Every person I’ve interviewed has an amazing back story, and I always end up learning something new.  Hulbert was no exception…A few weeks ago at a 6am Krank class I noticed this man….he kind of reminded me of a modern day Mr T. wearing a cowboy hat and he was lugging large paintings to his van… Obviously that piqued my curiosity, so I went and snooped next door where he rents his studio space and saw his work.  Upon further investigation I found out Hulbert also lives on a massive boat! Naturally, I reached out to see if he would be interested in meeting me!

I went to see Hulbert on one of the hottest days ever… it was Nashville hot…. This interview was quite the experience, you don’t get to meet people like Hulbert every day.

Tell me about this boat…. I’ve been going to Paris since I was a teenager…. One day, I was just walking around the Eiffel Tower and I went to an art show and the artist was living on one of these old house boats. I just fell in love with the lifestyle..I started doing a little research and those canal barges where originally used to move coal, wine or fire wood from city to city along the canals.

I started looking around for one in the US, and we really didn’t have canal barges in the US because our canal system didn’t work… it was out-placed by the railroads pretty fast. The canal barges made in this country were made out of wood, and recycled…. I wanted something big enough where I can paint and live. I’ve been looking at canal barges that people were buying from Europe but they were way too expensive…. and they were all the way on the west coast…. it took me 4/5 years and I found this one in Detroit.

This is a bum boat, a bum boat is like a floating 7/11 store.. that was operated on the great lakes so these big freighter ships would come to the great lakes and a boat like this would come next to it and the workers would come and buy books…. see I kept alot of the books that were on board. They would buy cigars, beer, soda, toiletries etc… Now, homeland security doesn’t allow bum boats to operate on the great lakes because of terrorist threats, illegal immigration…

When I bought this one, I got it from a bank in Detroit for little to nothing…. I bought it knowing no one has been on it for 2-3 years so when I got it I hadn’t really been inside to see it, I only saw photographs….When I opened the door, unlocked it … it was just huge rats running around everywhere…. living on all the chips and pies and all the goodies…. they were just eating and making babies….

You must have been like, “What did I get myself into?”
I did, I was going to call the guy who found the boat for me to tell him I want my money back! I guess it had some sort of a charm that grew on me. Once it was all clean, I came back and slowly remodeled it. The boat was made in 1934… It wasn’t made by a boat company, it was made by a steel company in Duluth, Minnesota.

From going to Paris, I loved flea markets … my favorite place in Paris is the Paris Flea market…. so everything here is from Flea Markets… or some sort of thrift store. I try to give it that french feel to the place. Wood burning stove is what I use for heat and it works pretty well…

This is your room right?
I am slowly fixing things up, right now it kind of has a Chinese whorehouse feel with the red velvet curtains… I always wanted red velvet curtains! The bed is over my engine.

Can you tell me about the quotes on the wall?
I don’t know who said this first, some people said Marilyn Monroe some people say it was an old blues song but its the mantra I go by…

“Live the life you love, love the life you live.”

Its a good mantra!
So many people in so many countries don’t have enough to eat, they wished they lived in a different country where they can pursue their dreams and ambitions. I am lucky enough to be born where I was, in the time I was born in, and just to be able to pursue my dreams and do what I love… To live off of paintings… to think that I was able to buy this boat from selling paintings is amazing to me. I have to pinch myself…

Some of my other quotes…

“Be bold and great forces will come to aid you.”

I don’t know who said that but I love that quote.

“Dream as though you will live forever, live as though you will die today.”
-James Dean

“Nothing is new under the sun.”

That is something my mother would say… which I find kind of funny and true…”You can make dreams true” and “Fortune favors the bold” which is Alexander the Great.

And who is this little fellow?
His name is Honey. Years ago when I decided I wanted an antique house boat…I wanted to live on it, paint and also have an Afghan hound. I got him before I got the boat! He went through alot, he helped me bring this boat over when I moved it from Detroit…. It took 2.5 months and he was with me the whole time. Now we go sometimes in a row boat and he comes along.

Can you tell me how you started painting?
I started painting when I was a little kid. I would get my mothers fashion magazines and I would use crayons, pencils and crayons and try to do these women I would see on the cover of these fashion magazines. Most artists paint what they love… if you love nature, horses, the hudson river… that is what you are going to gravitate to. I guess I am a lover of women… I love to paint women… maybe in another life I was a makeup artist or something. I love a woman…to paint a woman’s lips, her eyes and her hair.

If I could I would paint the smell of a woman… it’s something a little ironic, sometimes I will put a nasty, politically incorrect quote… I find it funny that a cute woman can get away with saying almost anything!

So true, I say ridiculous things and I get away with it.
Yeah, if you smile it’s all good. This is Megan Fox, I love painting her. This is Kate Moss…

This is an ex-girlfriend…

Wow, your ex-girlfriend?
Yeah I still paint pictures of her sometimes… I even put her apartment number in the painting.

How did she feel about that?
Pissed. But hey, every woman isn’t immortalized … who knows that could be a 100 million dollar painting someday after I am dead and gone.

This is one of my mermaid paintings, I did this one after coming back from Cuba. It’s influenced by the cuban style of painting, the colors, the free  flow… in this mermaid piece she is wearing heels, all woman are alike.

“Even a mermaid would love a good pair of shoes.”

What about this rock n roll one?
This is a classic piece, a lot of people love it… The age group, somebody in their 50s… the house is paid for…they have a man cave…

So you seem very in touch with females…
Maybe in another life I was a tranny, walking around in the village with my heels on… I don’t know. I just have a feminine side that I love to paint. I think it’s a reflection of something in myself.

Why is Marilyn crying in this one?
I love to paint Marilyn crying. She is crying because love stories suck… I do a lot of paintings with Marilyn and Frank Sinatra. They used to date but he was physically abusive to Marilyn…

This is an oldie but a goodie, I call this one Sax in the City. If you notice, the hands…on her body… there are way too many hands on her body.

How would you define your style?
Pop is mostly what I love to do. I love to put quotes from hip hop or rap songs… the quotations are a reflection of our times. People don’t really listen to love songs anymore… music is a little more graphic.

I don’t do drugs, I am drugs, remember when Kate Moss said, she didn’t do drugs and they photographed her in the club?

That’s the Pavarotti that’s a good piece…

So how did you get to Jersey City?
I moved to Jersey City from Harlem. I lived in Harlem for a couple of years. I was originally born in Chicago…

So why Jersey City?
I was chasing a girl that lived here. I was a semi-stalker… She’s got a restraining order on me. Yeah, so there will be none of that anymore!

Do you have any favorite Jersey City hangout spots?
I like the Brownstone and the place further down Wonderbagel. I also go to Choc-o-pain sometimes.

If people were interested in seeing or purchasing your art?
Contact me directly by email, or they can go to a gallery in Manhattan and pay full price.

What else can you tell me about yourself?
What have you been reading about me, young lady?

Nothing I swear! Spill it!!!
Well, I moved to Jersey City when I got out of Jail.

What were you in jail for?
Having the wrong friends. I did almost a year in jail because I didn’t want to cooperate with the police for a friend of mine who was being charged with running a high end prostitution ring in Manhattan.

I think it was during the French Revolution they said that artists are the most dangerous people in society, because they mix with all levels. It’s always been that way for me at least. I communicate with everyone! I mix with all elements of society. I accept my friends for who they are and not what I want them to be. I just so happen to have a friend that ran a high-end escort ring in Lower Manhattan… and we were very good friends, hung out a lot. I am not saying I am Mr. Innocent here… our friendship started when he bought a very expensive painting… and then I started hanging out with him a little bit too much… and when you play with fire you eventually get burned.

How was your experience in jail? Did you get to paint?
Yeah I did, I still got to create quite a bit. I was able to see human nature, where humans are reduced to animals… When I got out of jail I came to Jersey City started hanging out at the Marina’s looking at boats… so that is where it started.

What’s next for you?
I have some political art that I am going to be showing in a few weeks in some of the galleries in Manhattan. I am still doing more work on the boat. I am in the process of buying a life size Alligator on top of the boat…

What is your creative process like?
This thing people call art these days… now everyone is an artist… I take it too seriously. I don’t do drugs, I don’t really drink. I try to be productive everyday… Everyday I try to complete a new piece of art… To be as productive as possible… my philosophy on life is I want to squeeze every drop of juice out of that fruit. I want to be as productive as possible, go to as many places and do as many things as possible… maybe fail! bite off more than I can chew… challenge myself every single day. You have to keep your hands warm, your imagination…

Anything else we’re missing?
I have a new quote that I haven’t put on the boat yet and it’s a quote that it’s taken me a long time to learn. I would tell this to people in general.

Don’t go for the money, go for the glory. Go for the glory and the money will come.

hulbertwaldroup.com