On Peak Accomplishments: Insights from creative Mountain Tops

I devoted most of May to one objective, applying for an Artist’s Fellowship with the Kala Art Institute whose headquarters are based nearby, in Berkeley California. Where they’re located is a spacial place; on top of the colonialist history this entire region sits upon, the building they’ve repurpose is historic, originally erected to be the Heinz Ketchup factory of the west coast.

Way back when I first landed in San Francisco’s East Bay I lived right around the corner from the old ketchup factory. I’d walk my dog past it every day on my way to and from the park (different dog, we’re talking the mid-90’s here). That building has changed hands a handful of times, it was an organic farm, occasionally a restaurant and a chocolate factory. In between those changes the building was vacant and a useful venue for a massive collaborative interactive art event, there was music, Yoga, Qigong, talks, performances and the second in a series of art installations I would facilitate over the next 15 years – Interactive Art Mandalas I’d titled I’mandala.

So what about that Art Fellowship? It’s no easy thing to distill one’s body of work to their Eight Best. Plus trying to describe the winding path of my artistic pursuits as a unified narrative. I ended up with a Top 12 and spent much of the month rearranging their order, digging through archives to find other suitable examples, then rearranging those 12 until a final 8 was determined. My application, supporting documents and eight pieces have been submitted. The review panel will be examining these submissions over June & July. A final decision is expected in August. If the stars align and the magic works we can hope to pick this subject back up in September. Until then 🤞🏽

Sorting through past work was one of the easy parts. Did I mention the writing and re-writing and re-re-writing. Plus the research and outreach. Probably the closest I’ve gotten to a dissertation or thesis project; I guess.

There’s a personal antidote about follow-through. As the deadline approached, and I was in a pretty good place, ahead of my ow timeline for completion, I still felt it: the instinct to give up on it all. Am I the only one whose experienced such an instinct? To say “it’s too much” while being objectively so close to that finish line? I can think back to time when I’d given in to it. That collage application essay I’d left to the last minute and gotten so frustrated with. Some deadlines I’d missed on the school paper. Probably more stuff I won’t admit to in this space. But this time it was something a recognized and put in check; simply naming it froze that tulpa in its tracks.

I’ll have to create a comic about that. Something along the lines of one I’d worked on a little while ago titled On Gaining Ground. Click on the excerpt below to read the whole thing.

Mountaintop Insights

I was talking to a fellow creator, writer Michael Barron, he’s got a peak accomplishment of his own. His forthcoming comic The Secret Lives of Demon Hunters, it launches on Kickstarter next week, June 16th. We were talking about surmounting large hurdles and I was reminded that Mike once shared a photo of his mountain-climbing vacation –

I asked if I could share it with you as it reminded me of a previous IMPERFEComic. One where I mused on these things. It was titled On Gaining Ground and I couldn’t stop thinking about how much his photo reminded me of this comic panel –

And so I asked if Micheal could share some insights about what it’s like to get to a mountain top. This is what he had to say…

“Finishing a creative project is like reaching the top of a mountain. You don’t just have to learn the skills of the art itself—which can be both challenging and rewarding—you also need to learn a whole host of skills involving publishing and promotion. However, while we very often feel as though we are walking the narrow paths and scaling the craggy cliffs solo, there are almost always other people there beside us. There are friends and family, of course, but there are also fellow creators, co-workers and people we haven’t seen in over a decade. Looking back, I’m amazed how many people have happily provided feedback, offered their skills and connections and shown me emotional support, helping me climb that mountain to release my comic out into the world.”

The Secret Lives of Demon Hunters” follows a couple who are themselves facing a very steep challenge. Ashley and Jordie are a married team of demon hunters who encounter an entity connected with Ashley’s past and over the course of one evening begin to question not just their war against the forces of evil but their relationship with each other. The Kickstarter Campaign for The Secret Lives of Demon Hunters goes live on June 16.

If you’re fascinated by the premise you should check out the preview art. And if you found that his comments resonated, then do Micheal the favor of Clicking Over to his campaign page to hit that NOTIFY ME ON LAUNCH button. That doesn’t mean you have to commit to buying his book, but as I’ve mentioned before, the simple act of boosting that follower count (it’s at 36, can we get it to 40? 50?) goes a long way towards helping another cool project reach its audience.