In Defense of Starry-Eyed Fools: The RideApart Stories
August 2016. Houston, TX, U.S.
It was summer in the concrete swamps of Houston, Texas. Sweat was coming out of my ears; generated not so much by heat or humidity (as the a/c kicked ass), but by the stress of getting ready for an exhibition of my artwork - stuff I'd been working on at Cherryhurst House for the previous six months, due at the framers in a matter of weeks.
I was sitting at my desk, blankly staring at Facebook, when I got a phone call. Chris Cope, Director of RideApart.com, an online magazine for motorcyclists, had gotten ahold of the exhibition press release and wanted to know more. He was interested not so much in the show, but in the way I wrote about everything leading up to it. He'd dug into the In Search of the Frightening and Beautiful blog and Facebook page, apparently enjoying what he'd read enough to invite me to contribute to his magazine.
It took me a while to act. My brain was so filled with watercolor brush strokes and exhibition installation challenges, that coming up with decent stories for him seemed impossible. But the show went up, and I subsequently dove in. I've been loving every minute of it.
Below are links to my first four stories for RideApart Magazine. These describe some particularly loaded moments leading up to and during my 2014 trip into Mexico, along with the psychological ins and outs of being a solo white American female (of small stature - let's not forget that!) for whom doors of opportunity have opened...wide enough to allow me to roam the western hemisphere by motorbike.
May 7, 2017
July 1, 2017
August 2, 2017