Hey, folks!
I’m CROME, Some of you have been following me since G+ was a thing and I oddly had 16k followers; some of you just began following me within the last 6 months!
Maybe you wonder about me because all I do is share my art? Wondering who this mysterious person is behind the curtain?
I wrote this to catch people up, as my life has been a rollercoaster since Winter 2017.
It’s been a rough transition since the gallery closed in November of 2017. Probably when many of you lost sight of me.
After moving 1200 miles cross-country to CO, with a supposed job lined up of opening an artist co-op space - I lost my luggage, my phone had no service within the high altitude. And, after afew months, I realize I’m being swindled into a bogus job. The living arrangement was horrendous; I ended up living in the hotel that owned the strorefront with the vision of a gallery/coop space - but, with convicts & drug addicts living in the hotel.
This was until I found a nice place for Mia & I in September of 2018 - where I was really able to work on some woodworking & craft fair items. Unfortunately, that quickly revealed another unstable human, and alcoholic. It was obvious this was his do good deed to create a feel-good placebo effect. During our stay (around 8 months) Mia & I experienced serious mental, verbal & almost physical abuse - nature continued to be, or ended up becoming, my escape.
July 4th weekend I was presented an opportunity to move off-grid into a tent, in the middle of the mountains, within a beautiful forest - 20 miles from any town. It was only supposed to be temporary as I had applied, and was accepted, into the Earthship Academy.
It would have been a 3 week amazing learning experience, with hands-on apprenticeship, learning from a master in biotecture(reusing materials for structures) in Taos, New Mexico - but, the application process failed to mention it would ALSO cost $3500 to have this amazing experience - that’s when I began to plan to build - while continue living off grid.
I created a stone wall raised herb garden, a 3 foot deep fire pit lined with several beautiful river stones found upon clearing land to level for the tent that I lived in for 5 months until all the land & materials were ready to build - then the landmates threw a curveball and surprised me with a lease stating that there could be no temporary or permanent structures built on the land, even though that’s what they told me they were trying to begin and thought I was the perfect candidate to live there. It was extremely unfair - and I had done months of drudgingly exhausting work to just have them take it away from me, again.
On the 2nd of October we got hit with over a foot of snow, and the tent Mia & I was in collapsed on top of us in the middle of the night. Mia & I had to bunk up in our landmate’s camper, which consisted of 2 adults,3 dogs & two cats, adding me and Mia to the mix. Looks like nature was making the choice for me on what my next journey would be.
After trying to get jobs at any bar in town or restaurant with no success as the “outsider from Chicago”, I began being a vendor at the Farmer’s Market, which introduced me to several folks in town, allowing me to get a grasp of the people of the town and being a part of other events.
Albeit, I was still struggling financially pretty bad, to the point where I was down to a size 0/1 - it was a bit scary since I’ve never been that skinny before, as I was living off of rice & lentils. I will say that living off grid definitely buffed up my arms carrying all the massive stones from a dried up river bed to construct structures within my “habitat”.
With not many choices available, I chose to move back to Chicago November 1st of 2019, as someone offered me their couch for a few weeks, until an old friend/coworker also offered me a room and a management job within the service industry. Definitely not the career I wanted to get back into, but I was on a mission to get back on my feet, and for Mia & I to move back to Colorado.
I thankfully ended up finding a job as a design studio assistant for an influencer kit powered company - with several large corporations as clients. I was working two jobs, was able to begin buying furniture and more belongings civilians care to have. Moved into my own place with a few roommates that was a perfect 2 stair walk up for 14 yr old Miss Mia.
I was hoping that with the two jobs, I could move Mia & I back out to CO by Spring 2020….
Cue: Pandemic
In September of 2020, I chose to head back to CO to go to my storage unit to grab some things I needed because I never expected a pandemic to occur - as the plan was to head back in the Spring of 2020 to continue my dream & build of the Greenhouse Gallery - where Mia & I would tour the country, with pop-up workshops teaching sustainable ways to create, live & be.
I was only gone for 3 days, and Mia wouldn’t eat, and was at the point where she needed help getting up some days on her back legs - but wouldn’t accept help from my roomie or anyone, showing teeth. Once I got back, everything seemed to be going back to normal. She was happy, eating, still struggling with hip...but, she is 14.
I got called back to work shortly after I returned, Mia began showing the same signs of just “giving up” without me around all the time. I knew I needed to work, but knew I needed to be home - and I was a complete mess.
Early October, I told work that I needed to take some time off to be with Mia.
She ended up getting worse, she injured her front shoulder from a fall on the steps outside and then from not being able to get up - she developed bed sores - and with Covid restrictions - our options were not very good. They wanted me to just drop her off for a check up at my vet - and she was in no condition, and couldn’t walk because of her shoulder, my bedroom became a hospice for 3 weeks, I barely slept as she was whining throughout the night - I would never wish this upon anyone to have this experience with their dog, granted - I’m so grateful I could be there for her, but I wasn’t ready to make the choice to let her go.
She passed peacefully on October 31st, and it’s been extremely difficult without my only friend, my best friend, and have been beating myself up a lot feeling like my lack of presence caused this….
I don’t know where I’d have been had she not fallen into my lap when my upstairs neighbor asked “you want dog?” 13 years ago, where he kept her in a back hallway, living in her own urine & feces.
We saved eachother.
I returned back to working again, because if not I just think of her - everything reminds me of her.
With full plans to go back to CO this April, I’ve successfully secured a place. It’s my time to go back, to spread Mia’s ashes where she belonged - she loved it there.
The last month or so I’ve been selling all my belongings, except for the things I either gave away, or packed to ship to my new home.
Anyway, I wanted to catch you up - because I don’t want you to think I’ve forgotten about you, what you did for me, or even the art I may owe you that is sitting in storage. This is my promise to you that I have lugged your art all over the country with every intention on finalizing to get to you - just, life has been pretty all over the place since everything kinda fell apart 4 years ago.
Has it been that long? Wow..
I never expected everything that happened to happen, but it did. And, I can’t change it - I can only learn from it & move on; hoping to share what I’ve learned with other people in hopes it can help them.
And, I do believe everything happens for a reason. This entire experience living offgrid in a tent with my dog for 4- 5 months, it made me see life differently. It made me prepared for this pandemic. I had no one out there, other than landmates and Mia. I had no data connection, no cellular service, no internet….no music for a good 3 months. For those of you who know me, know that I always have music playing.
I began singing my music, remembering lyrics to songs I thought I didn’t know, remembering facts I couldn’t google until I got into town to see if I was correct - I realized how much I also belong out there.
So, if you’re still reading this - please understand how very sorry I am that it’s taken so long for me to get you your items & it was never my intention for you to be waiting this long. You can expect them this year, at least that's the plan!
To get my life back on track, a truck, some land to farm, live, to begin building my Greenhouse Gallery, and to finally write/illustrate the book “Adventures With Mia”.
I can’t say thank you enough & hope you all are safe, healthy, & mostly happy ^_^
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Thanks for reading!
Best & Much Love,
CROME