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I'm sorry it took me so long to get here
The map was outdated
I followed a wrong right turn
I'm so sorry

The map promised me a destination
but always seemed to shepherd me in the opposite direction
It told me I didn't have enough power for the 
journey without its compass
It gave me a windbreaker that was too tight,
causing me to choke
and hiking shorts that kept falling off,
causing me to trip
They must've belonged to someone else

I must've belonged to someone else
But I'm here now I'm here sh it's ok
I promise you
I am still arriving

— written on a plane-ride home

Adventures in Time and Space

The view from my studio

On the Djerassi Resident Artists Program website, one of the banners simply states “Time + Space.” Sci-fi associations aside, I found that during my month at Djerassi (September 5-October 3), time and space were the very things I needed, learned from, grew from. It’s easy to think that a residency will only entail free time to create and create - and indeed it does. But something else accompanied me when I was given time and space: my own thoughts. Even though I take time for self-reflection and self-care in the midst of my day-to-day grind, to have openness of thought for longer than a week, even a couple days, is rare for me. Philosophical musings arise. Emotions long-buried bubble up to the surface. Djerassi for me was as much about opening up to myself as it was to my creative process. In fact, I am more and more convinced that there is no distinction between the two. I am my creative process - which echos the name of this entire blog site: Life is Dramaturgy. Being surrounded by beautiful vistas with like-minded artists is fertile ground for creative exploration. And, it is also an almost other-worldly place where you see yourself, forgive what needs forgiving, soothe what needs soothing, and bolster what needs bolstering. It’s perhaps too early to say, but I feel my residency at Djerassi will prove itself to be a self-, career-, and art-shaping period for me.

Me and fellow residents appreciating an installation by Kathryn Cellerini Moore.

I’ll never forget the people or the place
or the gift of time and space.

Creativity Quotation #26

"The perfect is the enemy of the good." - Voltaire

Creativity Quotation #23

"Once again the only thing that mattered was the work, except now he realized that the work was him. There is no separating yourself from the things you make, he thought. If you are a cesspool, what else can your work be except shit?" - Noah Hawley, Before the Fall

Never Doubt

Artmakers and storytellers - write books, draw comics, paint paintings, do stand-up, code video games, make movies, become a YouTube sensation, craft poetry, animate short-films, make documentaries, design fashion, sing original songs, choreograph a number, create theatre!

Make us laugh. Help us grieve, heal, and breathe. Challenge our notions. Engage us in social dialogue. Teach us to be kind and empathetic. Remind us who we are. Show us who we can be.

Let's keep inundating our culture with our varying narratives and perspectives. We're playing a cultural long-game here - centuries in the making. We can be influencing tomorrow's voters in profound ways today. There are short-term horrors to be concerned and grappled with to be sure, but never doubt the power of your craft to shape the country in the long-run.

(Oh, and do drag! Lots and lots of drag!)

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I posted this on my Facebook timeline on November 9th, 2016.