So in April, the day after I cleaned up taBURNak!, a few friends and I jetted off to Uvita, Costa Rica, for some much needed down time. 

 After a crazy trip and a huge unexpected layover in Miami, we arrived at Arboura Eco Cabinas in Uvita. A beautiful little land owned by a friend's dad, who'd built gorgeous little A-frame cabinas in the middle of the stunning Costa Rican forest.

 A two minute walk from the beach, we were all thrilled with our happy little vacation spot.

 The land in Costa Rica just took my breath away, the plants, the trees, the myriad of tropical flowers and birds.

And the beach was pristine. I couldn't believe how few people were on it at any given time. 

 But more than the intense beauty of the land, the culture around Uvita was quite different than a lot of places I've travelled to.

"Uvita is a small village in southern Costa Rica. It is notable for hosting annual music events Best Fest & Envision Festival and being home to the Cola de Ballena (Whale's Tail) and the closest village to Marino Ballena National Park. Uvita has grown tremendously over the last 6 years and is the commercial center of Costa Ballena. Many expatriates from northern America and Europe have made Uvita their home. The surfer crowd prefers Dominical while Uvita has become the tourist tour hub of the Costa Ballena region. Tours range from whale watching, ATV tours, surfing lessons to snorkeling excursions. Uvita offers many lodging options to tourists from hostels such as the Tucan Hotel, Flutterby House and Cascada Verde to luxurious boutique hotels such as Vista Celestial."

-Wikipedia

 As much as Uvita is the "tourist capital" of that region, it was honestly the one of the least touristy places I've travelled in a long time. Don't get me wrong, I saw a lot of backpackers and American immigrants, but in general it wasn't overrun with either, and the Tico population by far outnumbered the caucasians. That being said, you could pay with American cash anywhere you went, and almost every Native spoke pretty impeccable English, a sign that the influx of Americans was pretty settled.

 But in general, the land felt pretty free of tourism and all the grossness that often comes with travel. There weren't tons of stores selling trinkets, there were no hawkers on the beach, and I didn't feel like the locals were talking to me just to make a buck.

 That was a HUGE difference I noticed actually. Normally when I travel in "less privileged" countries, I am super aware of the fact that I am North American, and most people I encounter in other countries see me purely a source of income. 

The Tico people I encountered weren't like that at all. In general the Costa Rican people have a higher rate of education, and they view themselves on very equal footing with all of the Americans who enter their country. They felt grounded, very in possession of their space, and all of the interactions that I had with them felt authentic and generous. It was a welcome joy to be able to have conversations and interactions with the locals, where money or selling me something didn't even enter into the picture. 

 And the architecture, oh how I loved it! I loved that each and every home was completely different. Free from the types of building codes we have in North America, as well as being free of our harsh winter climate, people there build whatever type of structures they want to.

 The colors and different styles, so lovely! It felt so much freer in expression than our siding and gyrock North American houses that often look so similar to one another.

Another difference that has to do with the people there, is that I felt safe all the time. 

As a woman who often travels alone, I'm very aware of certain things that I have to be more cautious of when I travel in other countries. There are certain times of day or night you don't go out alone, and in some countries as a woman, you just can't go out alone at all. 

In Uvita I could wander around all day by myself, and would go out for midnight walks almost daily, all alone on the pristine beaches with no one else around. There wasn't a single time that I felt uncomfortable or had red flags go up about being alone in untoward hours. I'm sure in other places in Costa Rica it would be different and I would have to be more cautious, but it felt so amazing just to have freedom of movement whenever I wanted it. 

 And of course, what's a holiday without a little bit of work...

Making a sign out of Argentinian pine so that I could paint the new Arboura Eco Cabinas sign, with their new logo that was designed by artist Jamie Janx Johnston.

 Hardly feels like work at all when you get to paint in a bikini and jump in the pool every 20 minutes.

 All in all, the trip was FAR too short. Now that I've been there once, I definitely know it's a place I'll return. I would love to get more into the culture, learn some spanish, and there's a very curious and interesting American immigrant culture down there that makes for some different types connections.

 I can see why so many people move down there from North America. After a winter like the last one we just had, it's definitely tempting! Maybe one day...

The Anderson Mural, finished in February, finally getting around to posting the finished pictures of it! For in process, go here and here. 

 As an extra little touch I added hand cut flowers for spring time!

 A lovely little mural for a lovely new family home!

Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we're too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cell phone.
-Steven Spielberg

The idea of prosthetics is a tool. Most people's cell phones are prosthetics. If you leave your cell phone at home, you feel impacted by not having it. It's an important part of your daily function and what you can do in a day.

-Aimee Mullins

The cell phone has become the adult's transitional object, replacing the toddler's teddy bear for comfort and a sense of belonging.
-Margaret Heffernan

It's not good enough for us to have generations of kids that look forward to a better version of a cell phone with a video in it. They need to look forward to exploration.
-Burt Rutan

Everyone with a cell phone thinks they're a photographer. Everyone with a laptop thinks they're a journalist. But they have no training, and they have no idea of what we keep to in terms of standards, as in what's far out and what's reality. And they have no dedication to truth.
-Helen Thomas

We know that people are less open in conversations if the other conversant puts a cell phone on the table. Even if it's turned off. The sign is enough to close the mind and make a prospective client or lover less likely to do what you ask. As people realize this, they'll start putting away phones or turning them off.

-Douglas Rushkoff

Photographs from The Atlantic, "A World  Transfixed by Screens", by Alan Taylor

I've been doing so much that I haven't had time to blog. But I wanted to do a showcase on the three things that I showed at taBURNak! this year. A little late but better than never!

Jodi Sharp

En créant des tableaux de ses propres moments de plénitude, Jodi tente de décrire de nouvelles manières par lesquelles la société et la nature peuvent entrer en relation, et établir ses propres espaces sacrés dans lesquelles les frontières peuvent s'abattre. À travers son costume, ses objets et ses actes, elle veut amorcer un dialogue qui pourra créer des options alternatives à notre espace social courant, et nourrir des idées qui permettront une nouvelle façon d'être.
~
By creating wishful images of her own fulfilled moments, Jodi seeks to describe new ways in which society and nature can relate, and to create her own sacred places where boundaries can be broken down. With her costume, objects and actions, she desires to enter into a dialogue that can create alternatives to our current societal space, and provides ideas for a new way of being.

taBURNak! is that one yearly event that takes a huge chunk of my time and energy. It's my almost full time job for 2-3 months of the year, because I really believe in the way that it presents art in an accessible public space, and I also believe in the type of community that it builds. The creativity and personal self expression at this event rocks my brain, and so I put in all of the effort I can to help support it's growth.

For this event I am one of two overall event coordinators, as well as being the sole arts coordinator. That means that, as well as helping organize the entirety of the system, a large chunk of my job focuses on finding artists, creating and maintaining our grant system so that artists can build better art, as well as curating and setting up the space for the event. It's a pretty giant task, but at the end of the day seeing 800 people, a large portion who probably wouldn't regularly go to galleries, experiences art they wouldn't have otherwise seen, makes it all worthwhile.

For full photos of the event, please go here.

But on top of the huge task of organizing this event, I also feel the need to make my own art for it. Because first and foremost, I am an artist, and creating visual communication and adding my own voice to the world will always be my true calling.

This year I ended up doing three visual pieces. I did the stage design for the main stage, I made a sculpture for the event, and I also did a continuation of the Prayer Flag Project, which began over new years this year.

Although we have incredible art that shows each year at taBURNak!, I really wanted the stage to be it's own work in itself. Although I didn't have a ton of time, I was inspired to make something interesting for all of our amazing VJs who project during the event. I didn't want just a white wall or a regular screen, so I turned my attention to some of the shapes I've been finding interesting recently, and set out to make a 3D sculpture to go behind the stage.

3D paper sculpture however, is neither quick nor easy, so, in light of everything else I was doing, I ended up downsizing my design, making it smaller and only doing the very back piece 3D, as well as getting the help of some AMAZING volunteers to help cut all the strips necessary to make the backdrop.

The design was cut and drawn onto large pieces of paper, and then I adhered upright strips on top of the design.

It would've been nice if the cutouts siting on the stage could've been 3D, and had some popout elements on the stage as well, but building like was pretty time consuming, and at the end of the day sometimes you just have to let it go and be satisfied with what is.

I enjoyed seeing how the VJs played with the design, and how it changed throughout the night.

Photo credit Soleil Launiere

Photo credit Soleil Launiere

Photo credit Jamie Janx Johnston

Photo credit Jamie Janx Johnston

As well as the stage, I also made a sculpture that showed in the main art space of the event. 

Photo credit Jamie Janx Johnston

Art Can('t) Save the World

Wood

7'x6'

As an artist, I am always challenged by society's view of art. A very large portion of of North America seems to view art as unimportant space decoration, or as a luxury item that displays your status and wealth. Whenever I tell people that my job is as an artist, there always follows the question, "yeah, but what do you do for work?", as if being an artist isn't a true or valid career.

I feel as though we have branded art as being unimportant, and we dismiss the huge power that visual images actually have. But when it comes down to it, we cannot deny how much the image affects us. The world spends billions of dollars on advertisements and we can look around and see this consumer culture that has grown up around the image.

So for this piece I really wanted to create a solid projection of what I felt I was being told, and then change that statement into a question.

So I stenciled out a phrase that I feel gets drilled into artists by the surrounding culture- Art can't save the world, and I made it into a large scale sign.

Then I cut out and made a 3D question mark and filled it with flashing lights. I wanted to make the question mark seem like a picketers sign that was added after the fact. I wanted to juxtapose the large message of what we are told with a small personal stand against that message.

Photograph by Renaud Kasma

It was really beautiful to see all of the art, costumes and dancers that surrounded this image throughout the night. I feel the the environment really just overwhelmed and overpowered the message that "art can't," and made it feel like "art can."

At the event I also installed the next rendition of the Prayer Flag Project, which was previously shown at Intention Gathering in BC.

The Prayer Flag Project is a moving installation that will take place in North America over the course of this year. It will be set up at festivals, in homes, parks and public gatherings. The purpose of this project is to inspire people to actively participate in creating their own spiritual space and to promote community wellness.

The project is simple- people write their own prayers, wishes, intentions or images on the empty flags the artist has provided. The flags then get hung at the end of the prayer chain. Over the course of the year the chain will grow longer and longer, and the prayers will travel across countries, to reach communities everywhere.

I spent about a day in bed watching movies as I sewed all of the previous flags onto a string in preparation for taBURNak!

Then that string as well as empty string was hung up in the downstairs hallway of the event, a space that people first walk through as they enter the building.

Empty flags and a flag making station was set up in the hallway for people to use.

It was pretty amazing to see all of the participation throughout the night as that area became a space of congregation as more flags went up! 

The amount of participation was super inspiring, and now I will have more days worth of sewing flags ahead of me!

Also, I did I a costuming workshop with my partner in crime, Robyn Crouch.

Accueil Costumier

Avec les costumières Robyn Crouch et Jodi Sharp
9pm- 10:30pm

Nous pensons qu'une bonne partie du fun d'une soirée, c'est de préparer son costume! Alors pourquoi vous habiller tous seuls chez vous, quand vous pouvez venir passer du bon temps et vous costumer avec nous?

Amenez vos propres costumes, votre maquillage, et vos tickets de bar, et on va jaser, s'amuser, et se peinturer la face avant que la soirée prenne son envol. Une belle façon de rencontrer des gens avant que ça ne parte en fou, et une manière amusante de récolter l'inspiration pour afficher son unicité à travers le costume!
~
Costume Meet and Greet
With costumers Robyn Crouch and Jodi Sharp

We think half of the fun of an event is getting costumed up for it. So why get dressed up by yourself at home, when you can come hang out and get dressed up with us!

Bring your own costumes, face paint and drink tickets, and we'll hang out, chat and paint on each other before the event really gets going. A great way to meet some people before it gets crazy, and a fun way to get inspired to show your uniqueness through costume!

And one final thing I should mention, was that the company I interned with over the summer, Archimedes Design, was able to come up for the event and install one of their domes! They made it fantastically fluorescent, and it was a huge hit!

All in all, a pretty successful event if I do say so myself! Although, definitely a bit much work this year. Good thing that right after I went away to Costa Rica! Which I will blog about later. :)

And here's some sweet music for you to rock out your day with-

 Playmate

I was hanging by my knees
on the highest high wire
when I caught sight of you
pumping your swing
with all the might
of your wings,
soaring higher and higher.
I hollared "Wow!"
and I think you
recognized me with a "Whee..."

Yes this life is a soar and a swing
for she who can see
the high wires and wings.

And this life is a silly rhyme for she who's
ripped the gag from her throat to sing.
And it's a hop, skip and jump for she who
has hacked the shackles from her feet.

And this whole world is a prayer where she
daily files the callus from off her heart.

Yes, then it is fun and then it is free, the
holy mess of our lives won so relentlessly.

- Anne Benvenuti 

(We'Moon, Mother Tongue Ink, 2015)

Tiny Little Words from Whitestone Motion Pictures on Vimeo.

THE DOVE & THE WOLF - The Words You Said from zack spiger on Vimeo.

Peace is This Moment Without Judgment

Do you think peace requires an end to war?
Or tigers eating only vegetables?
Does peace require an absence from
your boss, your spouse, yourself? …
Do you think peace will come some other place than here?
Some other time than Now?
In some other heart than yours?

Peace is this moment without judgment.
That is all. This moment in the Heart-space
where everything that is is welcome.
Peace is this moment without thinking
that it should be some other way,
that you should feel some other thing,
that your life should unfold according to your plans.

Peace is this moment without judgment,
this moment in the heart-space where
everything that is is welcome.

© Dorothy Hunt

So taBURNak!, the Montreal Burner Decomp is now completed, with another resounding success! With more attendees and participants than ever before, this non-profit, community run event just keeps growing and growing!

Following photos by Jamie Janx Johnston

This year we hit around 800 people, with 19 artist installations, 17 musical acts and Djs, 17 circus, fire and burlesque performers, 5 VJs, 4 workshops and countless volunteers. Not bad for a one night event. :)

If you want to see the promo info for any of our artists and performers, all their photos and info are here and here. 

taBURNak! is a decompression party for the Burning Man festival, which means that it is built off the model of Burning Man. The focus of this event is the 10 principles, and the core of the event is focused around art, music and performance, with the idea that each individual is what makes up this event. The participants are encouraged to costume and explore, and to participate in the creation of art and community. 

Every person who comes to this event is not only asked to contribute what they can monetarily, but is asked to gift as much of their time, resources and skills as they feel called to share, wether that's through djing, performing, making art, working behind the bar, working a greeter or ticket shift, helping setup, pushing a broom, working a first aid shift, etc, etc. This event is made completely by the community. Not a single person makes a cent off it, and it runs and flourishes because every participant gives what they can. 

This year we had all kinds of beautiful contributions. Tons of interactive art installations that you could wander through to sit and snuggle, make a prayer flag, share a secret, get blacklight painted, see colors you've never seen before, sit in a chair that would change your experience of the world, eat poutine, have a cup of tea. On top of that just wonderful art in the form of sculpture, paintings, film, stop motions and VJs. 

The setup of the space was filled with art and tents that you could explore to find amazing things.

Then there were performances. Everything from incredible hula hoopers, to stripper poles, circus performers, stilt walkers, amazing fire spinners, spoken word, comedy. So many talented people sharing so many talented skills!

And then of course, there's music. The heart of the event, the moving and dancing and playing of human motion! Here's a couple of the amazing sets that played that night. 

Even the organizing team of taBURNak is 100% volunteer run, and this year our team once again rocked it. So blessed to have these people who were so willing to donate between dozens to hundreds of hours of time and effort to make this stunning event. 

Event Coordinators 

Asha Courtland

Jodi Sharp

Administration Lead- Asha Courtland

Deployment Lead- Jodi Sharp

Volunteer Lead- Nicholas Lucky

Tickets- Nicolas Lucky

Music Coordinators- Dikran Poladian & Aaron Ball

Art Coordinator- Jodi Sharp

Art Grants Coordinator- Jodi Sharp

Art Grants Committee- Aaron Ball, Jonathan Joseph, David Zangwill, Phillip Arrow

Performance Coordinators- Camille Berube & Leslie M 

Workshop Coordinator- Camille Berube

Transport Coordinator- Derek Jones

Setup Coordinator- Jodi Sharp

Teardown Coordinator- Grayden Wagner

Stage Design- Jodi Sharp

Bar Leads- Valerie Joyal & Pierre Sparks

First Aid and Rangers Team Lead- Glenn Grant

Greeters Team Leads- Shaïda Ayeva & Sylvana Bellec

Sanctuary Tent- Simon Amar and Sabrina Adams

Legal- Camille Berube 

Communications- Asha Courtland

Promotional Graphic Design- Jodi Sharp

Translators- Jonathan Joseph, Nicholas Lucky & Camille Berube

Signs- Glenn Grant

Website- Asha Courtland

A HUGE thank you to all who made this event possible and created a vibe of fun, adventurous, and safe community! 

I'll post some of my own photos in a later blog, but here's some more from a couple of our amazing event photographers.

  Photos by Soleil Launiere

 And another great photographer-

 Photos by Dangrz Studios

 Thank you again so much to every human being who contributed their time to this event! It is only together that we are able to make something so incredibly wonderful! See you next year!

Photo by Julz

So, Burning Man. 

I had been a member of the Burner community for about 10 years before ever actually making it to the festival. I've been an event organizer for taBURNak!, the Montreal Burner Decomp for the last four years (it's coming up, get your tickets soon!), I'd attended Regionals, made meet-and greets, and helped run countless other Burner events for years.

Burning Man 2014 from UBERcut on Vimeo.

Before I went, I really felt like I got the gist of the Burner spirit. And I did, to an extent. 

I still think that you can be a Burner without ever attending this festival, because being a Burner is based on values, not attendance. Attending this festival is a HUGE monetary investment, and (unfortunately) isn't an option available to everyone. But the idea of Burning Man is based on Burner spirit, and that can belong to anyone, anytime.

The philosophy of Burning Man runs off of 10 Key Principles-

Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey wrote the Ten Principles in 2004. They were crafted not as a dictate of how people should be and act, but as a reflection of the community’s ethos and culture as it had organically developed since the event’s inception.

Radical Inclusion

Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.

Gifting

Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.

Decommodification

In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

Radical Self-reliance

Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.

Radical Self-expression

Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

Communal Effort

Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.

Civic Responsibility

We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

Leaving No Trace

Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavour, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

Participation

Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

Immediacy

Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.

So, what new things did I discover when I actually attended the festival?

Archimedes Design Domes, Photo by Toby Vann

My experience last year was a little skewed because I was there on a job assignment with Archimedes Design. It was a really different experience then if I would've been participating in bringing art, or a theme camp that I had helped build. I felt a little less invested in what I was creating because of that. I wasn't really involved in the brain child of what I helped create, I was doing a job for someone else, and even though I really liked the project, it wasn't quite my own. 

On top of that, after weeks and weeks working 24 hours a day with my team, I was a little burnt out. Don't get me wrong, I loved everyone on my team, and there was rarely actual conflict. But I did find that the others style of work ethic was different than mine, and so I felt a little off-kilter the whole time, which in the end did lead to some burn out. It really impressed on me the importance of being on the same page as your team. This festival is a HUGE investment of time and energy, and your teammates are your support, company and entertainment. It's important and be on the same wave length.

But other than that, my 2014 Burning Man Experience was extremely interesting. 

The first thing that really takes your breath away on your first Burn, is just the sheer SCALE of it. I know you think you can wrap your head around the idea of 70,000 people all radically self expressing, but the fact is, unless you've seen it, you just CAN'T.

I remember on Monday, the very first night of the Burn, I rode my bike out to the edge of the city and looked out over the playa. As far as my eye could see were pin-points of light, and everything was moving. As I stood there, I literally felt the struggle of my brain as it tried to take in what I was seeing. It was so surreal I almost couldn't comprehend it. And all at once it sunk in through my skin. Every single piece of light I was seeing for miles and miles and miles, was ART.

You can imagine as an artist what this felt like. I work in a career where I have to be over-educated, but am under appreciated and will be underpaid for my entire life. I often feel like being a professional artist is an eternally losing battle. So many people in our current cultural space would be willing to pay $100 at IKEA for a cheap piece of furniture, but would never think of spending that on an original piece of artwork.

To walk out to that playa the very first night made me believe in humanity again. I know that sounds cheesy, but that's actually how I felt. To look into the space and realize how many thousands of people were so dedicated to the cause of art and alternative society, that could make this mass of light possible, rocked my world. I cried. I really did.

That single moment was worth my entire trip.

I know I mentioned the art, but did I mention the art? Every year after Burning Man I geek on online photographs to see all the amazing stuff that was built. But what I just couldn't comprehend before I went, was that for every single photograph you see online, you aren't seeing hundreds of other pieces. 

Everywhere you look there is something new and amazing. I'm an artist, it's my job to look at the world of art and see what's going on. And honestly for years gallery art has been leaving me wanting. But you can bike through the playa for 20 minutes and every single thing you see is one of the most inspiring things you've ever seen. Geniuses of engineering, cutting edge art, years worth of work on every single project.

And the interactivity. Gone are the cold gallery walls and art you can't touch. Here is art that envelops you, art you can climb, art that moves,

art that changes color when you touch it, or sings, or makes a pattern when you press a button,

art that terrifies you, art that is so beautiful it makes you want to cry, art that is inventive,

 art in the forms the practical, the impractical, the aweinspiring, the sacred, and the crazy.

There is literally everything you can think of and everything that you can't. It blew my fricken' mind.

And with the art came a concept that I have held as a value before, but was the most apparent it has ever been to me on the playa. The concept of immediacy. There's a reason it's one of the 10 principles.

When you have so much art and so much space and everything moves, you either do something now, or it will never get done. 

If you walk past a stage with good music, but see some cool art installation slightly in the distance, you may think that you're just going to run over there and see that and come right back to dance. But the fact is, you aren't. You are going to 

a) go to that installation and come back and find your dance floor has driven off

b) get to that art installation and see another one in the distance that leads you on a trail of adventure that takes you hours

c) realize that the installation is WAY farther than you thought and you're not going back

or

d) start biking and realize you have to pee, or need more water, and need to go on an hour long journey to bike back to a civilized space so you don't die in the desert.

And if you try and go see that installation tomorrow, the chances are it will have been burned, it's been changed,  something else has been built in its place, or you just can't find it again. 

The rule is, do it now, or it won't get done, and I LOVED it. It was so refreshing to have everything be so ethereal. And because there was always something amazing happening, I never really felt like there was anything I was missing out on. It was just so impossible to see and do it all that you really had to be happy with the now. 

Another thing I really loved about this festival was that you have to take care of yourself. 

Don't kid yourself, this is a desert. And as much as every single picture you've ever seen of this event looks like one crazy party, getting too crazy is SERIOUSLY dangerous. If you drink too much alcohol you'll get dehydrated, and there's no where to get out of the heat. If your choice is to do other intoxicants, you better have really good buddies to make sure you're okay. Getting lost in desert, or not having proper supplies, clothing or protection from the sun and occasional sandstorm can have dire consequences.

And, as I learned from experience when I got a concussion roughhousing in the middle of the desert, you are MILES away from anything if you are careless and get yourself hurt.

Because of the fact that you have to survive, I feel like it changes the vibe from what could be the craziest gong show in the universe, to being an incredible party where most people are doing a pretty amazing job at self care. 

Out of everything, the inspiration of the sheer amount of people who love art, and the practice of living life in an immediate way, were the two greatest things I got out of Burning Man. 

Don't get me wrong, there are still struggles that I had while I was there, and there are still certain things that I really disagree with about this festival. But those are other discussions for other times. For now, lets just leave it with my good lessons, and bring those back into my daily life and practice as positive things. 

*My apologies to everyone on the internet that I shamelessly ripped photos from. I just didn't have the gumption to credit them all.

Burning Moments // Burning Man 2014 from Ari Fararooy on Vimeo.

Photographs by Toby Vann unless otherwise stated

 After setting up our own camp, we began to have clients trickle into our camp to help set up theirs. Little by little our teams got sent out, building

Archimedes Design

domes across the playa. I'll talk about my own personal Burning Man experience a little bit later, but the initial few days were just working with clients and getting stuff set up. 

Everyone we helped set up was pretty great. Mostly they were just so happy to have on-playa help that every installation was fun, with high spirits, lots of teamwork, and gifts of beer and snacks. 

 My favourite dome that my team helped with was a bunch a hilarious New Zealanders, who added such excitement as offering to let us play with their flamethrower.

Photograph by me

I also loved how they decorated the inside of their dome, creating this beautiful calm sacred space. I love how the colours of the star shades show through the inner tent, giving the beautiful impression of sacred geometry to the interior.

Photograph by me

Within the first few days we started having some problems though. The first problems were with clients who had tried to set up without our help and forgot to do things like stake out tether lines to hold the dome in place, or who hadn't aligned the circle of the dome correctly. These domes are held together with pressure, and it's pretty important to have them aligned correctly or the hubs take too much weight.

The second problem was that the 

Lodge domes

, which is our biggest size available to clients, were having issues taking the pressures of the wind. They were fine with the just the shade stars on them, but the ones with tents inside were pulling too much with the high winds. 

This was a problem because the majority of our clients had the hubs that we pressed by hand. 

This meant that each hub had a slight weak spot where the metal was pressed. So when there was a really high wind, or when the dome was set up unbalanced, a hub or two would invert, slightly caving in a part of the dome. 

This problem was knocked out completely by the invention of the new cast hub. In our own camp we had a dome that was bigger than a Lodge set up with these hubs, and it had absolutely no problem. But unfortunately we had only gotten our first shipment of the new prototype hubs a month earlier, so most of our clients had the old version which we no longer sell.

All of our clients were still amazing about it though. They all graciously understood that it was our first startup year, and that meant sometimes there's bugs to work out. It just meant that our teams were working for a good portion of the week. We got really good at surgically removing and replacing hubs. And we luckily had brought more than enough extras to manage. 

In the end most of our clients ungraded to the new hub for a reduced price, which means not having that problem any more. It also meant that with their own elbow grease, they could cut new poles in

Nomad

size, and have a new smaller stable dome with the old hubs.

While it was definitely more work than we had bargained for on the playa, it was amazing to have such fun  (and understanding) clients, and it was really amazing to see what everyone did to make their domes individual and unique!

Finally onto the playa!

For earlier parts of this story go

here

,

here

and

here

. 

All photographs by Henri Cohen unless otherwise stated.

Isn't it amazing that with all of the planning in the world, and with days and days and multiple people helping, you can still end up with things to do until the very last minute possible? We didn't finish all the packing until after midnight the night before we needed to leave. 

We crashed for a couple hours, not nearly enough. Up again while it was still dark out, attempting to leave at exactly 5:00 so we could miss the notorious Burning Man line. After some lateness hiccups, and some ruffled feathers, our tired caravan hit the road.

And then the magical thing happened. After a couple hours of driving we hit the playa and discovered ABSOLUTELY NO LINEUP. Unheard of! We just drove right on up.

 We got to our campsite and in the distance we saw a magical

Archimedes Design

dome, set up by one of our earlier arrived clients! What a welcome sight. 

Photograph by Toby Vann

We began unloading to set up what would be our home for the next 10 days. It was pretty amazing to be there for early arrival, being able to look off into the distance into the empty playa, knowing that in just a couple days, every inch as far as we could see would be covered with art and theme camps. 

And of course, the dustiest and windiest day we had all festival was our first setup day...

And little by little our camp grows... The

Archimedes Design

domes going up quickly and adding beautiful spots of color to the barren playa.

Photograph by Toby Vann

Photograph by me

Photograph by me

Photograph by me

Photograph by me

Photograph by me

Photograph by me

Photograph by Toby Vann

And now that we've finished setting up our own little home, it's time to wait for our clients to arrive so that we can help set up theirs! 

More to come!

Photograph by Toby Vann

For earlier parts of this story, go 

here

and

here

.

Photos by Toby Vann unless otherwise stated.

So on we went towards Reno! 

Just before hitting the mountains in Utah we began having issues with our brakes, and spent a nerve-wracking drive through the mountains, up and down inclines, with one of our best drivers trying to get through mountain overpasses using as little brakes as possible. 

With other small traumas like my favourite water bottle being left in a gas station and me making us turn around for it (yes, they only did it because I was a girl and going to cry), and the time we were told it would take to drive there being about double what we were told, we finally arrived, tired and grumpy, to Reno. 

We put the truck immediately in the shop, and collapsed into hotel rooms to rest before an intense week of work to prep for our

Archimedes Design

customer orders, and ready our camp gear for the Burn.

Photo by me

Photo by Henri Cohen

For the week, one of Toby and Michael's contacts in Reno graciously let us use his shop, and we commenced finishing all the things that needed to be done before we would be ready for the playa.

Cutting down poles for customer orders...

Rust proofing our beautiful new hubs...

Packing and ordering all the objects needed for the orders...

Cutting new shade stars and sewing tabs and tabs and more tabs...

Photo by Henri Cohen

And lists...

 And lists...

And more lists....

As the week wore on, more of our camp team arrived, and helped with grocery shopping, gear buying, picking up bikes, building art and infrastructure we needed for the playa, and helping us get organized.

Finally

, we were ready to try and fit everything we needed for our camp, our team and our clients into our trailer with some very skilled packing.

And at 5:30 am the next morning, tired and ready, we headed out from our hotel rooms to the great adventure of Burning Man 2014.

More to come!

Photo by Henri Cohen

All photographs by Toby Vann unless otherwise stated.

Have you ever spent forever in a truck sandwiched between four guys, driving almost non-stop across the United States? I have. And I have to say, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be...

I really thought that the trip would be a lot more difficult than it was. I thought by day three we would be completely sick of each other. But we were all a little buoyed by the excitement of where we were headed.

The countryside was pretty amazing too. I've driven this route across the States before, but I still love how the view changes. Seeing the different landscapes, the different people, and different industries as we drove across was really cool.

And of course some in car crafting helped keep us occupied.

As well as taking some time to stop and stretch our legs, and eat some really good food to keep our bodies and tummies happy.

We got really into this one song that we had to sing or play every time was passed a pizza hut or taco bell. Yes, it did eventually get old...

Our team after staying with an amazing host couple in their incredible house in Kansas, complete with swimming pool. Which definitely made us happier.

By the time we hit Colorado, however, we were definitely ready for a breather. My sister's family let us camp out for a couple days so we could sleep in a real bed, shower and relax. They also graciously lent us their sewing machine to finish up some tents for the domes.

Photograph by Carla Anderson

As well they let us use their amazing and spacious back lawn to set up a couple

Archimedes Design

domes and host a burner meet and greet afternoon. 

Photograph by me

Photograph by Carla Anderson

 It was a lovely stopover on our long journey, but the trip wasn't quite finished yet! Time to repack and reorganize the trailer and head out to Reno.

For earlier parts of this story, go

here

and

here

. 

All photographs by Toby Vann.

 Alright, so it's about time I got my act in gear and talked about what I did with my summer, which was a HUGE adventure, and I'm still processing even now. 

I had an internship with this AMAZING company called

Archimedes Design 

, a new startup that has developed a revolutionary new way to build simple and easily installed domes for festivals and events.

This company totally has my heart. As a long time member of the festival culture, I have installed MORE than my fair share of geodesic domes, and normally they are HORRIBLE to put together. These guys however, have developed a new and easy way for these domes to go up. Instead of bolting all the pieces together, this dome is held together through a harness system, making these domes, even the largest models, go up in under an hour. Genius.

"Toby Vann and Michael Gates have been building temporary and permanent structures for over ten years.

In 2012 they accepted a challenge to build a better mouse trap: long time participants of the Burning Man festival, they wanted to eliminate many of the hassles associated with traditional methods of dome construction.

During the winter of 2013, they developed the Hub & Harness Network. Borrowing from Buckminster Fuller, they used elements of geodesic and tensegrity principles to create their unique, truncated icosahedral domes.

In August 2013, they premiered the prototype dome, named the Archimedes Basket, at Burning Man to test their theories. This crowd-funded project was wildly successful, and paved the way for Archimedes Design, portable dome systems.

In September 2013, they received an Editor's Choice award at Maker Faire NYC. In May 2014, at Maker Faire San Mateo, they launched their company Archimedes Design ."

-

Archimedes Design Website

Last summer, I was invited to work with this company during their product launch year. Not only did I get to help build and create these amazingly designed products, I was also invited to join them on an incredible cross-country journey from New York to Nevada, to ship and install domes for clients at the Burning Man festival. It was truly a mind-blowing journey. 

In June of last year, a team of us was assembled in Brooklyn to begin manufacturing client orders to be delivered in August.

We spent our time cutting down pipes, pressing them, drilling and assembling hubs, sewing up star shades and shade tents, working out some design kinks and producing domes domes domes! 

More on that process 

here

.

By the first week of August we were ready to start our great dome adventure! We packed up all our gear, assembled all the orders, and braced ourselves to spend 24 hours a day with each other for over a month.

 We loaded the beautiful sparkly new trailer, and the five of us packed ourselves into the truck for the long drive from New York to Nevada.

 So it's been a few days and I'm making some lovely progress on the Anderson mural.

First I started out by blocking out where I wanted the composition to be using painters tape.

Then I drew in my image.

And here we go!

The very first tree above the fireplace.

And roasting marshmallows on a beautiful roaring fire on a lovely snow day.

And on to the second, drawing in the five little Anderson birdies.

A second coat on the second tree and then one more tree to go!

The favourite new song I came across while working, an acoustic cover of Daft Punk-

 Here in Colorado with the wonderful Anderson family, starting a new mural in their living room!

In 2010 I did a single tree on their living room wall, which they really liked. It was brown with green leaves, and had four little birdies representing the four of them in their family. Last year they moved to a new and bigger family home, leaving that little tree behind, so we decided to do a new and updated version of the Anderson family mural!

The wall they wanted to change had old 60's wallpaper covering it, and wasn't quite the style they wanted.

 So we decided to strip it and add an updated color. I gave them a few options of ideas for the wall, deciding on more designed white silhouette trees, and now five little animals instead of four, as they had another baby boy!

 They decided to go with a light sea foam blue and five flying birdies.

 First off, stripping the wallpaper!

 Revealing the even older green paint underneath.

 And a huge amount of patching to get the wall back to flat after years of glue damage.

 And here we have it! A beautiful updated sea foam blue. I love this color! All ready to start blocking in forms for the trees today!

And what I'm listening to as I work today-

  Why there's a War in India on Valentines Day

The day of love -- Valentine's Day -- attracts a lot of hate in India.

Each year, as heart-shaped balloons fill the streets of metropolitan cities, a small but vocal minority aggressively opposes any V-Day celebrations. Unlike one group in Japan that is against the "passion-based capitalism" that fuels the holiday, those opposing it in India are conservative groups protesting against the Western values they believe Valentine's Day represents.

The actions against the holiday include vandalism (where mobs break coffee tables and windows in restaurants), moral policing, calls to ban any celebrations, and threats of violence against couples who display public affection.

The group that has gained the most attention this year for its opposition to Valentine's Day is the Hindu Mahasabha. The extreme right-wing group plans to marry off singles who declare their love for each other, either in person or through social media.

The president of the organization, Chandra Prakash Kaushik, said that his group would monitor social media sites and when they see couples professing their love, they will ask them to get married. If the couples do not consent, the group plans to "contact their parents — especially those who are active online — and ask them to get them married if they really love each other.”

-The Washington Post

Swati Sharma

Feb 12, 2015

 More BEAUTIFUL hiking in the Colorado foothills, with this song stuck in our heads the whole way... Oh having little nieces who dance around and sing this...

Finding super cool dinosaur bone fossils.

It is beautiful here in Colorado. I went from a -35 blizzard out of Montreal to a week of wearing tank tops and being barefoot outside. And so we must hike! I can't believe that it's still February. 

Film by Nathan Anderson

What Are We Waiting For?

I bet there are forests who miss me. Who wish I were a squirrel in their trees or a supposedly mythical mermaid in their ponds. I bet there are kisses that wish I were in them too, because they like my technique. I bet there are sunrays looking for me even now, not yet knowing I’ve gone indoors. There may also be songs wishing I’d turn them on, and others who wish I were already dancing to them. I wonder if there are dresses that wish I were wearing them, instead of someone else, or left hanging on a hanger. I bet there are houses that wish I were living in them, maybe houses that I’ll one day move in and dance through, but not yet, I haven’t even visited their towns, and the houses shift and groan their tree trunks and wonder, Why do I have to wait?
Cuz they want me, see. Cuz it’ll be that good.

And so I ask my future and all my possibilities and all my impossible perfect fantastical dreams to call for me LOUD, light road flares, use spot lights, catch me with a stage hook and reel me in, bring me close. Because if I want you and you want me, I tell my future, what are we waiting for?
It’s only ellipsis dividing us.
Let’s blow them away like breadcrumbs…

I love to long for my future, and I love when my future longs for me. It feels as good as dancing to the most kickass song, when my body predicts beats and breaks and rhythm changes, when it’s all tight and suave, like all I’ve been waiting for is right here, and I’m drinkin’ it down easy.

And really when life’s like that, when I’m drunk on dreams and slippery with time, nothing can hold me back, not rules or logic, and beauty breaks all boundaries. I burst through the seams, racing my bike down the streets, free in the world: this wildly improbable.

-Dawn Sperber 

(We’Moon,

Mother Tongue Ink,

2015)

 

A Flight Attendant's Cure for Fear of Flying

So I'm trying to fly today. I was supposed to be headed out on a flight three hours ago. And due to SNOW snow snow, I have been bumped onto three different flights, all which have been canceled. My next available flight doesn't leave for another four hours, and drops me in Atlanta where I have to sleep in the airport all night until they can fly me out tomorrow morning.
I wish I had brought more snacks...

A Flight Attendant's Cure for Fear of Flying

It was the last day of flight attendant training, and we had just finished the final exam. My fellow trainees and I sat outside in exhausted silence, nervously waiting for our test results. Some of us smoked cigarettes, most just stared at the ground, airport codes and evacuation commands swirling around in our heads.

Then Garrett, a young man from Kansas City, blurted out: "Actually, you guys, I'm kind of afraid to fly."

We all burst out laughing.

We made jokes at Garrett's expense, but I have to admit, I used to be afraid to fly, too. Used to.

Flight attendants get asked all the time what to do about fear of flying, and here's my advice:

Learn about plane crashes.

Now, before you have a panic attack, hear me out.

In my pre-airline years, if I had to take a flight, I would dig my nails into the armrest and scrunch my eyes shut when the plane took off, when it climbed to altitude, turned, descended, or so much as suggested the possibility of turbulence. Landing was the worst.

Even as I headed to flight attendant training (which, by the way, has a lower acceptance rate than Harvard...ahem), there was still a part of me that thought I might be signing my own death certificate. The part of me that wanted to see the world without paying for it, however, was just a little bit stronger.

And for four weeks, 10 hours a day, six days a week, our instructors inundated us with gruesome stories of fireballs, decompressions, hijackers, and failing engines. Sure, we spent a few hours on airport codes and beverage carts, but, mostly, it was plane crashes.

Oddly, though, I found that the more I learned about flight, and more specifically, flight emergencies, the less I became afraid to fly. It turns out, on vast majority of flights where something goes wrong, the plane lands safely and everyone is fine.

I repeat, even in the rare instances when there is an emergency, it isn't hopeless. Your tragic fate is nowhere near sealed.

In fact, did you know that crewmembers make safety-related errors on 82 percent of all flights, with an average of three mistakes per flight? (Breathe. That's a good thing.) That means pilots, flight attendants, and airplanes don't have to perform perfectly in order to get you to your destination alive and in one piece. After all, 82 percent of flights aren't crashing. There is room for error, and contingencies for the contingencies for the contingencies.

Let me give you an example. When you hear the lead flight attendant instructing her colleagues to "prepare" or "arm" their doors, she's actually asking for a very specific procedure. First, we must remove ourselves from all distractions—that means immediately stopping any conversations and going to our assigned door. Next, we hold the bracing handle with one hand. With the other hand, we remove the safety pin from the door, lower the lever that activates the emergency slide and re-insert the pin to lock the lever in place. Then, we look across the aircraft and confirm that our colleague has armed her door correctly. We say out loud to one another, "Armed and crosschecked." We call the lead flight attendant and tell her we're armed and crosschecked. She tells us she's armed and crosschecked. Then she looks at her panel to make the sure the aircraft computer says we're armed and crosschecked. There's also an alarm in the flight deck that will ring, just in case.

That's six chances to catch a possible mistake, and that's just for activating the slide. Imagine what the procedures and contingencies are like for the engines and the brakes.

(While we're on the subject of doors, let me just clear something up real quick: You can't open the aircraft doors during a flight. It's physically impossible. The pressure is so great that even Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn't do it. So when you read a story about a passenger going berserk and trying open the door, he does not hold the other passengers' lives in his grip. We'll still arrest him though, because that's pretty messed up.)

There's a reason that pilots spend so much time in school, and it isn't because flying is complicated. The actual mechanics of getting a plane to go up and down are not that complex. The reason flight school is so long is because pilots are drilled, over and over, on how to handle every possible thing that has ever gone wrong on an airplane, ever—and even some things that never have but could.

It's actually really hard to make a commercial plane crash with no survivors. Planes are not precariously suspended in the sky, and there's no scenario in which a crewmember presses one wrong button and the plane explodes in the sky.

So back to the day I finished flight attendant school. When we went back to the classroom, we found out we had all passed with flyingcolors (pun intended, deal with it). That night in the hotel lounge, our celebration was interrupted by news that a commercial jet had declared an emergency. Its nose gear had jammed and turned in the wrong direction. For the second time that day, we sat in stunned silence, this time watching the plane circle Los Angeles, cable news anchors predicting disaster.

What happened? Well, according to the passengers on board, one of the smoothest landings they'd ever felt. You better believe the pilots were prepared for it. There's also a specific evacuation for a nose-collapse, which the flight attendants would have done had it been necessary.

Ok, so now it's time for you to learn more about flight disasters. And no I'm not suggesting that everyone enroll in flight school. There are number of sites online, but my favorite is AirDisaster.com. What have you got to lose besides your fear?

By Gillian Brockell

 What I'm listening to as I wait-

I'm crossing that imaginary line in the middle of my continent into the States again tomorrow. It's amazing how much you have to organize flying from Canada to the States.
Flying used to be so different. I was talking with someone the other day who mentioned that there was a smoking section on the first plane he ever took. Now I have to go through my bags for any possible lighter, pair of scissors or mildly sharp object that I might have. And I just spent half an hour researching TSA guidelines to see if I'm allowed to bring vitamins on the airplane if they're NOT in their original containers. AirPAIN is more like it...

At least when I get there I get to see people I love! 

When I'm stuck inside and needing inspiration, my default setting is to make wearables. Needless to say, it has been VERY cold in Montreal, and it's been a rough winter for me, so the majority of what I've been making has been stuff to wear.

Photograph by Christopher Alying

Editing by me

 The very first thing I decided to make this year was a winter jacket. I figured if I was to survive another Canadian winter, I at least want to look good while doing it.

 A picture of back the in process.

Photograph by Christopher Alying

Editing by me

 I've also been getting very into accessories, like these leather bracers, arm warmers, leather necklace,  stone pendants, rings and earrings.

 Kyanite ring

 Malachite and hematite neckalace

 Quartz necklace

 Quartz necklace commission

 Dress,  jewelry, arm warmers, bracers by me
Makeup by me

Headgear found objects, altered by me

Parasole by Dylan Toymaker, altered by me

 I've also been getting back into dying recently. This is a large piece I've shiboried about 5 times, and then have started painting on with copper fabric paint, continuing the beetle motifs I've been working with. I don't know what it will turn into, but I'm liking it so far.

And what I'm listening to right now-