I had a funny phone call yesterday morning, Ted Koppel, the retired ABC news mogul called to inquire about an interview. I of course said yes and shortly thereafter was a knock on my door…

Ted Koppel: Thank you for allowing me into your van for this time together, and the tea is much appreciated on the cool and rainy day.

April Graham: It’s my pleasure Ted! The Hoopty Van doesn’t get many visitors, being so small and filled with stuff there’s barely room for me!

TK: And yet you manage a nice cup of tea…

AG: Lipton’s manages the tea, I just facilitate with the water boiling.

TK: Aside from the joviality, the last few weeks of you life have been causing quite a buzz back at the news bureau at ABC. They pulled me from retirement for this. So, what’s behind all your rethinking of employment.

AG: Well Ted, this is beyond just mere employment and is a rethinking of income. Jobs provide income but so can many other things. So instead of endlessly chasing dead end paths and wasting time applying for jobs and professional gigs that’ll would net me a proper job should my resume and cover letter not end up ignored–as they almost always do–I decided to cut out the middleman so to speak and go right to the money.

TK: So you’re giving up on jobs then?

AG: Not entirely. After several years of chasing every employment lead I could muster the energy for I’ve found almost no reward for all that hard work. And work is the correct term here–unpaid work. Researching employers, writing specific cover letters, tailoring resumes, follow up emails and phone calls…it’s all quite time and energy consuming. And since I don’t enjoy doing it in the least, I mean, who really does enjoy job searching, it feels like work and it acts like work but it doesn’t net any gain. There’s no money for all that toil. It’s no wonder to me why so many people who have jobs complain about them endlessly yet never move on to something better! It takes a really dramatically bad job to motivate most people. Job searching is just plain no fun hard work!

TK: Quite true! It’s why I stuck with ABC for so many years!

AG: So in analyzing my problem, the having no money or income one, I realized that spending all my time applying to jobs was wasting my time. That all those hours could have been put to more productive use. Ten, fifteen, twenty hours a week and sometimes more being spent chasing employment leads, other time being spent going to networking socials, preparing presentations, preparing bids for freelance work…oh the freelance stuff has really been bugging me lately too…

TK: Why is that? And do you have some more sugar? Perhaps a spot of lemon too?

AG: Sugar, yes…here you go. Sorry, no fridge means no lemon wedges. The US government doesn’t care about skilled labor, just like it didn’t care about manufacturing. Like way back, when various foreign countries with lower costs started taking away manufacturing jobs from here in the US. Slowly everything became made elsewhere else and now there is very few physical products made in this country. The problem is there’s no protection of jobs here in the US and the same is happening in fields besides manufacturing. So now I, an American citizen, must compete against people in India for skilled office work. They speak English and with high speed data lines and VOIP making international calls nearly free there’s no barrier anymore. So where I could once make a living wage suddenly the market price is getting down to $2 per hour–because that’s what someone in India can call a good wage! Heck, we export so much of our culture that they probably even have a better grasp on the American collective consciousness than I have as I don’t watch television or listen to the radio.

TK: Perhaps you should be cutting back on your own sugar, you’re getting a bit hyper here.

AG: Well, yes, but this is my life and it’s being negatively impacted by forces I can’t control. So I’m going to try controlling what I can, namely appealing for money to someone other than the employers of the world. Job searching has yielded nothing but further job searching. And in thinking about this I realized I just need to go straight to the source.

TK: And what’s that source?

AG: The well spring of all money of course, the consumer. Every business exists for the sole purpose of making, converting or processing something that a consumer ultimately wants to buy. RIght? So why not just skip all the middle part and go to straight to making a product and marketing it?

TK: So what is your plan then?

AG: I assessed my skills and really did a bit of soul searching on this one. I realized that I have limited means, a small van, little cash, no credit and few resources. There’s lots of things I can do so I made lists and figured out the viability of various things. Some abilities are less in demand, some require special tools or venues, some are just not marketable. So I need to pull magical products to sell straight out of the air. And this first stage of reinvention actually plays into my skills perfectly!

TK: How is that?

AG: You are here with me, right? But this is all imagination so therefore you’re not really here. This is, in a way, the gist of the plan. It’s being creative that I’m good at, period–seeing problems and finding innovative solutions. I’m good with words too despite being a total failure in all my English classes except those dealing with composition. But even there it’s a matter of creativity. After all, I didn’t need to invent you into this conversation. Right? But I did because I was getting tired of writing in the same perspective all the time.

TK: So does this tea really exist?

AG: My cup does, your cup does not.

TK: Then why did you deny me lemon? Couldn’t you have just dreamed that up too?

AG: Well, yes. Sorry.

TK: In light of your inhospitable treatment of your imaginary friends, could we get to your plan? I think I have a plane to catch.

AG: Yes of course, but first I’ll retroactively make you dislike lemon so that you never asked for it in the first place. Then you’ll drop your attitude and stay for a bit. Again, the Hoopty Van doesn’t get many guest and we like to keep those who stick around. But back to the plan… In my pondering I was poking around the internet to see how others make money. Why reinvent the wheel? I spent a bit of time on www.etsy.com as I’ve had friends who sold hand crafts through there. And while I can’t sew or crochet like they do, at least not enough to actually be good at it, I thought maybe something might click, that something would inspire me.

TK: And did it?

AG: Yes! Quite! I started seeing all these t-shits and decorated bags and jewelry and various things that are outside my scope. But then I saw a print by M. Lee and thought, “huh… I could do that.” Not to denigrate her skills, but I’ve always dabbled in art and I wasn’t specifically thinking about her art but more about the idea of selling it online. Art was something I did when quite young and later even took some art classes in college. Even in my personal journal, the paper kind, I make silly little sketches for myself. Nothing that I’d ever want to show anyone, they’re just for my reference, but I figured I could spin up something interesting.

TK: And have you? What have you done?

AG: Looking around I saw that drawings and even prints didn’t sell for much money. And I don’t think my drawing skills alone could ever feed me and I can’t imagine making the room to make prints in my van. But I’m pretty good with color and value, plus I already had some acrylic paints, so I though I’d give painting another go. Besides, a while back I saw a book on how to cartoon and animate and thought, “wow, I’d really love to learn how to draw…to really draw.”

TK: So what is your painting history?

AG: It’s something that I’ve dabbled in ever since I was little, starting with little pans of watercolors. I also drew a lot, for a bored kid, and enjoyed it along with various other creative outlets. Once I was even called the art teachers pet as I skipped recess to help her clean up the art room. I’ve given most of my work to friends or simply repainted over the losers to save on expenses. It was a fun thing…a hobby. Sometimes I’d go on binges, like in college in the 90s when I took painting classes and bought a nice kit of acrylics. I’ve always been attracted to the romantic fantasy of the artist’s life, but let’s face it, the cliche of the starving artist didn’t come about from someone’s wicked irony. It’s why in high school and early college I chose more practical matters like computers and business and journalism. So I’d go years between paintings sometimes as I was too busy doing the so called important stuff.

TK: So you’re going to revisit your youth in some flight of fancy dream?

AG: No, not quite. I had some paints and once I sorted out the tubes that had gone bad there was enough to make a decent color wheel. I had some brushes and some medium. All I needed was something to paint on and once I thought about it a bit I had that too. Part of this reinvention process was trying to not spend any money at all. I knew someone who just did a home remodeling project and had some leftover masonite. In their garage I also found some pigmented shellac to use as gesso. So I was just a cup of water away from getting started.

TK: May I see one?

AG: Of course…here you go

TK: This is quite nice. Please tell me about it.

AG: I’ve been attracted to random images I find while surfing, so I started pulling from there for subject matter. I took a bunch out and realized the ones I chose were all about this idealization of happiness and prosperity. Like the little boy who’s absolutely living in his 1960s moment of glory, being a cowboy on the open range and defending the ranch from his perch in the brush. To me it’s the fairy tale iconic image of Americana wholesomeness that just screams out that he just had a PB+J sandwich with the crusts trimmed off and a glass of whole milk for lunch–made by his June Cleaver mother. He probably offered a bit of the sandwich to his teddy bear too.
TK: What about the process? I see a drawing under there…

AG: Yes. It was first sketched out lightly then painstakingly inked. Normally when I draw I just slap something down and call it good. It’s just for my entertainment after all. But now with the inspiration of money–and food–I spent more time with it. The inking alone took about 90 minutes for Desperado aside from the sketching and paintings. This was less about drawing really and more about choosing what to include or exclude from the photo and transcribing it over to the masonite panel. It’s more of a comic inspired means of painting.
TK: [laughing] That’s a humorous title, Desperado.

AG: Oh thanks, I prefer to have fun with life. How’s your tea? Could I offer you more? Some lemon perhaps?

TK: A freshen up would be nice, and some sugar. But no lemon! I can’t stand the stuff.

AG: Here you go, tea sans lemon–with sugar.

TK: Thanks. Anything more?

AG: Yes. There’s two more. This one is called Self Esteem.

TK: What’s behind that title?

AG: Think about Ozzie Harriet. She was always in dresses and pearls like the other moms of the era. But why? Is that a practical mode of dress to be a mom? Pearls? To vacuum a rug, go shopping then make dinner? My take on it, and mind you I’m not a historian, is that in the years post-World War II there was a great deal of prosperity in America and everything was grand. So there was this elevated ideal for what was “the good life,” this non-threatening straight and narrow view of what was proper. This is what I grew up in, parents who thought I should wear a skirt and nice shoes and that jeans were for working in the yard. They are miner’s britches after all. It was like there was an ego blow to my mother every time I stepped out to play in jeans that, at the least, weren’t perfectly and evenly dark blue as if they just came from the store that day. After all, what would the neighbors think of my family when I went out looking like that. My parents always had this perception of worth as defined by what everyone else thought. So a pretentious show of faux pearls to proudly buy steak in a nice dress would fit perfectly into my childhood. It’s probably why the reruns of black and white family comedies appealed to me so much. I really wanted to be a Cleaver.

TK: So these are partially autobiographical?

AG: In a sort. I didn’t make the connection until I had a bunch of images pulled out of the larger pool. Then I realized there was this common these running through. Like this one called Pit Boss…

AG: I have these leisurely fantasy ideas of about some really great barbecue. Dad gather around the big kettle grill, hanging out at a tailgate party, family reunions at the park…these are all happy time ideals! Mom, apple pie, baseball and barbecue. It’s still that wide eyed idealism. Who with a big backyard wouldn’t want a massive kettle barbecue/smoker?

TK: A vegetarian?

AG: Grilled portobello mushrooms are a gourmet treat. But again, these paints are related by their archetypal ideals of the American Good Life. And that seems quite fitting a subject for someone who lives in her van, to subconsciously be selecting the ideals she longs most to have.

TK: So will there be more?

AG: Well, I really need to make money, so if I can sell them then by all means yes! I have plenty more images selected and I enjoyed doing them. And I’m sure I’ll do other themes and ideas too if it works out. But money is the key thing right now. My savings will run out before long and I’ll be penniless. But there’s a beauty here in that if I can make even a small bit of money for these I’d be able to make a reasonable hourly wage for this.

TK: So you will not be the starving artist?

AG: I figure that if I’m starving I might as well be an artist, right?

TK: If needed I could have a member of my entourage take us somewhere for lunch…

AG: That would be beyond my wildest imagination.

At lunch Ted and I talked about the economics of selling art online and how demand is lower than availability. So it’s hardly a sure thing or a big money maker. But, if I can sell these paintings I’ll be making far more per hour than I would just pointlessly job searching. So perhaps I can not only get some gas and food money, but should it really work out I could start an emergency nest egg. Like for some long neglected medical care or a repair fund for my van. Twenty years and 190,000 miles don’t make for a reliable ride.

There’s a few other plans in the works that will take a bit of time to yield fruit. The art idea can go from idea to income in the shortest time frame with nearly zero financial risk to me. I’ve gotten the paints from storage, made some free panels to paint on and I’m now ready to go sit in the shade and work. And should this work out it has the great benefit of being a mobile money maker as if I can sell on the internet then both the purchaser and myself can be most anywhere for the transaction to work. This way I don’t have to be stuck in the snow belt should I still be living in my van come winter.

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