This weekend, I enjoyed a great day with New Urban Arts Mentors and staff at the mid year retreat. What an incredible room of people, and heartful voices, I’m telling you. Towards the end of the day, we played around with some drawing, brainstorming, and this quote from Eleanor Duckworth: 

Having confidence in one’s ideas does not mean “I know my ideas are right.” It means; “I am willing to try my ideas out.” 

I wanted to share this video where the artist Callie Curry aka ‘Swoon’ shares her thinking about her work. Because I think it speaks to the kind of place that New Urban Arts seeks to be, the kind of work that we, as artists, are particularly suited to for.

It is an elegant articulation of an approach to artmaking which is inspired by a place of frustration & hardship, but does not remain there. It’s work which says “I don’t accept this as an inevitable outcome” and instead the artist and the work acts to inspire wonder. It acts to surprise and subvert. 

While Swoon’s work is of a particular and public nature, I believe the actual work can be in any number of forms. To me this video is about trying out wonderful ideas, shifting paradigms with magic, working to expand possibilities to be infinite. It reminds me of the work that we do, of the work that we can do.

I look forward to all we do and will do. 

– Emmy