A Life That Doesn't Suck, Part One

We had the first meeting of "A Life That Doesn't Suck: Financial Crisis Edition" last night. Andrew Simonet of Headlong Dance Theater is running the workshop, and spoke eloquently about how important it is - crucial, in fact, for both ourselves and our culture - to create a sustainable creative life.

He spoke about initiating a shift from being a career-driven artist to a misson-driven one; about creating a community in which the success of other artists is also a success for you/me; and about the importance of strategic planning, including setting a large, even improbable goal and then making incremental, manageable steps towards that goal.

The second half of the workshop involved us taking little steps towards our own artist statements, working to scuplt a paragraph that speaks in the voice of our work, is an accurate reflection of our values and vision, and is still accessible and interesting to others. We made a list of seven words that describe our work, then a list of fourteen words, then a paragraph. Here's my list of fourteen (I'm dealing with my dance work here, though there's a lot of overlap with my collage work):

whimsy
reciprocity
pattern
juice
hobble
eraser
between
group
gifts
touch
askew
relationships
crystallize
wonky