This is my vision for a life well lived. It is like a bridge, that takes you somewhere and is a marvel to walk across. Magic in steel and concrete. Bridges are virtually the only human construction that defies logic. They look light as air, but they carry heavy weight on their shoulders.
I want to be a bridge this year. Someone that carries others to the other side of humanity through my art. Children are the obvious recipients, but I want my art to reach adults in a reality that is too fractured, too contentious, too demanding, and yet humans are more and more disconnected. A bridge takes people on one side, and brings them to the other. My art can serve in those ways, I believe. It just came to me that to be a bridge, makes me a leader in the most natural sense of the word. This summer allowed me a glimpse into who I am, without the filter of my family. It allowed me to exist as myself for the first time in a lifetime.
It isn't that I don't love my family; it is just that whenever my self-image needed some sort of a brush up. That was what my fellowship did for me. And will continue to feed and nurture me throughout the year.