen sat right next to Amer Hashim, the host, and they were getting the microphone adjustments and cues from other staff members. I sat behind the main stage, next to all the large cameras and crew members, as I am wide eyed and anxious to meet these directors on the interviewing table.

The Brian____ called me up to him, and introduced me to the guests, and went further in describing to them that I will be making portraits of them, while they will be conducting a brief interview, the three men looked straight in my eyes and smiled with surprise that that was even possible. ( in my mind.. I was WHAT.. didn't I suppose to make one portraits? ... I didn't say much but refocus my thoughts as to find a way to execute this very fast!)

::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::Quick summery of the past days :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Day 3 through Day 9th ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Pretty much the routine was as such;

1.Wake up,

2. prepare to leave the hotel,

3. get The shuttle bus to main street with out preprimed canvases,

4. ready to be worked on,

5. then eat breakfast ,

6. to then rush to the "STUDIO" where all the interviews are being conducted,

7. have breaks if it was scheduled,

8. then eat drink plenty of water,

9. to then work again. Around 6 or even 7 pm I finsihed work to then travel back to my
hotel,

10. to preprimed more blank canvases for the next day.

In total 144 Canvases were done by the course of one week.