Applied to hundreds of full-time jobs and lots of art grants. Was offered a bad job, decided not to pursue a ‘real job’, depleted what very little 401k I had. Converted my living room into a studio. Won a Tiny Grant. Got an industrial sewing machine. Started working with different materials based on my new ideas. Got better at sewing non-traditional things. Expanded loveMELT to include imaginative object-making and creative discussion. Sold multiple design items incorporating diverse materials. Interviewed some interesting artists. Made some websites for people. Worked out a lot. Worked in a restaurant. Had several meltdowns. Hung on by a thread.

Catalyzed and collaborated an employee exhibition at David Zwirner, immediately thereafter lost my full-time tech job at said gallery. Produced my own/first solo exhibition in Brooklyn. Made a book to go with the art, sold some artwork and some books. Worked out a lot. Made some websites for people. Started thinking in new ways about the art I wanted to make. Spent a lot of time absorbing and brainstorming. Felt very unclear how to make what I was starting to envision and how to subsist creatively.

Made the most money I ever made with decent benefits, still wasn’t enough to live comfortably in New York. Learned about the blue-chip art world and gallery system. I don’t think I was a good fit. Worked on art when I wasn’t working. Went to Oaxaca with my buddy and loved it. Saw a lot of textiles and met a family of weavers. Thought I was gonna die climbing up the side of a petrified waterfall. Somehow, we got off track. Got to go to Anguilla with a friend on their work-expense-paid trip. It’s a beautiful place. I boiled water in my travel steamer every morning to make us coffee. We gazed at the stars every night. We still talk about them often.

Got a job working as the office manager? for an insane art dealer in Long Island City. It also paid shit. Worked on art when I wasn’t working. Applied to a lot of jobs. Eventually got a job working on the tech team at David Zwirner. Thought I had made it.

Left my apartment in East Harlem for a bigger, solo apartment in Brooklyn so I could have space to create. Worked part-time for the New York Philharmonic as a customer service rep online. I made no money and drained my savings quickly. Started loveMELT, a creative writing outlet, which I sent out as a ‘newsletter’ every month.

Didn’t like my job. Was overworked. Began taking continuing education courses in art at the School of the Visual Arts and 92Y. COVID changed everything. Worked from home. The Arts Students League started offering online art courses, so I took several. Sometimes they were during my working hours, so I would put them on in the background and screen record to watch them back later. Learned I had an autoimmune disease, which explained a lot twenty years later. The stress from my job was making my symptoms escalate. Quit my job.

Worked in my friend’s restaurant. My idea for an installation somehow turned into an idea for a tech startup. Spoke with an investor for a while, was in over my head. Did a UX/UI design program at Nashville Software School. Took classes in ‘tech’ related fields and for personal interest at Nashville State Community College. Did not end up starting a tech company. Took my newly acquired skills to live with a different friend in New York. Got a job with a digital marketing agency.

Learned a ton about design, manufacturing, business, web, e-comm, shipping. Was exhausted and broke. Split ways with my business partner. Went back to Nashville to regroup. Lived in my grandparents’ basement. Found a job outside of the city at a startup textile mill. Told them I had experience weaving fabric, I learned quickly. The mill closed. My dad died. Tried moving to NYC and lived with a friend for a few months, but the timing was weird, and I didn’t know the best way/where to insert myself. Fashion jobs pay pennies on the dollar. I went back to Nashville.

Worked the grand opening of a huge restaurant, which I referred to as the Titanic. It felt like boarding a giant sinking ship every night. It’s the worst restaurant job I’ve ever had, but I made some of my best friends there. Cut my teeth making several DIY installations for different music venues and restaurants. Did not profit from it. Got burnt out working in restaurants. Started working the early AM shift at Home Depot. Took a sculpture class at MTSU in the afternoons. Collaborated with two students to build a skylight installation for Bonnaroo at the Nashville Int’l airport.

Went to Chicago to see friends and met a guy who wanted to start an eco-apparel line. Designed some apparel for him and then became a co-founder and creative director to launch Fibre Athletics. My friends let me crash in their office for a while and I slept on their air mattress. They tolerated me longer than they should have. Eventually found an affordable place to live and bartended and served again to keep money coming in while FA launched.

Graduated from college. Quit my job in wholesale apparel. Started as a PA to the style director of Steve Harvey’s daytime talk show. Put on my big girl pants and became the wardrobe coordinator. Determined working in TV is not for me. Did not go back for another season. Went back to restaurant work and worked on a few creative projects with my roommate at the time. Moved back to Nashville to figure out what to do with myself next.

I went to the University of Tennessee as a freshman. It wasn’t my favorite. I transferred to Columbia College Chicago not knowing much, just that I had to explore more and maybe do something entrepreneurial or creative. Professor Beata Kania taught me how to see and convinced me to study fashion design. I did several unpaid internships, and I worked a few different jobs along the way.

Surprised I date back this far? Same

I played a lotta ball. I liked to read books by the likes of Shel Silverstein, Louis Sachar, and Roald Dahl. I was not an art kid.