Randomness Within Reason

- Randomness within reason:
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This just isn't random. It was supposed to happen. I was working the night shift at one of the side gates at Midsommarfest last weekend. i was working at a gate where hardly anyone passed through. It was the last 30 minutes of my shift. This boy passed by me and started talking about the bands being so loud. And I told him that I usually carry around earplugs. And he asked me what I do to be carrying those around. I told him my ears get sensitive, I studied in the sound department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. It turns out that in the 80's he was a student at SAIC. And he is an experimental sound artist as well. YOU DON'T JUST RANDOMLY BUMP INTO ANOTHER EXPERIMENTAL SOUND ARTIST THE WAY I JUST DID LAST WEEK. We talked on and on about my favorite instructor Nic Collins and started getting into depth about living as an artist, for my need to read "The Long Emergency" and about getting into our own rituals to start the day in creating. We talked back and forth recommending things to read, to listen to, to check out. We talked about the pros and cons of being an artist in both the a small city and big city. His ex-boyfriend passed by and he was really funny about it and was happy that he was a like a chameleon and could not be seen.

The two things I took away in my 30 minutes of talking to this stranger that I needed so badly:

1. Damien, the boy I met, told me that Detroit has always and will always have one of the most powerful artist communities he has ever seen. There is a sense of healing in Detroit and rebuilding in Detroit that most cities have never experienced because they haven't been through the struggles that Detroit has been through. Detroit is a very, very important and powerful place.

2. "If you are an artist you have the responsibility to live out your visions."
As artists you have a voice, the ability to heal and reconstruct.

And then we introduced ourselves and departed. I know that I won't ever see this guy again, but he is exactly what I needed when I came back from Detroit just 48 hours before I met him and he is exactly what I needed to be strong, knowing what I need to do when I go back to Michigan and I didn't lose a thing about myself by moving back.

As most people have been telling me these last two weeks, "You know who you are and you will do really well in life because of this, no matter where you are."

It seems lately I have been accepting and letting go a lot of stuff in my life and receiving much mentally back. I keep getting giddy and happy about it.

Followed up talking to Damien, with sitting next to Emily at a bar. (She has majorly influenced me so many ways as an artist and has supported me greatly since I have known her.) She told me it will be good for me to rest. To not worry about bills and such that I have to maintain to keep my daily life here in Chicago. It will be good to be able to sit down and concentrate on my health and my artwork. I agree.

I am currently setting up my goodbye show. Contacting people that have been in my Chicago life in the last ten years. I feel loved, supported, and happy.