Surgery is traumatic. I don’t know if you’d call what I had done “major” surgery, but they did knock me out, cut me open, and stitch me back up. I had a repetitive stress injury in my left elbow, likely from 25 years of sitting at a desk, being left handed, and more recently, ten years of editing photos with a stylus. I had an amazing surgeon, that I knew was the the one to pick, because he has Chad Pennington (my favorite NY Jets QB of all time!) on the front-page of his website. If he could fix Chad’s shoulder, and make him the Comeback Player of the Year, he could surely fix my elbow. Thanks Dr. Caldwell!
So, I hadn’t had anyone come to the studio since the first week in July. In hindsight it doesn’t seem like that long, but I was laid up, unable to use my left arm, and trying to plan for the rest of the year. I was hustling my ass off on the phone, on social media, to line up collars and paid work to make up for this time lost to surgery.
I also hired my friend Frankie, who has a fantastic company called Project Rags, to come to my home and completely renovate and upgrade the studio space so that when I DID get back to work, it had more room, better placement, and new equipment to experiment and create with.
What can a say about Cheyenne? Beautiful girl. Smart as hell. Easy to talk with. Chill. Trusting. All I asked her for was to come over and mess around with my new space and new gear. We had no plan, and that’s how we liked it. Spontaneous creation with people who want to put in as much energy as I do is truly the thing I love best, when it happens. I need more of this in my life, and my work with Chey was proof of this. This was one of those experiences that when it’s over, you get a little depressed, because you don’t have that energy in your life anymore. Selfless creative trusting energy. Thanks Cheyenne. I hope we can do it again.
(If you ever want to print a Cheyenne t-shirt, that last image is ripe for printing. All you gotta do is ask and I’m sure Chey & I will be ok, IF you cut us in on the profit.)
(click images to enlarge)
