This was the maiden voyage of my first art camp, #MagicalRadical. It started as a kids' camp idea I put out on Facebook, and then a bunch of adults were like CAN I COME TO THIS THING.

credit: David Knape
how to not hand scissors to your friend photo by David Knape

I thought for a minute and said FUCK, YEAH. LET'S DO THIS.

Having facilitated and taught in all manner of spaces from rural housing projects to Brooklyn classrooms to wealthy high school ski towns to Balinese resorts, I've spent some time thinking about how I'd want to do it, if I could truly do it my way.

And so. I wanted the camp:

  • To be accessible to those who typically may not have the resources or time to participate in art retreats.
  • To include People of Color (no small challenge in Portland, Oregon).
  • To not take itself or the art too seriously. To be a form of play.
  • To be a space to have the kinds of conversations that I find a lot of art retreats and their facilitators avoiding -- conversations about white privilege, capitalism, structural and institutional racism, body image, trauma + recovery, cultural appropriation, indigenous rights, and the shadow side of the White Lady Spirituality movement.

A space for Love and Light. But also, Shit and Grit.

  • To have great food and music and a lace tent and an outdoor movie theater.
  • To have some legal cannabis for good measure (shoutout to Farma, Nectar + Attis dispensaries!) because, Portland.

I don't have a proprietary "transformational process" or manufactured, potentially licensed philosophical underpinning to any of this, and in the end, it's not even about me. In the end, we teach who we are.

My thing is: just make some fuckin' art. It's not a big deal.

I mean art making is no more of a "spiritual practice" than trying to not to be a dick in a comments section or going for a run, if you're into running, which I'm not but I do it anyway because it's free. Making art isn't special, it's normal, it's hardwired into the human animal to be creative, it's healthy and healing and it's for everyone. It's for you. Speaking of, I have a few workshops coming up in September if you didn't get a chance to come to this one. My pink Portland palace is pretty magical. And if you're down with the revolution, you should totally come over.