After my brother died in a car accident at 22, I started calling him the “fireplace” of our family (exactly what he was).
Whatever he did (and, more than anything — who he was) brought us all closer together.
We all wanted to huddle around him as a baby/ toddler (he was 16.5 years my junior) and on it went like this until University of Miami graduation day, one day before he died.
The Creative Heroine event was inspired both by loss, as well as by joy (gain!), and as much by the men in my life (artists like my baby bird Dino), as by artists like Frida Kahlo and modern-day artists aka entrepreneurs pictured here such as Arlan Hamilton, a venture capital fund for good that invests in “underestimated founders” (women, people of color & members of the LGBTQ community), Christina Rasmussen, intervention counselor and author of Second Firsts, introducing a new model of grief based on the science of neuroplasticity, changing the way we see our lives after loss) and Paige Bradley, sculptor known for bronze sculptures with emotional qualities, creating pieces so we could SEE ourselves in the art — all who, like many of you reading this, have persevered after unique trials.
Those trials inspiring their greatest creations that inspire us to evolve, perhaps more quickly…
These women/people are representative of the “fireplaces” of our communities today who, through their art, bring us together to talk about the most important topics of our time.
How can we use our creativity for great good?
The wound is where the light enters you (Rumi quote) ~ heard that high truth? That’s Paige’s “Expansion” sculpture to a T (photo below).
To all people of deep life experience, toiling away in such honest, intentional and creative ways, THANK YOU.
And to my roommate/bff Whitney Fusion from college in the third to last photo, thank YOUUU…you have been loyal and ever-present in all moments, especially through the days of tragic loss.
We could say there’s an artistry to being a good friend.
It doesn’t come easy to most, yet there are those chosen few (who our grandmother said we would be able to count on one hand at the end of our lives) like Whitney who it does come so naturally to (xo).
To the people in our lives & communities who do what they do, and, most importantly, BE who they BE and, as a result, change our world, day and outlook, what oh what would we do without you? We wouldn’t!
Let’s make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…
To the best of the rest of your life!
Life is good,