- My favorite part of being an artist is that magic is real and making art is making magic.

(bright music) I was sort of that loner kid that just was always drawing, and that hasn't stopped, I'm still doing it now.

(laughs) (bright music continues) I had this revelation at one point because of Sea-Monkeys in fourth grade.

I sort of tapped into that gnostic worldview of worlds within worlds.

I was obsessed with fairy lore and fairy tales, and I drew dragons and fairies, and I would sort of cultivate that time spent daydreaming.

(bright music continues) My artistic practice is very multidisciplinary.

I'm very creatively restless and I like to move from one genre, one material, one system to another.

(bright music continues) I see things that I do now that I did 10 years ago or maybe 20 years ago.

I may not do it for 10 more years, but I see the through line.

So I feel like being an artist is a long game where your thoughts and visions, you're broadcasting them out deep into the future, connecting with realms that are not the ones that you're experiencing now.

So I have one foot like firmly planted in the here and now and the rational waking consciousness that we're all living in, and then I have one foot planted in this other world, and that sustains me and that's what it's like I know it exists, I've seen it, but we only glimpse it occasionally.

But it's enough to kind of keep you in that state of wonder and always wanting to go back there.

(bright music continues) I mean, why be limited?

You know, I think you should explore as much as you can.

Making art is a process and it's to me, it's tied into that alchemical process that we're engaged in as human beings of refining ourselves over the course of decades.

(bright music continues) It also reinforces those connections to the more esoteric things that I'm interested in.

(bright music continues) The symbol systems that I use and the imagery that I use, those things sort of filter up from our collective consciousness, and it arises in different cultures.

And so, of course, the eye is one and the hand is one, so they have really deep roots.

And I think as humans, those symbols are so innate to just our humanness.

I mean, part of how we've evolved is being able to create symbols that are universally understood, which is so interesting to me.

(bright music continues) It is my meditation, it is my prayer, it is my spiritual practice, and it's helped me understand who I am and how I operate in the world.

(bright music continues) The work became this spiritual practice because it in itself was very tedious and laborious and caused me to slow down.

So I would find myself with tweezers in hand and a sequin, and then I'd pause and take a breath and then think of, you know, have a moment of prayer for myself, for the world, for all the sentient beings of the world.

And so that sort of manifested into the work in a more profound way.

(bright music continues) Do I make art for the process or for the object?

You know, I'd say it's both, but it's not an even split.

So, I feel like when I'm making art, I'm actually channeling energy.

Like that's part of the process of self-discovery and wonder that you are engaging with.

So it's that dance between being able to let yourself live in that sort of swimmy world of potential before anything has to be actualized, which is totally an alchemical process.

And then you have to produce the material, right, at the end of it.

So, which I also love.

I think that's the part of the magic.

You start out with an idea, something doesn't exist, and then you produce it and then it's out there in the world.

How is that not magic?

(bright music continues) Human beings are innately creative and curious beings, and we all have been sort of taught that we're not allowed to do that once we become an adult, or once we're told by somebody with a limiting voice, and it's such a disappointment because having that connection with our creativity, no matter what you do and who you are, is gonna serve you throughout your whole life.

So everybody needs to get into their artistic practice.

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