I feel like one of those wiggle people outside of used car places and our local dentist… but bent in half and stuck.

Two years ago I started a project. It was right after finishing the #iamCOLOR series, and I was curious about big ideas and big art. We were coming out of COVID, and the malls had become a strange sacred place. They were places we could congregate safely indoors. I wanted to celebrate that. I envisioned a 80 foot high tapestry of a dandelion that would start on the ground floor and slice through the space between escalators to explode like the sun at the top floor. Like the dandelion in the parking lot, ever present in a field of asphalt, the dandelion would rise in the mall as a symbol of resilience. I thought it would take me half a year. I clearly underestimated the scale.

This past summer, I decided that the piece had to be done. Whatever was done by the end of 2023, I would accept as finished. Through dedicated work on the project, it looks like it will be done by the end of November!

And this is where I acknowledge a mountain of resistance. Every minute on the piece feels momentous. The leaves that are left to do feel so big, so daunting. They are what cradles the large dandilion flower, and I am tired of thinking about what has to be cradled when we shine. The idea of showing and sharing the final piece scares the bejeeus out of me. All the thoughts that come with stepping out of my comfort zone are stronger, and more present. Its like they fertilize all my other thoughts.

Resistance and Resilience are connected. If resilience is about getting back up after getting knocked down, resistance is the weight that is being broken to do it.

And here I declare, this piece will be completed. I will find a way to unbend my air filled wiggle person body and shine.