How this Sabbatical came about you might ask?
Well, it was a hot Sunday on St. Thomas, in May and I was Facebook chatting with Sune, who was back in Denmark. He mentioned a particular music festival in Denmark at the beginning of August called Smukfest, and that I should come over for it! Huh, I thought, that sounds like fun & would certainly love to see Sune again!
The only problem that I could think of was the fact that I would probably not want to leave Europe after a week or 10 days.
See, I had been thinking about leaving St. Thomas for a while. Maybe even for a year. I love all of my friends and island family on St. Thomas, love the gallery & art space that I had created, love the involvement I had in the art community, even loved my little apartment that I called home. However, as many of you know, it is expensive and taxing living on St. Thomas.
I felt that I was creating some of my best artwork yet and it was well received; yet I wasn’t able to make a living from it. Selling art supplies was a learning experience, but my biggest competition, the Internet, would always win.
In the course of a day or two, my serendipitous destiny would become clear. I realized that I had many friends or acquaintances living, traveling or working in Europe that I could visit, Priscilla sent me an email about an art show in London, the Venice Bienalle & Steve Rockstein approached me about sharing my space at Tillett Gardens.
I spent some time soul searching about the right answer, the right path, and it soon became clear. I needed to do this, whatever ‘this’ was!
And so, I am! Step by step, I am discovering what ‘this’ is, and loving it along the way!
Stay tuned, next up: Berlin with Biggi!
