This is the term I use to describe my Sister’s painting style. She is a successful visual artist and one of my greatest inspirations. She lives and works outside Douglasville, Georgia. You can find out more about her work by typing her name into your browser. Susan Easton Burns.
I am currently staying at my brother Chris’s house in Wadsworth, Ohio during a few days off the road-in between tour dates in the Midwest. He and his wife Tricia have a very large collection of our Sister’s paintings. Perhaps the largest of anybody beside my Sister herself, who’s house is stacked deep with paintings everywhere you go. I admire her work ethic and also her therapeutic approach to art, life, and relationships. I have always spoken about making a documentary about her and I suppose I should stop talking about it and just do it, although filmmaking is an important love of mine, it is currently way down the list on the things I need to accomplish out here on the road—in between filming bits and reels for social media, etc…and just getting from gig to gig, setting up the merch table, playing the shows, selling the merch, getting a decent night of sleep, eating well, and carrying on down the road to the next spot.
I will in fact play Georgia next year so I will have a chance to truly begin that project as well. It doesn’t need to be a feature length project, but perhaps just a 30 minute film.
When it comes to film, I truly prefer dramatic realism over adventure, science fiction, action, horror, etc….all of those Hollywood tricks just turn me off. I like a story that I can believe in. I do not feel the need to escape into the world of comic books. That is just my preference.
I call her art “abstract realism” because, from a distance, the subjects of her paintings are all very visible and real. She seems to prefer animals and flowers over humans. This is very understandable to me, for humans are not as reliable as animals or plants. I write about the pitfalls of humankind in my songs, because just writing about animals or plants would not be as interesting to listeners, nor myself.
When you get very close to my Sister’s paintings, it is hard to make out what you are looking at. This is the abstract part, and in a sense that abstraction stays with you as you pan out, but the subject begins to make itself known. I have been her subject before, and I hope to use two of her paintings for my next album cover. I want to use the red horse, the Firehorse painting that hangs over my couch in Tennessee. I have written a lot of songs underneath that painting, so I believe it belongs on an album cover.
I have a new album out right now, but there are always one or two more projects knocking around my head.
When I say my sister is a “successful visual artist” I mean that she has been able to survive from making art. She is able to keep the lights on and then some. She has had commercial success with commissions like painting the Kentucky Derby poster, or other horse races, and then private benefactors have hired her to paint something on commission as well.
Recently, and perhaps all my life, I have struggled to make a living as an artist. Without a doubt, it is a challenging life path. When I was much younger, the fear of failure or not being able to make ends meet was not really present in my thoughts. I just kept plugging along. Lately, all of that has changed. I have it quite well. I am able to earn a living on the road and on my own, but an abstract reality has set in that my body will not be able to handle all the driving and such for much longer.
I am super grateful for the work I have this year. It is quite plentiful, but there is no way for a troubadour to make a reasonable living AND be a present father to his daughter. It is just a simple fact that I do not make enough of a living on the road that makes it worth missing time at home with my kid. That is why I am going to take great pains to not be on the road for all of 2025, as I am in 2024.
It has been a pattern in my life to go into debt, get out of debt, go into debt, get out of debt. This has been going on for years. I will wrack up a lot of credit card debt when I am off the road because I do not have a steady income. Then I pay it off and start all over again in the business of breaking even. I started a Patreon page at the beginning of the pandemic to mitigate this and it has helped me tremendously, but only just to cover my mortgage. I still have a car payment and monthly bills and food and such, and so I must take to the road. I have just received another large bill for the merchandise that I am selling so from where I am the breaking even game just never seems to end. I get to see amazing sights. I go on amazing journeys. Japan, Russia, Bolivia, Alaska…it is truly incredible how much ground I get to cover, but in the personal finances world I have been in a constant hustle for twenty plus years. I thank you all who have helped me out along the way.
I make a lot of albums, but most of you might know that music is basically free now, so in a certain sense I really went into the wrong business in regards to sales. If cakes and pies and donuts were suddenly free, I bet there would be a lot less bakers out there opening up shop. Now we musicians are expected to have shirts and tons of other merchandise for sale, AND be ever present on social media in the eternal self promotion nightmare. I am not complaining really, but a certain abstract reality that is turning into a dramatic reality is setting in. Some of you might say, well, it took you long enough! I get it. I am a slow learner. Either way, I am digging myself out of debt and trying to digest some serious truths about my future on the road.
Festival slots and such pay well, but those are not as plentiful as I would like. I am very grateful for the ones I do have though, and I thank all of you for going to support traveling independent musicians and buying merch and whatnot, even if you can get it free on your phone and in your car, etc…
So here I am, in the middle of a tour that is going very well, just trying to be realistic about the future of my life on the road. I love it when I get to bring my daughter out here to hang out with me and sell the merch, and I joke all the time with audiences that I just need her to drop out of school, but the reality is she has her own life and direction to go in. When I was her age I was mowing lawns and delivering the Akron Beacon Journal in order to save up money to buy a guitar.
Times have changed. We’ll do some traveling together this year, but I need to get real about 2025 and the years ahead. I love traveling and playing, I just need to get a clear plan together that involves more work of some kind at home, and perhaps that means a bit of scoring and film/tv soundtrack work. Perhaps that means going back to school or getting a job at the library.
Thanks for letting me be real and think out loud here on Substack. I was drifting off the beam in the lead up to releasing this album, but now that it is out there I can get back to the nitty gritty reality of the troubadour out there trying to make ends meet.
I am not going to quit the road, but in my mind I have been calling this current tour my “retirement” tour, although it is laughable that any folksinger gets to retire. Arlo Guthrie did, but Ramblin’ Jack is still out there. I will never quit writing songs and recording them. That and walking in the woods with my daughter is what makes me feel the most alive. Writing and recording is a true joy. Performing is fun too, but it is the road itself that makes it difficult. Or, I should say, getting older and the road. I’ll address more of this in some journal entries that I have been working on, but I wanted to begin to admit some things here on Substack just to test the waters. In the meantime, imagine yourself driving several hours per day and what toll that would take on your mind and body.
Up close I see a man on the road, playing good shows to good people. From a distance I see a Father just using smartphones to try and communicate with his daughter, and it doesn’t quite get the job done to his satisfaction.
Thanks to all who have listened to FIND YOUR WAY. In a sense I am trying to find my way every single day. You can find it anywhere you stream music. You can order physical copies from BlackMesaRecords.com
Dont forget estatic realism when you make your movie
Thanks Tim, we love you!