So there was this street artist and again I traipsed...

...down memory lane. I've been there a lot lately. Last year was transitional for me...a 5-year relationship ended, I turned 30. I'm just trying to stay positive and turning my focus on my career. I'm forcing myself to network...or at least go places where networking happens. I'll join in at some point! I've been attending Design Madison regularly this year and last Thursday Cycle was here. He's a talented street artist and made me think of a street artist I once knew. And this is where memory lane is visited. I suppose I keep looking back to figure out if I've gotten lost somewhere, if I've missed some step along the way. I don't feel quite myself. But back to the past - senior year of high school. A couple of my girlfriends and I were walking down main street Stevens Point and a guy our age with an accent started talking to us. He was Gregoire, an exchange student from Switzerland in our same year at school and we quickly became friends with him. Turns out he was a graffiti artist, placed in a home with an upstanding Catholic family. Upon finding this talent, they contacted the police to let them know that they were harboring such a person, in the case any artistic graffiti should start appearing in Stevens Point. He painted gessoed board in art class but he wasn't able to work as big as he preferred. Cycle talked about how he preferred large scale painting, even when working on painting they were often huge requiring a ladder to complete. We took Gregoire to an abandoned, falling down home in the Portage Co. countryside and picnicked while he painted the walls. The owners of the Mission Coffee House asked him to paint one of their walls. It was there for years, with a small dedication written to a list of friends including myself. I was so proud to be appreciated in that way. Eventually he worked it out so he could go live with a family in Minneapolis which made him so much happier. We visited him at least once. I remember walking with him down the railroad tracks to view some of his work. Someone had painted over it so he reclaimed the space painting a new piece "Back to Bern" and also admonishing the person who had "dicked his shit."  Look at him now. Think he must be a big deal but can't really tell since my command of German is nil. Production value on those videos is great so that's a clue that he's doing just fine. We send the odd e-mail or letter every few years so perhaps I'll have to visit him in the next couple years. That's a positive to look forward too.