after graduating from college in 2011 at the beautiful university of colorado, i threw all my crap in to a penske with the help of three of my closest friends. they had driven down from minneapolis, minnesota where they lived and were trying to convince me to move. my (ex)boyfriend had just relocated back to nyc so i was freshly single, it was summer and i had a diploma. i was planning on traveling around in my penske until i found my next home. with my friends leading the way, minneapolis was the first stop. i loved the city and i loved my friends, so i went with it, brought my penske back to the penske ranch and settled in.
graduating college in the states with a liberal arts degree, a lot of debt and a lot of bad habits, i fit the profile of a young girl that would work just about anywhere. career goals didn’t matter to me, i just needed something that paid enough to support an unhealthy drinking and smoking habit, a couple shows here and there and general ruckusness with friends. i accepted a prestigious position as hostess in a fine french restaurant in the downtown neighborhood. i even got to use my education, speaking broken french to some of our wealthy patrons.
some people might call a job like this a “stepping stone” to better things. not me. it was a great job in itself that brought me lots of joy. each day was full of lessons, good food and bartender friends that added many new whiskeys to my repertoire. it was right for a while and i got pretty comfortable with my place at the host desk. each day i was happy to witness the beautiful, ugly, funny, depressing moments that fill the streets of any city. they filled me with so much inspiration each day that i eventually started drawing some of the things that caught me up the most. here are a few of the portraits i made while standing at The Desk.
juicecats 