Making a Community

It was April of 2018. Just 8 months before I had graduated from a school that would soon be closed down and I was working at the bottom of my industry. Best of Both Design started with the last of my student loans and my tax return, equaling $4,000, an unofficial business plan and a Colorado native with a bunch of old furniture. I did everything on my own. I paid my dues. I got an LLC, rented a tiny studio space, made some product and signed up for 3 events in 3 months. I had one chance. I didn’t expect much. I told myself it would be nice if I made back the vendor fees, got a few emails and gave out a few business cards.

I made $75 that summer.

I was exhausted, mentally, physically and emotionally. I had had a dream, and I put myself out there and all I could tell myself was to keep on trekkin’ because I was not going to feel sorry for myself. So I took a break, left “The Studio of Lost Promise” and settled into a minimum wage job. The next year I took on 2 collaborative projects and an artists event that were all to take place in October. For months my partner and I created a puppet show based on a story we heard Mel Brooks tell about his childhood at the Buell Theatre, and performed it for one night only. I was project managing an event that was ill-prepared and wrongly advertised by the producer merely for the experience. Also, I had to sell tickets to, and display my work at an artists event where I ended up selling only one of my pieces for a whopping $25. By now I had spent about $6,000 and made $100. For 2 years I put in 22 to 26 hours a week while still working at the less than adequate corporate job using the last of my resources down to the quick.

I felt defeated.

The next year I had a plan to create an exhibit showcasing my work, and the work of several people I had met along the way, which was the only good I could see coming out of the last 2 years of my life. It would be a celebration, I had dusted myself off and made a new plan. In the end I postponed the exhibit because I wanted to do it right or not at all. So I took my tax return once again and sold a few family heirlooms and planned the trip of my dreams, at least the one within my budget.

Then Covid hit.

I still went. But now it was all or nothing. I had no job to come back to and the money I had budgeted was being spent just to survive through quarantine. I thought, “well I can sit around here for the next year doing nothing or I can at least say I tried somewhere else.” Although the first 3 months of quarantine were actually very productive. I started working on my novel again. I completed 4 pieces and came up with several new ones. I loved having all that time to myself to just create. In that time I learned that it’s just for me. All those pieces I had created over the years, no one was going to love them as much as me, and that was okay. In the summer of 2020 I traveled by Amtrak through 17 states for 10 days, spending 3 weeks in New York.

You may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with “What are you most passionate about? Why do people follow you, read your stories, or want to hear what you have to say?” Well, it is because I know how hard it is to follow your dreams and also live with your feet on the ground.

“At a young age I wanted to be a writer, I then went to school for Early Childhood Education, and 15 years later went back to school for Interior Design. All 3 are in everything I do.” -Me

You want me to talk about only one passion!?! Impossible. I have so many… I tend to have about 10 projects going at any given time. And not just in one genre. I’m writing and making every week. I am what used to be referred to as a Renaissance Man or Jack of All Trades.

I prefer multi-hyphenate.

As a multi-hyphenate I tend to be an expert at none. I am a writer of novels about Colorado in the 90’s and going down rabbit holes. I am known for rolling down hills with toddlers and not afraid to get my hands dirty. I am great at knowing that one guy’s name in that one movie and almost always knowing the name of the architect of the museum they are in.

The first phase of what I hope to accomplish...

This starts with me creating a platform that showcases my own work and encourages others to share theirs. During the pandemic I have had the time to brainstorm where I want to go next, but have not had the money to build such a platform. While I am a member of the Rocky Mountain Puppetry Guild and a volunteer at the Broomfield Invent HQ Makerspace here in Colorado, I would like to have a broader membership status. I am in the process of publishing a monthly newsletter, journal making classes for several ages and an opinion series called, Down the Rabbit Hole that will be, fingers crossed, featured in Film and Furniture by the end of the year. The newsletter is just one branch of the Best of Both Ensemble! Which is what I might title the newsletter. Ensemble.

The purpose of the newsletter, more of a magazine, will be to showcase past work and current projects I’m working on. It will also include events I’ve been a part of and want others to be a part of. As I grow the community the newsletter will include members' work and events in and around Colorado. The Discord followers will share their creative endeavors, get feedback and have a database of opportunities to place their work worldwide. So here it is, after several paragraphs of pitching I get to my passion.

Story telling.

Whether it is on paper with a canvas cover, creating an immersive exhibit, or being told on a stage with beautifully refurbished pieces that were saved from the trash. That is my life's passion. I could never find a community that truly fit me, so why not make my own?

It has always been a dream of mine to have a community makerspace where we can hold classes, meetings, events and collaborate.

Do you know that scene in Terry Gilliam’s “The Fisher King” when Perry makes the chair out of the wire from a champagne bottle out of the trash while he’s walking with the adorably odd girl played by Amanda Plumer? Yeah. That about sums up what I do, and why I do it.