Your Dreams Are Only As Farfetched As You Say They Are
I know about getting my work transformed into New York City Billboards.
Ever in love with the out of scale, I’m just as inspired by a building sized metal sandwich as I am by a dollhouse miniature sized bowl of corn flakes. And yes, I am often inspired by food. 😄🍝
Merging scales — making something that is already a detail, larger than life — is an enticing motivator for me.
Back when a young artist new to the city, and developing my CLOSER collection, I decided that my photography would one day cover a building. That was my goal, and it proved a worthy one… as it forced me to flex some new relationship muscles.
I lived for a time across the street from the artist Christo, and was inspired by the grandeur of his and his late wife Jeanne-Claude’s creative projects, and even exchanged a few things with them that I cherish. I thought, if they could spritz all of Central Park with saffron, cover a river, and wrap the Reichstag, surely getting license to apply one image to one façade should be doable if my ambitions were rightly channeled.
So, with cotton balls still wedged in the back of my mouth where I’d just had my wisdom teeth extracted, I got myself to a panel discussion about outdoor art that I vowed I wouldn’t miss. There, a curator from MoMA mentioned how wonderful it was to work with a large-format printing company called MMT in the repurposing of several of their artists’ works as billboards for a campaign they were running during their building renovation and temporary move.
So what was my next move? Naturally, and nervously, I picked up the phone and called MMT.
Who answered my call? A fabulous chic named Lisa… who was fiercely friendly and edgy all at once, and who happened to resonate with my work and outdoor mission. 😊
Who knew that those moments on the phone together would plant the seeds of a longtime relationship, and that MMT would go on to name me their “Outdoor and the Arts” representative and feature my work before their outdoor advertising clients, or print the show I was granted by then Manhattan Borough President, Scott Stringer, or introduce me to my now business partner Mike, or that all of these years later, I’d be meeting up with Lisa for sushi whenever we get the chance!
Why am I sharing all of this?
Because picking up the phone that day — hardly knowing what I was going to say — was a “feel the fear and do it anyway” moment. And choosing to act instead of — not — opened up a road of treasure in my creative and personal life.
So the winner of a large-scale work from my CLOSER collection that MMT and I raffled off together at an event… happened to work at Clear Channel Outdoor. And he happened… to love the piece. He hung it in his office such that he could stare at it directly from his desk.
It was this man who was willing to then listen to my vision to make my work large-scale, outdoors.
Could I have selected different imagery or messaging to create a stronger community call-to-action on those billboards that were so graciously provided my project? Could I have had a better marketing plan in place to take advantage of the exposure I received? Sure. But the timing was what it was, and I was developmentally… where I was. But what I did get to do, was realize a dream. And that is no small matter.
I confirmed that I had the power to manifest what I wanted to.
Fast forward years later, and the gallery to take me on in Germany so happens to also represent Christo… It’s a small world, It’s a big world, It’s whatever world you say that it is.
So, what is your dream for 2019? What company is it time to pick up the phone and call? You just might discover your own Lisa, on the other side…
You just might be closer to the warm confirmation that your dream is realistic, not farfetched, and that there are those willing to support you in realizing it.
So go get ’em, and make your dream a good one…
Because this illusory world is begging you to.
👁👁🌹💥
