Gratitude Migration
You must give birth to your images,
They are the future waiting to be born.
Fear not the strangeness you feel,
The future must enter into you long before it happens.
Just wait for the birth, for the hour of new clarity.
-Rilke
Although I've worked for well over a decade to get to where I am today, sometimes I find it so extraordinary that producing art at festivals is something people pay me to do. It’s pretty unreal that I get to travel the circuit, building and setting up things, and doing what I’m so passionate about.
My core passion is really to create art and space that help facilitate a shift in energy so that the participants can experience a new way of being. I’ve always found that festivals are able to create peak experiences in a way that allow people to really open up and be able to see the world in a different way. It’s incredible to be a part of shifting people’s lives, and I wouldn’t trade it for a second.
And then there are other days, when I feel tired and like I’m living this crazy life that I just wish would slow down. I’ve had a lot of health problems for the last year and a half, and pushing it isn’t always the wisest choice. I look back at my AirBnb calendar and see that my place has been rented every week or weekend since mid-May. I’m constantly travelling, a 60 hour work week is standard, and although I make a living doing this, it’s not like it’s a good living. And as I throw my stuff that hasn’t even been unpacked from the last job into a vehicle to head to the next, I wonder, am I out of balance? I’m living my dream, but at the same time there needs to be space for me to self-care and be nurtured.
There are things that push me forward. The festivals where you really feel a shift and you know that your purpose is on point. One of those for me this year has been
. Already a couple festivals ago on the circuit for me, but still fresh in my mind with excitement.
In the spring, when Toby and Michael and I did
in New York, we really came to a decision that the domes we’ve been building need to be art instead of product. We completely reconfigured the goal of what building these domes meant, and it was the best decision we could’ve made.
Before that point I liked working with them. It was a good gig, but there were things about it that just didn’t fully align with what I wanted. But as soon as we made that choice it felt like everything fell into place for me.
One of my complete passions is to create mobile, accessible public gallery space of work that actually engages people who wouldn’t otherwise experience art. And suddenly, these domes were my dream. I feel teary-eyed just thinking about how Toby and Michael’s work just suddenly aligned with my own and we became this team pursuing a singular passion. That’s rare in life, people who share your vision.
For Gratitude Migration in New Jersey we made nine separate domes, broken into six separate spaces, all which would contain different art or collaborations with other artists. You can read about them all in detail on the Archimedes blog (
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The thing that was so exciting for me about these spaces was watching them get used. Really used. They were full of people, full of intention, full of art and workshops. The feeling of watching something you made get bonded with other people in the way you desire is nothing short of ecstasy.
And above that, the other artists and producers who were creating the event all seemed so aligned with the vision that we had for things. All of us growing, all of us in pursuit of doing it better for the sake of truly meaningful experiences for the participants. This space flooded my heart with the feeling that, not only do I have something to offer, but there are others like me on the same level who desire to collaborate to make the same vision come true.
And as I throw my stuff into another truck, and tiredly question why I have chosen this type of lifestyle, I get to think about the fact that sometimes I will hit spaces, like Gratitude, where it is so full of potential and so aligned with my vision that it makes everything else worth it. Because every day that is before me could end up being the best day of my life. And all we can do is press forward, full in our purpose, and see what will come. And hopefully, though at the moment we focus on growth, sometime soon I will be able to focus on also achieving some balance.