Story of an RV Owner Caught in the Act of...Painting! in Free Venice
(what’s still free of it)
By Erica
Snowlake
Venusians! injustices
festering along cherry blossom avenues! biking by the Venice United Methodist
church i spotted my friend Lush fixing his van in the parking lot. he told me a
not-so-funny story, which we continued in interview form days later on the
boardwalk.
Beachhead: Lush, (who is 6’3”
with eyes of blue glacial ice), tell me what happened the night of thursday
march 9th at ....what time?
Lush: well
“everybody hates chris” was just starting on upn on my little
black”n”white tv so i know it was 8
pm.
Beachhead: what were you
doing?
Lush: in my van painting parked
close to a friend’s house on Brooks near
4th.
Beachhead: describe the nature of
what you were painting. (Lush usually paints big canvases depicting day-glo
maelstroms radiating over Venice Beach, cataclysms of sun and waves, silhouetted
imagery of the boardwalk, ancient battles between dragons and knights, and polar
bear cubs tumbling in the snow, from what i’ve seen and
admired)
Lush: a landscape in orange of
a guy pushing a gondola downstream with a couple in the back having
sex.
Beachhead: ye olde venezia! so you
heard a knock?
Lush: no, saw a
flashlight shining in the window, asked what do you guys want?, heard
“STEP OUT OF THE
VEHICLE”.
Beachhead: whoa,
woe.
Lush: got out, told my name, got
searched, handcuffed from behind, and put in the patrol
car.
Beachhead: did they have papers?,
citations?, warrants?, CHARGES?
Lush:
nothing, they did not identify themselves either. they declared i was being
arrested for sleeping in my van, and they were going to impound it
pronto.
Beachhead: Dang. Lush,
let’s dig grass..... how long have you been an artist on the
boardwalk?
Lush: since
1999.
Beachhead: how prolific are you?
– like how many paintings do you
sell?
Lush: around five a week, and
they go anywhere from $18 to
$4,000.
Beachhead: who’s your
main source of revenue?
Lush:
definitely tourists. (FYI: the boardwalk is the most visited tourist attraction
in California after
Disneyland)
Beachhead: do you have
family in Venice?
Lush: i’m a
father, i have a baby here.
Beachhead:
so back to our timeline, what happened
next?
Lush: a tow truck came and
confiscated my Suzuki TS-100 dirt bike. two more tow trucks arrived and after
consideration declared my van untowable due the danger of too many attachments
and the possibility of them falling
off.
Beachhead: saving grace! those
attachments would be?..........paintings of course? so were the cops
pissed?
Lush: they told me this was my
one warning, the next time they see me in Venice i’m busted, they told me
to leave, get out of Dodge that night, to consider myself blacklisted in Venice,
and to stop painting on the
boardwalk.
Beachhead: basically
everything just short of suicide.
Lush:
plus when they were trying to hitch up my van they would’nt let me get my
ID, cash, or shoes out. i would have been sitting in jail, under John Doe, for
what?---weeks. i wouldn’t have cash to get my vehicle out and i
would’nt have access to my paintings to
sell.
Beachhead: just another life and
sustenance threatening move on the part of renegade
cops.
Lush: there never was any official
paperwork or charges.
Beachhead: think
it was a person living on that street who complained? either that or they simply
have an agenda of
harassment.......
Lush: just because
i’m covered in paint doesn’t mean i’m homeless. (and
that’s not a crime either, folks, tho’ it’s treated as
one).
Beachhead: so how did the church
figure?
Lush: let me just say i find it
surreal-- i can’t believe i’m seeking sanctuary at a church because
i’m an artist. (then we concur all the great artists had churches,
hahaha)
Beachhead: yeah, political
asylum in this case. i know Pastor Tom from making soup in the kitchen there for
Food Not Bombs, he’s really cool, totally into
community.
Lush: he knew what i was
going to say before i said it, he outright told me “Yes, you can park
here.”
Beachhead: now
that’s compassion. i saw a van next to yours with all these little plastic
animals glued on it, and on the back doors it read “MUSEUM,” maybe
yours could say “ART
STUDIO”!
Lush: that’s what
it is. right now i’ve got around 25 paintings and more
coming.
Beachhead: listen up, art
affecionados, galleries, and restaurants out there. Lush sets up every Saturday
on the boardwalk--check him out, or come lend your support. ( the gondola
painting’s still available, and it’s
lovely!)
Lush: yeah, i’m there
til they throw me in the
can.
Beachhead: definitely not a
wish-fulfilling statement.
Some parting
gems from Lush (who’s super groovy, by the
way):
It’s a battle of
economics--someone’s obviously controlling someone’s
salary......
I create art and sell
it.
It just shows the divide----if
someone’s making 100 grand, does that mean my life isn’t worth
theirs?
Finally, off the cuff: We both
believe Venice to be a sanctuary of sorts for all kinds of people, for the
protection and expression of free speech and free spirits, for folks dedicated
to exploring other connections and nuances in life’s rich tapestry besides
robotically salivating to the holy buck. why are people living alternative
lifestyles punished? are we really such an eyesore? we wonder what we are coming
to.
Posted: Sat
- April 1, 2006 at 11:25 AM