In my early 20’s I enjoyed the colorful lifestyle of a performance artist. As spectacles-for-hire, my groups and I were brought in for private company parties for Sony alongside famous bands, hired for the first Coachella Festival to infuse it with the ‘artist culture’ it has trended into today, I’ve been an onstage dancer at Hemp Fest, and been part of beautiful backgrounds written into music videos.

My years spent living and creating along the West Coast, were years spent around musicians, circus performers, visionary artists and performative ritual facilitators. All this art-musing has led to my present-day creation visions for prayer-formance ritual and immersive theater.

I love beautiful, strange and found things. I collect bones, feathers, rusted metal, snake skin, flattened bottle caps, stones, crystals and well-shaped sticks. In ritual (aka with intention), I have crafted sculptures, jewelry, costumes + clothing, hats, lighting, altars galore, ceremony spaces and workshops designed to invoke ones creativity.

I hold a deep believe in the transformative potential of ritual, as I have experienced such in my own life and witnessed it in others.

I have co-created beauty, depth and imagination-triggers through costume styling for independent films while in L.A., art directing photoshoots, music videos, fashion shows, trade shows booths, catalogues, UX design, and my own strange video art.

What I love about art directing, is noticing when I have slipped into another state of being. When my ‘creative genius’ takes over, I become another creature entirely, with singular focus and aesthetic mastery. I see every detail, and this level of artful-compulsion means I no longer have space for mundane pleasantries or distractions. I’ve heard it’s a trip to witness, but I like it.

I love to include this piece of my alt-resume these days, because I can, which is a wonderful and revolutionary win in policy (yet still work to be done here). But it’s nice to be able to validate those 7-8 years, when I got to experience living completely outside the grasp of societal pressures, rules and institutional mindsetting.

Of course, this did kind of ruin me for certain styles of adulting, because I still don’t like to be told what to do or how to do it.

As Helen Frankenthaler said: “There are no rules… that is how art is born, that is how breakthroughs happen.”

Those years of my life taught me how to go fully into my creative process, how to disappear from the world when needed. I learned how to connect deeply with nature, to sing to plants, to howl at the moon, ride motorcycles, work with power tools, I learned leadership, responsibility and hard work with delayed gratification. I feel lucky to have had that experience.

In my early 30’s, once I had moved to NY, I spent two years of service with a cross-continental spiritual community, serving on crew to a most impeccable, potent and mindful shaman. During this time I also freely gave of my time as the tour manager for the 5-6 week cross-country tours that took place twice a year.

I am endlessly grateful to the paths I crossed and lifelong friendships gained during this time of my life. I witnessed such beauty and healing, both in the community and myself.

It would be remiss of me to not delve a bit deeper into my days as the lusty chocolate shaman. For many moons I felt entirely certain that this was my one true calling in life. And it may yet be. There is time.

My inspiration for EarthHoney Chocolate came after I had spent 3 months living in Cuzco and the Sacred Valley, of Peru. I spent that time traveling about with a small group of raw chocolate alchemists, who taught me there craft and about the medicinal properties of raw chocolate and other ayahuasca-analog herbs.

When I returned to the states, I continued making chocolate, refining my recipe, flavor profile and choosing to focus on using only aphrodisiac herbs. My intention with chocolate was to induce a lust for life and reawaken creativity (there’s me again with the creative bit). Everything about my chocolate was steeped in art and ritual. There was an 8 step chocolate tasting ritual. There was a full concept design, business plan and fundraising endeavor for a chocolate lounge on the riverbanks of Williamsburg, Brooklyn - which was to be a deeply immersive experience in sense pleasure and raw chocolate.

I even wrote a chapter in the book, ‘Holistic Fashionista Memoirs’, titled ‘A Passion for Chocolate’, about my initiation in the Peruvian jungle, leading to my next trip to Peru, then my encounter with the spirit of cacao, during a ceremony at a vortex in Sedona.

And what happened to the chocolate life?

Another story for another day.