The last night of Growing Nowhere… Here I am on the farm listening to our host playing an instrument I can’t name. It’s beautiful. We celebrated three birthdays and a band played.

A lot of visitors came around this evening to join us for a party and see what we’ve created this week. Many of them are Spanish, but I also met a Polish girl, a Belgian woman, a French man, and several others.

It’s an interesting step to take, from creating art within our small group to displaying it to people we don’t know. It makes you take a step back and consider how to explain what you’ve been doing to someone who might know nothing about it, or might not even speak your language. It’s an important step in the creative process, and one that takes a bit of courage I think. I hope our visitors have enjoyed themselves here tonight.

I am surprised that the projects I have watched forming over the course of the week seem so fresh to me tonight. After all the finishing touches and connecting the dots, they really have come together. It’s possible to watch every component be created and still be struck by the finished product. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I feel like that statement could apply to us and our group as well.

I am sad to think about leaving tomorrow. It took me time to hit my stride here, and now that I have it’s time to go. But I will take so much with me – not only the jumpstart to my creativity and food for thought about my own process and challenges, but more importantly the connections I have made with people. It’s connections and collaborations that give me the most inspiration.