I’ve Been Keeping A Secret

Spilling The Beans

Here’s something you should know about me:

I’m a tough cookie to work for.

I like what I like and I expect you to deliver.

I’ll nitpick and prune the hell out of something until I start to see my vision blossom. (And yeah, it usually drives the other person crazy.)

Now here’s something you should know about my beloved husband Hansel:

He’s a talented visionary himself. While my mediums of choice are painting, teaching, and entrepreneurship — his are photography and video.

We should be a match made in Art Heaven, right?

Well, even before the days of Dirty Footprints Studio we tried to collaborate creatively.

Believe me, we tried.

But our unique personal approaches to the creative process never quite emulsified and so for the sake of our marriage and our blessed sanity, we’ve always kept art making out of our relationship.

Then this past November something magical happened.

Hansel, Phoenix, and I were in Costa Rica visiting family and planting the seeds of a longtime dream of ours when one afternoon I started to make a sand mandala on the beach.

There I was — totally in a meditative state and completely unaware that Hansel was doing his usual thing of shooting video.

Actually, in our family we have this running joke that we’re always under surveillance — due to the fact that Hansel is always shooting video of something or another!

But this time, without mentioning a word to me, Hansel went ahead and created a sweet little video of my process that I absolutely love, love, LOVED — and something snapped.

From there on out our conversations became dominated by the possibilities of creating things together that honor what we both love and care about so deeply: nature and creativity.

Now, instead of Hansel “working for Dirty Footprints Studio” and needing to mold his vision into mine — the thread that ties our creative process together became our shared passions. As individual artists, we decided that each of us is solely responsible for bringing our unique expressions and skills to the table. That’s it. Boundary drawn.

This is totally new territory we are embarking on — both as artists and as a family.

Now, finally after months and months of tossing around ideas and late night discussions — we’ve begun.

Plus on top of everything, I’ve been fidgeting about when would be the best time to share this collaboration with you and exactly how I should go about it. Then today I decided that it’s best to just be honest, open, and get to it. So here it is…

In eleven New Moons Hansel, Phoenix, and I will be embarking on a brand new wild adventure as we move to Costa Rica!!!

That’s the whole reason why we were in Costa Rica this past November in the first place.

Originally we were going to move this month — but transplanting our life 3000 miles away in 6 months time felt insane. Plus, deep down we knew that we needed more time to really say good bye to Arizona and bring closure to this beautiful chapter of our lives.

So as an ongoing love letter to Arizona, Hansel and I have started making short videos that express our gratitude and grief in leaving this gorgeous land we’ve come to call home.

We will be launching one video on Dirty Footprints Studio every New Moon until we leave.

>>>Our first video will be released on Saturday, June 24th — mark your calendars!

This collaboration feels incredibly sacred and this process alone has been transforming me — and us— tremendously.

I am realizing on a cellular level how fleeting life is — how precious nature is — and how creativity is the marrow between the two.

Plus honestly, you have no idea how great it feels to finally share this news with you.

I’m blessed to say that Dirty Footprints Studio has a hefty list of subscribers and even though I only know a few of you personally — I truly feel like all of you are part of my community – my artist family — and there’s this deep loyalty I have to letting you in on my process.

I think that is why it has felt energetically off not to include you in on what’s been happening in my life — especially around something so big and exciting as this.

But I’ll admit it, sharing this news also feels a bit scary and overwhelming as well. Telling you makes it even that more real — and that stirs up a lot of mixed emotions.

Though now that I’ve finally spilled the beans, I actually look forward to sharing more openly and intimately with you as this journey unfolds — so expect to hear from me more often — and be sure to join us here on DirtyFootprints-Studio.com for our first New Moon video on Saturday, June 24th.

But most of all: HOLD ON TIGHT — I’m bringing you along on this adventure!

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