A charcoal artist and her nomadic studio

I was born and raised in Alabama, where the pastor has to pause his sermon to let the trains pass, and where the clay turns the rivers red after a storm. I was endlessly restless from childhood, but what child does not have fantasies of roaming the world, finding themselves twenty thousand leagues under a sea, or around the world in eighty days. I had my bindle packed beneath my bed and was prepared to hop a train into the unknown in an instant. I was Robinson Crusoe, charting routes with a flashlight beneath my covers.

My parents, stoutly supportive regardless, were convinced I would get older and choose a more conventional route. However, a deeply curious nature in tandem with a strong attraction to human experience resolved me to a life creating art and moving throughout the world at will. Thirty years later, my family still finds me charting routes to new places. Rather than dissipate, what was at first just a dream to travel and create solidified itself in my mind and expanded. It gained structure and a plan, and matured as I did.

The Driftwood Artwork Company, an expansion of my personal work, began to manifest. Driftwood is now an LLC and a growing small business. Our nomadic art studio and flower shop travels across the nation exhibiting artwork from a converted shuttle bus affectionately named Lupine.

Lupine was purchased a few months before the business paperwork was signed, mostly because I was too excited to wait any longer. I was obsessed with the little shuttle bus as soon as I saw her. Head over heels, in love with every inch of her unfortunate vinyl covered body. I was entirely convinced she was a Palazzo Superior in disguise, and to this day you cannot convince me otherwise.

I spent the next six months ripping up rubber and seats, burning my arms on heat guns, nailing up walls and framework, sneezing through insulation, and loving every second. Surprisingly, she has stayed together. I packed her with a collection of artwork, put my cat and copilot Soleil in the passenger seat, and headed out on our first exhibition circuit with my heart full.

My support system met me with an understandable mixture of trepidation, confusion, and tentative excitement. A few advised against it. Some viewed it as unsafe. Some bemoaned the bohemian lifestyle. There was a sentiment that I should have grown out of this by now. I was at the age of the office job and house payment, not the age of becoming a traveling merchant. They could not understand why there was still a bindle beneath my bed.

Opinions came from every direction. The business was too risky. The bus was too big. Doing it alone was unrealistic. The journey was too long and too dangerous. There was a moment where I felt doubt tapping along on the outside of my thoughts. Maybe I should get that cubicle job, safe and shut away. What if I failed?

The doubt dissolved as soon as I put the key in Lupine and started her up. She and I rumbled happily five thousand miles west, through deserts and plains, through rain and snow. Had I let fear dictate my actions, I would not have met that new group of friends, or had that new experience, or overcome that challenge. On that unpredictable, unruly, wild road I have never felt more at peace.

One day, I found myself in my flower shop by the sea, sketching out an idea for an artwork commission as the wind brought the smell of salt and distant storms. I felt a deep contentment that I carry in my heart still.

In the future, the Driftwood Artwork Company will offer grants to underserved and windswept creatives who may not have had the same opportunities or access. We seek partnerships with other artists and businesses. We will travel abroad and create connections with artists internationally.

I am excited for the future. I read your stories, and I am inspired by the possibilities. Driftwood is young, and the adventure has just begun. We will continue to grow and work to make the world a more beautiful place than how we found it.