Quit My Job
I left a social start-up, learned from female entrepreneurs and got my time back.
3 Random Signs
#1: Getting glitter bombed at a party and it was everywhere for days. Takeaway: confetti is nostalgic. #2: Filled my pockets with floor confetti at an Ok-Go show. Takeaway: confetti is a beautiful mess. #3: I found it weeks later when I was feeling sad yet instantly felt joy. Takeaway: confetti is emotive.
Investigating Confetti
(1) Find every confetti photo on the web. (2) Create a powerpoint and show them to people. (3) Observe what happens when you ask strangers what they celebrate. The result: eyes widen, conjures reflection and vulnerability.
A Crossroads
In all of our lives, we come to a crossroads where you have no idea what you're doing but you feel like there's something you have a responsibility to explore. This was that moment for me.
1st Confetti Photoshoot
Photographing my sister in the backyard of our childhood home kicked everything off. I wanted to see what would happen when creating an intimate one-on-one space. Looking back, I can't believe she went along with it. It's one of my favorite memories.
3 Month Photo Challenge
The goal: profile and photograph 50 New Yorker's in three months with confetti and make a coffee table book out of it. Other motives: learn photography and finish something for the first time in my life. This translated into 2-hour in-depth Q+A's and confetti portraits. Each photo-shoot was like a creative, emotional therapy session.
Blessing of Rejection
The dream: pitch a literary agent and make a bestselling coffee table book. I have one sample that sits in my studio - faded, fragile, with growing pages coming out. It was rejected but I did take her advice and developed the work without an expiration date. New motto: keep going.
The Cancer Call
This would be the beginning of the next year of my life, where my father would battle lung cancer and I would be on the sidelines in limbo for support and hope. In less than two months, he wouldn't be able to open his jaw, would lose 50 pounds and begin to unhinge.