Charles Stephen Russell... 'Cha ste rus'

I found out today May 12, 2011 that my beloved friend, Charlie Russell born on January 6, 1965, was found dead this morning at his amazing art installation home, "East Jesus" in Slab City, CA. The cause of death is still being determined, but it seemed to have to do with some recent health related issue.  Too young, too soon for him to go.  I still can't believe it. 

I first met Charlie at Burning Man in 2004, I spotted his VW Camper Bus Artcar "Cinnabar Charm" (which was named after a Th. Metzger poem) parked out in the middle of nowhere on the playa and dropped everything to stop by and check it out since I had an old classic VW Camper Bus Artcar too. He was naked and wearing a watch as a cock ring, and was trying to sleep so I didn't get to actually meet him that day, but I never forgot him, what time it was, or the bumper sticker he had that said, "Church of the Chocolate Martini."

Shortly after returning from Black Rock City, I was invited to come to Artcar Fest and got to meet artcar artists, which I did not consider myself to be at the time. Everyone that I met told me I had to meet Charlie Russell. We both had VW Camper Bus Artcars and loved martini's! I didn't get to meet him until the next year.

I stocked his website and started having a little crush on the boy from afar. I'd heard lots of stories about him and was inspired and astounded at what he was building near BLM land in southern California. I became a regular reader of his online blog/journal "asynchronology" over morning coffee for years. I was most intrigued by his poetic eccentric original ideals that seemed to have a scientific, philosophical,earthy depth. He was complicated and fascinating, I loved the way see saw the world. I needed to really get to know this wild man living in the desert alone.  For a few years I got to know him at art car events and through email exchanges.  I was drawing up plans for stealth box truck living and my shipping container home, he was more then helpful he was already living the dream.

It wasn't until 2008 that we finally kissed and he asked me to "Go Steady", he actually asked me, like we were in Jr. High school, very sweet. I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, he lived in Slab City, it was hard to be so far apart. We had a great time writing to one another and leaving vm messages. We were a great pair, he was "Feral Charlie, the Major of East Jesus" and I was what he called me his, "Fancy Girlfriend". We were both very happy for awhile. He posted this on his blog:

2008.04.11.1447  happy

this isn't news, nobody cares when you say, "I am happier than I have ever been in my life."
no one gives a flying fuck when everything works out, when the mountains touch the ground, and when the lovers are united, though distant...
and world peace might be the most boring thing to ever descend upon us....


be prepared, then, for lots and lots of boredom, my friend....
the future is now, and it's after the end of the world.


may our immediate future be without incident, without calamity, and without the newsworthy.
i am beyond contentment in my boring little place in the desert, with my views of the mountains
and my dog, and my friends, some shade,
and a few gallons of water for the cactus, and me.


i remain - unspectacularly, very forgetttably yours.....


- chasterus

We would visit one another, driving and or flying the 600 miles.  He bought me my own little trailer for when I came to visit East Jesus.  He covered it in corks and artistically fixed it up beautifully and even put a star on the door.  I felt like the East Jesus Movie Star!

He was one of the most talented people I have ever met.  He would take any piece of crap thing and transform it into clever beauty.  He loved to debate, he loved good whiskey, guns with lots of amo and bacon and martini's and showed me how to REALLY LISTEN to the album  "Dark Side of the Moon".  He was a poet and passionate kind hearted fierce and loyal lover and friend.  He had a great mind.  He loved the "Humminy Birds" he would call them.  He would joke about having a petting zoo of Scorpions, Rattle Snakes and other dangerous desert creatures.  He was funny.  He was serious too, sometimes too serious for his own good.  He was certainly a "Fringe Dweller" in every sense word.  He was a real renegade. He could be scary and unpredictable.  He was crazy as hell sometimes.  I think society became too crazy for him to live in, I couldn't agree more. 

Charlie was a true humanitarian.  He would share his world with almost anyone passing by.  He had a heart of gold and would genuinely help those in need when they really needed it.  He wasn't building a community of dusty artists - Off The Grid... they just found him.  Charlie was original in every way imaginable.  He was a great builder and designer, self taught from solar power to the most advanced micro chip.  He was a HAM Radio man,  a great cook and a articulate story teller and writer.  He was such a bad boy, in such a good way.  He had the best laugh. We shared a love of BBQ, Micro brewers, Natural Hot Springs and planned to travel all over the country to explore them, which I wish we would have done.

Performing music has been and continues to be a huge part of my life.  I used to encourage him to get back into playing or composing music, since he did have a formal Bachelors in Music Composition degree.  Oddly enough that is something we never got to share together. Thankfully, he started playing again after we broke up.  Here are a few of his music videos.  I love his voice and heart.  I regret not playing music with him most. 

Charles Stephen Russell made a huge contribution to the free art world as we know it.  There is a new generation of people who are now creating wide open free range off the grid art compounds all over the world, because of Charlie Russell. He lived everyday the way he wanted and how he wanted it.  He was a living legend and hero to us all.

Charlie I love you and I am going to miss you sweetheart.  Save me a martini, and I'll see you on the other side.