CURRENT MISSION

Live life fully and openly

ABOUT ME

I spearhead something called SPORE (Spontaneous Projects Orchestrating A Relevant Exchange). The name sprouted from an unhealthy love affair with acronyms and a deep intrinsic need to compound irony into what's real. In general, SPORE is about connecting people in moments. There are several components to the project which include the Home-Stay artist residency, the Chautauqua Art Lab, and the SPORE Mobile Gallery.

The SPORE Mobile Art Gallery has been on three national tours bring art and stories to small towns as well as cultural meccas.

Home-Stay, the apartment, is the local root. For year's we've hosted bands and visiting artists, often coordinating events throughout the city.

The Chautauqua Art Lab is an annual DIY (Do It Together) festival and think tank taking place everywhere from vacant lots to obscure artist constructions throughout the city.

In terms of the grind, I work as a teaching artist. I love my job. I work with quite a few organizations throughout the city.

I've traveled extensively in the US with the gallery and as a musician with Ghosts I Have Been. Spent quite a few summers working at kids camps on the coasts. Studied abroad in Greece and Italy, visited Germany, Poland, Mexico and Canada. Heading to India soon.

PHILOSOPHY

Process over Product

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Have been on this site for years but am just now utilizing it. Excited to host.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've hosted friends, bands, artists, strangers, friends of friends many times over the years. Have had little problems and have been fortunate to have met many incredible people. Wanting to host more!

Interests

Constructing instruments, singing, field recording, looping pedals, chanting, collecting bones/rocks/shells, jumping in puddles, distance swimming, my bike, hammered dulcimer, making adornments, inspiring kids, collaborations, dumpster diving, grant writing, discussion groups and neighborhood meetings, radical women, feminine men, guerrilla gardening, yoga, organizing, creating community, getting to know people who are completely different from me and finding common ground, dancing, being immersed in culture an experiences, learning, sharing, being present.

• arts
• culture
• writing
• singing
• diy
• festivals
• dancing
• coffee
• yoga
• drinking
• gardening
• boating
• shopping
• dumpster diving
• music
• cycling
• scuba diving
• swimming
• business
• tours

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Met a sweet man who led whale tours. He gifted my friends and I (we were touring with a film project) a super-discounted trip on his boat in the Northern tip of Cape Brenton Island in Nova Scotia. There were so many whales the waves were like swells in the water. That day I learned that whales make rainbows when they spray water out of their blow holes. I've been to the ocean many times and have never experienced anything like quite as spectacular.

Teach, Learn, Share

I really enjoy taking visitors to cultural parts of the city, neighborhoods and my former studio which is in a factory complex of 1800s-era brick buildings built into the cliffs along the river near the last remaining Native American burial mound in the city. St Louis was formally nicknamed Mound City. The complex is occupied by artists, gypsy wagons, Floating Laboratories, woodworkers, glass blowers, pedal builders, skaters, Arcadia Studios, auto-mechanical visionaries, welders and art professors.

AREAS TO VISIT

Cherokee St: St Louis center of live-work artist owned storefronts and studios, coffee shops, antique shops and has a large Hispanic business district.

Cahokia Mounds: Over the river in Illinois, largest remaining enclave of mounds in the US.

City Museum: Huge building in the city center welded into a jungle-gym of sculpture, literally. You can climb through airplanes, spaceships, caves and get drinks at the "Cabin".

Crown Candy: old-tyme candy shop and fountain drinks in Old North. Collective houses, urban farms, community art projects and the site of Pruitt-Igo are all nearby.

Countries I’ve Visited

Germany, Greece, Italy

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States