Hello loved ones and kind strangers! 💖

So, a few updates and thoughts:

1. I have art in my first exhibition in Atlanta! It is at the Avondale Arts Alliance. Here is a picture from the opening night:

My pieces will be there until the Closing Reception: February 21, 6PM-9PM. Here is a link to all the pieces in the show!

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2. I have art in another show happening this Friday, a Valentine’s-themed show, so I’m really excited to check out the whole swanky exhibition then! Here is a link to the show.

3. I’ll have work in an upcoming auction for Hambidge, which is a 600-acre creative sanctuary in the North Georgia Mountains.

4. I have some heart chalices that could be good Valentine’s gifts, so I’ll include pictures them at the end of this email and just email me linesliliana@gmail.com if you’re interested!

⁕ Now for thoughts:

My family and close friends probably think I’m the biggest flip-flopper because I frequently change my plans for the future. BUT, call me what you want, I will not give up the power to change my mind!

Sometimes I go on random tangents to explore the options out there, so I was researching how to work on a cruise ship… and the main takeaway I got was that traveling/working is cool but once you leave, you have nothing. Your network is on the cruise ship––you don’t have connections on land.

I was thinking about traveling around doing different artist residencies, but it’s kind of similar to working on a cruise ship: you get to travel and experience other cultures, but when you leave, you leave all your connections there. Yes, you can learn skills, but you also leave a part of your soul there when you make meaningful connections. I have parts of my soul in several different continents.

I think wanderlust is really normal, and it’s a good thing to want to explore the world to gather knowledge. But I have to be real: I’ve already been to over 20 countries, mashallah, and I can gather more knowledge by staying in one place and practicing my crafts, learning online and from those around me.

I remember when I was driving across the country with some of my best friends, we had been to 3 or 4 national parks already, and I asked my friend Harry what he thought about the General Sherman tree at Sequoia National Park. He was like, “It’s cool, but I can’t fully appreciate all the places we’re seeing because I’m only seeing them once. If I stayed for years, then I could actually appreciate it.” I had never thought of it that way before, and I still think about what he said sometimes.

In the same way that there is freedom in discipline, there is transformation in repetition. I forget that sometimes because novelty is alluring, but then I always re-discover that meaning comes from doing the same things over and over again. Iteration.

Being on the internet, we are inundated with images of videos of faraway people, with young attractive faces telling you, “Just do it.”

“Just go.”

But we have to remember that this is an extremely new idea, leaving everything and everyone you know because you saw a cool Instagram video. To me, it seems rooted in individualism––it’s like, you’re not happy? You’re not EUPHORIC? Forget your community, make some money and go to Thailand, then you can go back to your life and save up again until you can travel. It’s a form of escapism, rather than dealing with the issues in your community.

I might have to start making "stay in place" content to counter all the travel content out there lol. If you're from a great place, then cool, you can make it a bit better with your unique gifts. Or if it's a terrible place, the sunsets will still be pretty, and there's lots of work to do. (Or, if need be, everyone can leave a place together, like the Athenians did during the Persian Wars.)

The idea that we can make ourselves happy is also a relatively new idea. I think in the past, people knew that happiness comes from seeing your community happy and healthy.

Plus it's like, the internet gives us ways to learn/experience other cultures from wherever we are. Of course it's not the same––we could get into the trade-offs but this email is long enough.

Soooo my new plan, plan #eleven-hundred-eighty-four, is to stay in Atlanta for a while until I gather all the skills and knowledge I need to come back and benefit my community in Brookline. Working at Mudfire is such a unique opportunity, and though there were growing pains, I now love it more than ever. I definitely want to use some elements from it for whatever I build in Massachusetts. (Even though I hate the cold, the people I love most in the world are there)

Alright, thanks for reading! Here are those images I mentioned earlier:

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Best,

Liliana

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