dream big, you don't know yet how good you are

flood season - monica lacey 2009

As I prepare this week for my upcoming residency at Elsewhere, I'm letting my creative mind dream big; letting it think up massive installations, projects that would take years and years and teams of people to complete, if they were ever completed. It's a wonderful practice, to let your mind & heart just imagine  the biggest ideas they can, and see where those ideas lead. 

In the meantime I'm really enjoying the projects I have in my studio right now, creating artwork for specific people who have contributed to my crowdfunding campaign. It's one of my favorite ways to work - with a certain person in mind - and I appreciate having the opportunity to infuse the piece with the gratitude I feel for that person, much like you might put love as an 'ingredient' in something you cook. I like to think that energy then becomes a part of the artwork, and a part of the person's home where they display the work. There are many ways to put our energy out into the world, and it's important to remember that it has an effect - often a stronger one than we may realize. This is a wonderful story about such an effect.

Looking, making, thinking, experiencing are our starting point. Art opens worlds, lets us see invisible things, creates new models for thinking, engages in cryptic rituals in public, invents cosmologies, explores consciousness, makes mental maps and taxonomies others can see, and isn’t only something to look at but is something that does things and sometimes makes the mysterious magic of the world palpable. 
~ Jerry Saltz, from this essay.