Charlie Whatever

You’re in La Palma, sleeping next to Hudson who smells like the rice milk that he threw up after coughing too hard, on the floor next to the table in the room with all the windows next to the living room overlooking the ocean, and you just had the most amazing, wonderful dream; a dream where you were moving into a TH to start a new year at Vassar, and your roommates, who you’d never met before, were arriving and one of them, Charles _______, was your soul mate.

He’d come from L.A. and actually brought with him, or maybe more like been followed by, a cadre of overbearing brothers whom we’d been working for, creating sets for whatever it is they did. But whatever it was they did, all they did in the dream was to get in the way and momentarily obscure this sweet, unassuming genius, who created cardboard sculptures that began to fill the space. In fact, after he had first settled into whatever room it was that was his, his creations took over the space. He covered the ceiling and pillars with his own designs that were these surrealist, circus, mid-century modern creations that transformed the space into something at once beautiful and detailed, playful, whimsical, magical and yet, somehow also totally livable.

As you unpacked your things, your objects fit perfectly together and you were filled with such an incredible joyousness that you were about to embark on a year of living together, learning from each other and creating.

When you woke up, you weren’t sad because this Charley Whoever didn’t really exist and was just a dream, but rather inspired because what he did you could do. He was after all part of you. You could fashion those same creations out of cardboard and paper, newsprint and paint, give life to them, transform spaces with them, make magical worlds, bring wonder to life. You could. You could cross those sculptures and decorations with collages and furniture and installations and make inspiring, captivating spaces that could transport people into places of beauty and playfulness and wonder.

You could do this. You could.

You could make this the center of your life and have a life that was about creation, beauty, wonder and inspiration. That comes from the center of who you are and what you want to, not just make, but experience. Be together with people making things, and making them to share that light with others.

It’s a wild idea for your future. It’s a dream. It’s your dream.