Have had conflicts the last couple of weeks and couldn't make the sessions live (actually this time the "conflict" was just being in the studio until 4am, haha), but still very much enjoying the content, thanks for posting it! WRT belief, one of the main reasons I wanted to join this group was that I know that for me, having connections with other people doing (and who have done) awesome creative things makes it easier to believe that what I want to do is possible. Inspiring others is a huge gift and superpower. I'm frequently on the "giving" side, inspiring others in my community, but sometimes need to remind myself to seek it out from others as well. Thanks Dave and everyone else for helping make my goals seem that much more achievable!

Also, from the session on doubt: Another reason to love doubt is that it is in many ways what makes creating and doing truly worth it--if I'm completely sure that something can be done, my reaction is often "great, then someone else can do it." The greatest feelings of success come from achieving something that you weren't quite sure was possible. <3

Hi all! I’m a visual artist and the co-founder of Cosmic Honey, a community-driven event space and creativity farm north of the SF Bay area. Cosmic was just in its infancy when I met Dave at the College of Extraordinary Experiences in 2018… a big barn and a big dream. It is still (and probably always will be) a work in progress, but it has flourished with a committed community that comes here often and has helped us to build both the infrastructure and the culture to support a lot of really amazing gatherings, learnings and growings. But after dedicating nearly all of my energy to creating that container for the last 8-ish years, I’m feeling the call to re-engage with my visual art practice more fully. Prior to taking on stewardship of Cosmic Honey (and the pandemic), I was focused on my career as an artist–I make simultaneously energetic and meditative abstract paintings, and was showing at galleries, etc. During this more recent period, I haven’t been showing much in the outside world, but have been developing a body of work focused on light-reactive paintings; basically I’ve been evolving my style and technique towards making (mostly large) pieces that become really dynamic when viewed with changing lighting, including UV effects, and usually set to music. As I am re-emerging with this new body of work, I’m finding that I’m not particularly drawn to traditional gallery spaces. I need full control of the lighting in the space that I’m working in, and am more interested in long-form ticketed/directed experiences than in trying to sell paintings off of white walls. So after struggling to figure out how to take this practice beyond my showings at Cosmic, I’ve recently decided that I want to take the leap and open an installation space in San Francisco in the near future. This will be a bit of a leap for me creatively, financially, and in terms of marketing and administering a business in a more public way than I am used to doing with more community-driven endeavours. And so those are all areas I’m interested in finding support, inspiration, etc, and I look forward to seeing how that might show up in this community. And also just look forward to connecting with a bunch of other creatives!

If you are interested, you can see my work here: http://www.henryriekena.com