Long story long…
The journey that led to Pastel Energy began way back in 2008. During that time I (Dan) was working at a bank (Washington Mutual) that was about to go bankrupt. They saved themselves by selling all assets to JP Morgan Chase. Once that happened, Chase eventually laid off over 10,000 employees. I happened to be one of them.
My best friend and I had been talking about starting a screen printing business for a long time. Now that I was unemployed with a good amount of savings I figured, why not start now? First I was printing other peoples designs. Eventually I had my own creative ideas and wanted to make them come to life.
The aha moment!
I had this funny idea for a shirt. It was a man riding a unicycle in the rain. I thought the image in my head was funny and figured people would get it. Turned out lots of people liked the image. So I decided to make a whole series based on the character and I named him The Vagabond.
I thought to myself I could probably sell these on the street. So I bought a table, lugged my table and luggage full of shirts to 14 St. Union Square and set up. I made $150 my first day and was ecstatic.
It started so well…
I tried different spots around the city but I finally settled onto Prince Street between Wooster and Greene in Manhattans SoHo neighborhood. I rented a storage locker in nearby Varick St. My business was good to go… or so I thought.
I quickly found out that tee shirts are not a protected form of art in NYC. I ended up being arrested several times for vending without a license. That might seem fair but the only way I could get a license was by being a military veteran, which I was not. So I needed a plan.
Necessity, the mother of invention!
I decided if I cant sell t-shirts legally well then I better learn how to paint! It turns out that any painting, drawing, sculpture or print (excluding t-shirts) is a protected form of free speech. Meaning all you need is a tax-id and you can sell your art anywhere in NYC! But what if you move away from the city?
Going Virtual
In 2015 I decided to move to Long Island where my family had already been living for 20 years. On the east end of Long Island we don’t have the busy sidewalks teaming with tourists that the City enjoys. My first attempt to keep my art alive was to do street fairs here on Long Island. Fairs are expensive though and the fees really eat into profits.
So do we give up? No way! We go virtual! Pastel Energy is my branded online shop where I hope to display not only my work but eventually work from some of my favorite street art vendors and friends that I’ve met along the way.
