Promoting at Cstone 05

Cornerstone has always been an unforgettable event. This year would be no different.

This was the second year that I was at the big fest to show the pictable ministry. Last year was a great learning experience and I gathered a lot from talking to everyone. I brought much more to paint on this year. I also did some pre-fest planning and contacted some bands in hopes to be able to paint with them. The diversity and variety of those who agreed was quite a surprise.

Mike Troxel from Seeds.
John J. Thompson from The Wayside.
Buddy Mercury from Mercury Radio Theater.

So leading up to the fest, I was feverishly trying to get everything ready. I would end up taking around 15 large canvases, a load of smaller canvases, canopies, signs and lots of paint.

Tuesday, June 28
As I traveled to Bushnell, I would be unaware of what was in store for the next week. A good friend, Richard, came with me on Tuesday morning. We were trying to get in before the early access ticket holders. As we pulled up to the road to the gate, we were greeted with the now accustomed site–the line. The road from the highway to the front gate is probably about a mile long and it becomes the camping grounds for the hungry-for-action music revelers known as the hardcore Cornerstone fans. They want their music. They want their bands. More importantly, they want their prime real estate on the fest grounds. Months of preparations are undertaken to find that perfect spot and they were camping out at the gate for that spot. This is just the first glamorous taste of the crowd that we would be spending the next week with.

I wanted the same spot from last year, right in between the Maloca and the Fat Calf tents. Right on the main road. Great spot. And we got it, again. We had a little over a hour before those anxious campers were going to descend upon the Cstone grounds, hungry for THE spot. Luckily we got our camp set up within that time or at least or property lines established.

Once the crowd was let go, we began to get neighbors. The most memorable were right next door. These two guys (I'm horrible with names and the only one I remember was Aubry.) were trying to set up an eight foot tall platform on which they were going to sleep on. We were skeptical to say the least but they actually did it. And they put a 10'x10' canopy on their 8'x8' platform. They would become known as the Alamo. That one was actually my random idea that they took a liking to.

The week started out hot, real hot! I had to go pick up more liquids because I was ingesting a lot of fluids due to the temperature.

Wednesday, June 29
I brought many smaller sizes of canvases to sell this year. The two complaints from the last fest was that the paintings were either too big or too expensive. So I came prepared but I would have interest in another area this time.

I brought a sign with the pictable logo painted on it and open space where I could advertise concerts and areas of the ministry. One of the signs said "Custom artwork available." This meant that I could paint on one of my canvases something to your liking. But it was taken a different way. After the grand platform next door was christened "The Alamo," I painted the words "THE ALAMO" on the front. People saw the "sign" and asked who did it and they were sent to me. Two guys came up to me with a broken piece of particle board and wanted me to paint "Castle Greyskull" on it. I obliged and threw in a little creativity by changing the "u" in Greyskull to a skull and cross bones. They were thrilled.

Next up, car customizing. I was standing at the camp and looked down the road as these three guys were heading my way. One was driving a child's motorized vehicle, one of those you get from Wal-Mart. It was a bright yellow Hummer with silver chrome accents. They wanted me to trip it out. I told them that my acrylic paint would not work on it but they had a better idea-spray paint. They had silver and pink. Yup, we went all pink on that little hummer... er, Hummer. We named her the Cornerstone Mobile and I got to tag it with the pictable logo too. They would eventually strap on a larger battery made for a 4-wheller. Who knows how long that thing lasted. All I know is that I had a lot of fun tricking out the little Hummer.

Then there was the cello. Music instruments getting custom paint jobs. My first again and we used spray paint again so that it would stick to the finish. The guy(I forget his name too.) wanted the word "Hope" painted on his cello that he plays in his band (Can't remember band name either. Bad Todd!) This one presented it's fun due to the strings. We couldn't get any paint on them so we had to tape the whole string ensemble. When I started spraying, I got into it. Man, I really got into it! I used masking tape to mask out "Hope" under the strings on the top. Then Marcus (Ha,ha, ha... I remembered his name) wanted me to add flowers and give it the "emo" look. I tried and he liked it. Even drew a crowd including a photog with the fest.

Finally, my last custom would come a few days later but I want to share it now in the custom section. Mark, a friend of a friend and now is one of my friends, brought me a t-shirt with Darth Vader on it. He said just paint something on it. You have to understand that Mark is no fan of Star Wars. In fact, he may have never watched any of the movies before. He just had this shirt. He may have brought it for the event that he may have run out of TP. I don't know but he wanted me to paint it. I won't tell you what was on it when I got it but it now has much more.

One source of inspiration came from Flatfoot 56 playing at the Fat Calf while I was painting this. Another inspiring element came from last year's Youth Camp t-shirt design that had to be redesigned... but that is a long story. I am very pleased with how it turned out and Mark said that he may actually wear it.

The rest of Wednesday revolved around getting some painting done and preparing for painting that night with Seeds at worship at the beach. One of the first things I did was to paint the cornerstone concept of the pictable ministry–a Christ Face.

If I had not been so preoccupied with painting that night, the worship at the beach would have been a great time of music and worship. During the concert, I was off to the side of the stage. Due to the lack of light, I had some people shine flashlights on the canvas as I painted. Quite an experience. It was a joy to paint with Seeds and would be just the beginning.

Thursday, July 1
This was the true start of Cornerstone. People were swarming in and taking up every inch of space. Today I would search out JJT of the Wayside and Buddy for Mercury Radio Theatre. I was running all over, meeting, talking and preparing for Friday, my big day.

It also happened to be the day that my main help would leave due to the heat. This end would actually be the beginning. Satan began to attack me relentlessly that day and would continue the barrage until I left on Sunday. Alone and without anyone to talk with, he drew on every weakness that I had. It would get worse before it got any better.

The highlight of my night... one of the highlights was experienced backstage at the main stage. I had to go see JJT to pick up a copy of the short story he wrote about a girl named Jane. He wanted the whole set to revolve around this story. He wanted me to illustrate it.

He said that it would be difficult to get back stage but I was going to try. Right when I walked up to the security gate at the side of the main stage, they had just apprehended a youth throwing water balloons at the big screen. So the guy was hot and fuming over what just happened. I walked into the middle. Bad timing for sure. I was eventually escorted back to a trailer where JJT was working on the entertainment in between sets. His wife was not back yet from getting copies of the story. So I got to wait. But he let me read it off of his computer screen. The first short story that I would get to paint. He had enough visuals in his writing to fill up ten canvases.

Kutless was finishing up their set when JJT took off. I waited outside the trailer. I recognized a few guys from Kutless running around and then there was David Crowder talking with fans. Hmmm, David Crowder. I'm glad I put some pictable cards in my pocket before I came down here. Now if I could only give one to him. God opened up the door or maybe it was a window. Anyway after David was done talking with fans, he was escorted back behind the stage, and they were walking right towards me. I yelled out to David and he looked at me. I ran up to him and handed him a pictable card. I said "Just look at it." Nothing else. He looked at me real funny and then walked on. I then prayed that if it was God's will that He would open that door. We will see.

The night was capped off with Mercury Radio Theater's first concert at the Rock for Life stage. This was my first time seeing MRT live. It was awesome. These guys rock and I was so much looking forward to rocking with them. Oh, what would tomorrow hold?