A young boy searching for an Old Soul.

Swaying in a rocking chair outside of a North Shore bungalow. Sand between my toes and salt invading my hair and skin. I look into the mirror at my hair and whisper to my reflection, “I must be going for the Einstein look.” Day three for me without a home. There is a certain excitement about moving out of a comfort zone. I feel the rush in my blood stream as I packed up my back-pack once again leading me in the direction of my next adventure. Alaska. The Last Frontier. When I close my eyes I see that same Einstein reflection, only this time with a beard covered in snow, sitting next to a fire, strumming a folk song and drinking whiskey out of a tin cup. Alaska has played an important role in my life. It’s where my journey as a free soul began. Six years ago I was 17 years old and bracing myself for my first journey driving north from my parents home in South Dakota to Alaska. I remember the look in my ma & pa’s eyes as I faded away on the interstate. The day I crossed the border into Canada and found my heart sitting like road kill on the highway changed me forever. Since that day I haven’t been able to stop traveling. My mind is stuck on the idea of the road. Constantly going, moving, running, escaping, searching and leaping into the unknown. I wonder if this could be the end? Is Alaska going to tame me as a wanderer or is it just going to fuel the fire? This will be my third trip to Skagway and every time I endure a life changing experience. I can see the dusty trail ahead of me and it excites me more and more, day by day, hour by hour. I sense good things ahead but only time will tell. Leaving the island won’t be easy. I have an incredible family formed on Oahu and like always, family is not easy to be away from. Maybe I’ll stop by and say hello from time to time, but who knows….only time will tell. The road is the only women I trust right now and I know she’ll take good care of me. Now it’s just time to schedule our date.

No photos for this blog but here is a video I stumbled upon that goes quite well with this blog. It’s a video I created years ago called “Brain Footage” It’s footage from my last adventures in Hawaii and Alaska. Check it out! A young boy searching for an Old Soul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmGs6Ni29nY

The Rain Made Me Remember.

The Captain of the S.S. Croatia once said to me “You can’t outsource creativity.” Mumbling these words back to myself a few times I realized that the creative process can easily be altered by beauty. I’ve been blessed with incredible weather and a very easy-going lifestyle on Hawaii but I noticed that I take this “constant beauty” for granted sometimes. The rain made me remember that the darkness can make the bright days that much brighter. So although I am far away from the winter wonderland I am used too and the blizzards I frolic to escape. I feel as if the ones bundled up by the fire and the ones escaping the freezing cold are lucky, because the day that sun comes back to soak your cold skin up with heat, you’ll feel warmth in a completely different way.  As your eyes watch the snow melt away and the darkness fade you’ll have a completely different understanding of a beautiful day. So although being surrounded by warmth on the island I need to learn to open my eyes to the gloom and embrace it with happiness. With rain comes growth and I hope to grow as the rain falls on my back. Underneath the waterfall I’ll find peace and with peace I’ll find creativity. Creativity that will not be outsourced. Thanks Captain. I hope to sail on your boat into the mist of imagination once again. Bon Voyage…

 

Enticing The Trap

When the road comes to meet your feet you probably follow it. I’ve walked this road before but this time its different. Every direction I choose to go out here will end in the same result. The Ocean. The great Pacific. The endless blue. The idea of being surrounded by water and 3,500 miles away from the roads I left behind can be quite comforting but at the same time it can be very disarming. I have come to find that the journey here has become a certain type of adventure. I dwell on the past on the island quite often. Memories of the Minneapolis Rock & Roll, Alaskan fires, New York summers, the fall of Chicago, Montana rivers and European dreams. The tranquility of the waves brings the enjoyment of my thoughts and imagination to another level. It reminds to not take this life for granted. I brings up the sole purpose of why I am who I am. This island has a spirit of its own. It finds me daily and opens up my mind’s eye to keep creating. The sense of being trapped is defiantly present but I closed the door to this cage and locked the chains. On this island I will create my own trap and I will entice every moment.

When nature stood up and fought back.

 

The Grinch.

Beautiful dirt.

 

Falling in love.

 

Time Machine.

 

A Life in Coils.

 

The Ghosts of Honolulu’s Past.

 

The Beast.

 

Two years later.

 

Dancing on graves.

The miles we created

I-90 and four rubber tires burning underneath a beautiful blue sky. Myself and three others embarking on a journey of the interstate. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Leaving South Dakota was just as difficult as always. Spending time with family and friends, playing music with fantastic musicians and last but not least another epic Riverboat Days! It was fantastic seeing all of them again. My friends and family never seize to fail when it comes to having a damn good time. So thank you all, I love you. I recall back in New York sitting down for a handful of beers in a broken down dive bar in Brooklyn with two of the greatest people ever. Aaron Laipply (Hubby) and Magally Del Castillo. We were reminiscing about creating an epic road trip and that’s exactly what we did. We left the Dakotas in route for Missoula MT to meet up with the fourth Pioneer only to be known as Dr. Fonz (Forest Woodward) Together we would accomplish things such as nearly watch vehicles roll off massive cliffs (with people inside of them) (No casualties due to Senor Hero “Hubby“), Flashing national monuments, Longboarding accidents, taking on man-made wave in the nude, Drunken foolery, Four Loco black outs (Thanks to Jacob Midgett) Seat belt tickets, Learning the power of Judo with captain america crotch “Dave”, Cashing wolves and buffalo, 200+ stuffed animal orgies, endless hours of driving and last but not least, the famous reintroduction of “The Naked Caveman” in Yellowstone aka the GREATEST tourist prank ever.

As I expected, we threw one hell of a trip. This blog is dedicated to anyone that can have as much fun as we did on the road. Love you guys!

Left Overs

I took a walk with the grandfather clock. One half-year to be exact. Time dissolving in front of me. If you listen closely you’ll hear the chirp of the clock ticking and tocking on the inside of your skull-cap. But still the motion of time became irrelevant. I feel as if I have just woken up from a dream or maybe even a nightmare at times. I feel as if the world stopped spinning but the clock just kept creeping. Swallowed by the depths of the city buildings and then spit out onto I-90 once again. Laying on the intersection watching 18 wheels fly by in a blur of madness kicking up rocks and dust into my teeth and eyes. Although I have been traveling for some time now there was something quite different about watching the Manhattan skyline dissolve into nothingness. Life in the city was a blast but I kept finding my thoughts dwell towards an image of a trapped bird. Caged in a realm of the fast lane. The need for nature became very apparent as my days in NYC flew by. So, like always, I found a reason to run. A reason to break free of the cage that trapped a wild soul. A reason to pack up the “left overs” and save the taste for another day. I am alive again. I have escaped yet another rabbit-hole. In time I will develop the brilliance of New York City, but just like every dream, it takes a good minute to gather what really happened.

These photographs are a simple explanation of what I like to call “Exiting Wonderland”

Masterfade.

Mind or matter.

Trapped in a bubble.

Final Blackout.

Fondness.

Sun setting forth….

City Of Wolves.

5 a.m.

Street signals flashing red, yellow and green above my head while I sit calmly on the curb of 9th avenue and 16th street, downtown Manhattan. Luckily the crackheads and prostitutes have settled down in their filthy street hideaway’s. Done for the night, as am I. Finished, but not even close to feeling tired. I need to escape this. If only for an hour, a day, a week. I’ve crossed over a borderline and I sit, staring at the yellow taxi’s as they fly by my waving hand. Ignoring the fact that I could use a fucking ride home. I tell myself “It’s not cold” as my fingertips and toes go numb. They were right about this city. This city never sleeps, this city never stops, this city never forgives. They were right about this city. Once you get a bite of the big apple you can’t help but want more. They were right about this city. The were right all along.

6 a.m.

Now I find myself wandering aimlessly into the street. People are standing outside of the balcony’s yelling and howling like wolves in the deep, dark meadows of Montana. I need to find solitude again. You can only handle a three-ring circus for so long. I pull out a pen and peel off my left winter glove and scribble a phrase on to the palm of my hand. It reads “New York won’t eat me alive.” “I’ll swallow this apple whole!” I chuckle to myself as I finally pick out the Manhattan bridge in the distance. I see Brooklyn, I smell Brooklyn I can almost feel Brooklyn. She’s beautiful, looking back at me; She’s shining, shimmering and glowing. I want to tell her I’m in love with her but I think it might be too early in our relationship to purpose that terrifying word.

Love….

7 a.m.

I made it. I trust my head as it falls swiftly on to a pillow in the back room of my apartment. Sleep. Sleep! Sleep……..Sleep?

Dream.

tomorrow I leave this place. An adventure north to Rhode Island where friends wait. I wait. I need this escape. I need this adventure. I need my friends.

Goblin.

Honest Man.

A Glimpse Of Beauty.

Stairwell Fame.

Grip of reality.

Separate city.

Did someone say the party is over?

Leaving europe was difficult. Looking back at all the memories and good friends I boarded an airplane in route for New York City. My path was at its end. Or so I thought. I figured the path I was headed towards was bound to slow down after the wild days and nights in Europe. Or so I thought. As soon as I stepped off the airplane in New York I was hit in the face with a baseball bat. It split my head wide open and ruptured my left eyeball which has now been replaced by a pirate eye patch. My brains plopped onto the rail way and I then jumped down to gather my mind off of the tracks when I was hit by the next Manhattan bound train. My body was drug from the Jefferson St. stop in Brooklyn all the way into Manhattan and dumped off the remains of my gnarled and discombobulated body at the last stop, 8th Ave. With all the might I had left in me I started to crawl. Dragging my body up a flight of Hotel stairs and into a club called “The Hiro Ballroom.”
There I lay, bleeding on the dance floor. I hear a man in the shadows of the club calling out “The party’s over people, time to go home, the party is over!” A little midget shaped man in a clown suit. He held a cigar in one hand and a walkie-talkie in the other. He approached me with a strange look on his face. Kind of ironic. He came to me and said “You okay kid?” I couldn’t think of anything to say so I laid still with a dull expression on my mangled face. He slowly knelt down next to me and whispered “I wanna let you in on a little secret kid.” I shook my head yes. He then came a little closer. I could now smell his whiskey flavored breath. I could see his smoke-stained teeth. I could hear his irregular heart beat. He leaned in and said “As long as your little heart keeps kicking, this party is never going to end kiddo. It’s never gonna end!”
This is when I realized a new journey had just begun….
Welcome to New scene, welcome to a New adventure, welcome to a New chapter, welcome to New York City…

The Hiro Ballroom Manhattan, NY. Nightlife Photography by yours truly…

Motivation through Creation.

 As I bite down on my tounge and hold back the thoughts and words I could very easily express about my Canon 50D having its 2nd Error Malfunction in less than one year! I find myself still breathing quite relaxed and calm. Of course it’s upsetting to lose the tool your artistic mind has been wrapped around since June but I find that its pointless for me to hold onto anger and frustration. Instead I look at the situation as something positive. I sat on a beachside in Paros Greece and watched the sunset over the Aegean Sea. I had my journal in my lap and a bottle of wine at my hip. Writing away, scribbling my thoughts, I realized to myself that my life and the way I look at life and handle situations has drastically changed in the last months time. I used to be quite a frustrated person. two years ago I would have probably gotten upset over spilt guiness! There is no reason to ever cry about spilt guiness. As I wrote I found myself looking back on the situations I’ve gone through and how I handled them. I came to the thought that maybe my camera had a malfunction for a reason, I mean honestly, if you’re a photographer, HONESTLY, when was the last time you sat and enjoyed a sunset without your camera in your face. Mine was last night and holy shit it was fucking magnificent. The colors dancing through the air reflecting off of the sea and slowly fading into the darkness of the night. I was in awe! I stood up and started walking around the beach only to find myself carving objects into the sand with my feet. Soon one object became an eye, then a nose and mouth, and soon I was engulfed by a new creation. A portrait of sand. I sad, sad face of a man looking up to the clouds for questions and answers. When I finished carving out this sand face, I carved the words “situation” and “reason” above and below his head. It ended up being about 25 ft long and about 10 ft wide. A huge portrait. Still making portraits without a camera in my hand. I jumped up on a ledge to look at my creation from a higher view. I took a deep breath, took a pull off the wine bottle and moved my eyes from the sand to the sky. A Zenful experience shot through my body as I honestly witnessed an almost exact reflection of the portrait I had put my heart and soul into creating there in the sky, a cloud shaped like a mans face, the only damn cloud in the sky above me!! There was one difference to the face in the sky though, He was smiling…

  I feel that although times and situations can bring you down, that sometimes you have to take a look around at what is developing around you and find motivation through creation. No matter what that creation ends up being or becoming, let it motivate you.

Maybe thats the reason I’ve been searching for all along.

Becoming the dream.

“Wake up” I mumble to myself. I can’t fix my eyes to focus on the history underneath my feet. I can’t catch my breath as its stolen away from ancient beauty. Surrealism has taken over and now I feel as if I am in a never-ending dream. I didn’t think I would reach such utopia at such an early age but life is at a peak I’ve never climbed too. I see things like never before. My eyes are wide open to life, love, happiness, struggle, pain, gangs, hoodlums, anger, sadness, care, truth, compassion, envy etc etc… Life is happening daily and we control our own. I communicated with a mother and her two children, not through language but through some pocket change and a camera lens. As I walked by her playing her accordion while the children sadly held there hands out for money I sat next to them and held my camera up. The children’s faces INSTANLY lit up with joy and happiness! The sadness turned into energy and excitement. By the time I walked away from this struggling family my eyes were filled by tears and my heart was warm as I looked back at two destitute children that because of an unknown connection and a mysterious energy were now dancing with solitude and happiness. Showing these kids there photographs literally made their day! And mine! I feel better about life because of them. I will never forget them for they motivate my heart and soul. Life is beautiful when you want it to be…

“Always remember that when your not asleep….YOU become the dream….”

True Family.

Mother.

Siblings.

Her beauty.

Greek Gamblers.

Determination.

The Athlete.

What once was.

Invisible Basketball.

Structure

On the move.

A welcome and another farewell.

Greece… I can’t explain my entrance into Greece. An unbelievable welcome by a stranger that turns out to be one of the most amazing human beings I’ve ever met.

Forest and I spent a hilarious and creative night on A “Sleeper Train” aka “Drinking Efes and making a music video train” all night traveling from Istanbul to Thessaloniki, Greece, When we arrived in Greece we were tired, confused, delusional, hysterical, happy and in a dream state of mind. Sadly the only place we could imagine our host finding us at was a local “s********.” I refuse to give any more information because I would rather buy local coffee…. I know it’s sad.

When she arrived it was like a wave of happiness and energy! She basically took Forest and I in as if we were her poor, sad, and smelly little traveling children. She gave us a comforting home, offered us shower and literally wine and dined us! In my heart she is a true Greek Goddess! She let us into her dance classes, took us to some GREAT local eateries, a journey to the Aegean Sea and much more! This is basically a thank you to the greatest host I have ever experienced in my entire life! I appreciate everything you did for Forest and I and I can’t wait to see you again! This one is for you Christina!! Thanks again!

Although it was very difficult to part ways with Christina, Forest and I have now stumbled from northern Greece to Athens. We have some amazing ideas flowing and there will soon be some great work to show from the Band Of Art!!! Thanks for staying with the blog! I love you all!

P.s. the answer to a warm future is Wool Socks!!!! 🙂

Much love!

Rosco.

Farewell Turkey.

DJ Woodward rippin’ the beats.

Tango!

Salsa!

The sea. Set sail.

The beach.

Our Greek Goddess!

The pirate jog.

Hasselhoff.

Better than Baywatch.

The upcoming captain of the seven seas.

Searching for seashells

Collection.

Interest.

The capture.