Sidewalk Canvas book edits near completion...FINALLY :o)

It's the beginning of this blog, but the almost ending of writing my book about street painting, Street Canvas.  The book is in the final stages of editing and we're down to finding a chance mistake here or there - a far cry from the major redesigning and photo switching that was happening a few weeks ago.  I'm relieved, excited, worried... lots of things, but mostly excited :o) Next Monday it heads to the U.S. publisher (Fox Chapel) from my London publisher (Fil Rouge Press), and a week or so later it is off to the printers - publishing date is set for April!
The entire project has been quite an adventure for me, one I never saw coming when Fil Rouge contacted me a year or so ago about writing a book.  Why me, I asked? Well, in short - lots of experience with street painting as well as teaching.  The funny thing is that I had never even thought of writing a book, though I always kept an eye out for anything others might have written.  When they asked me if I was interested I thought it sounded interesting, and in putting together the outline and a short chapter, realized how much fun I was having doing it.  Of course it was also a lot of work, but I found that the job of needing to put everything together in a cohesive manner pushed me to also think about my thought processes, seek out information I didn't have at my finger tips, and find a way to make the lessons I was trying to teach actually mean something to those who might purchase the book.  I thought about what I would want in a book - explanations of everything from the simplest processes to the more in depth information that might serve me as I became better at my craft.  And I especially thought about my ideals as I wrote the book - information should be available to all, and if my work can't stand up on it's own merit, without holding back that information from others, than I should probably look for another line of work :o) Openness breeds sharing and sharing is what life is all about.
I've met some interesting people along the way, and had some interesting discussions regarding people within the field that have really shed light on some of my own experiences.  I tried to include as many other artists as I could squeeze in because one thing I love about this ride of street painting is not being on it alone :o) I've always wanted to have my friends along, and the one thing I'm sorry about is just that I couldn't include more people! Maybe at some point I'll be able to do a volume two, and then I'll do just that - get everyone else I can think of in there! I was honored to include some fine artists though, many of whom are friends, or have now become friends.
Street painting has been very good for me, opened doors I never could have opened on my own, and brought me experiences I treasure as being some of the best times of my life.  So, here's to the book - and I hope others will find it to be a help.  Please don't hesitate to let me know if there are questions you'd like to see answered in the book that I missed.  If nothing else, maybe we'll find a way to do a new version a little way down the line :o)
more later - there have been some great experiences lately, such as my trip to street paint in Oman, but I'll have to write about them in future posts!