What’s going on?

It’s been a while since we talked

Hi all,

it’s been awhile and there’s been a lot going on in my life recently. It’s Sunday and I haven’t written you since October. So why not write a note to some of my friends?

Occasionally I come out of my cave to hang out in the real world. Recently I met up with Guillaume Wiatr to play with my new Visual Frameworks card deck and kick around creative ideas. The delightful venue is the Hostel Café in Portland, OR.

Whassup?

I’ve been focusing on building creative community at the School of the Possible. My goal is to recreate that feeling I had when I first went to art school, and later when I had a chance to teach art at the university level. It was the first time in my life I ever felt like I truly belonged. Since then I have sought (and found) creative community online and locally in the various places I’ve lived.

But this time I wanted to do it virtually. I’ve been so privileged and lucky to make interesting friends all over the world, and the likelihood they’ll ever be in the same place at the same time is near zero. What I’ve been craving is the feeling of community you get with people when you’re working independently but share a creative workspace, like at school, or in a shared studio space.

I wondered, could you do that virtually?

So I tried a little experiment, holding a kind of open-agenda “Campfire” Zoom call every Friday. It started slow, as you can imagine. Only a few people showed up at first. But as I held that space consistently, week after week, more people started to join.

The agenda is extremely open but it’s focused on creative energy. I ask people to share the project they’re most excited about and energized, or, if they’re stuck or in a slump, we talk about that too. People share personal projects and professional ones. There’s a lot of cross-pollination of ideas. The conversations are wide-ranging, thoughtful, generative and inspiring.

A few months later it is the high point of my week. This Campfire call has become my third place. Every week there’s an interesting mix of new and familiar faces. It’s become large enough now that we are starting do breakout sessions. It’s like a creative group that takes over a café every Friday, filling all the tables with scintillating conversation.

If you feel like joining us, please do. Here’s a link with dial-in information. And if you’d like a personal invite by email so you can add the recurring event to your calendar, just reply to this email and I’ll add you to the invite list.

If you have time, send me a note (you can just reply to this email and I’ll get it in my inbox). Catch me up with what’s going on in your world.

I’d love to hear from you. Hope you are well and enjoying a pleasant Sunday.