Artists Are Highly Sensitive Beings
Thank you, Colin, for sharing your truths so generously. For naming that which many of us sensitives often have to hide or don't feel comfortable sharing.
Thank you also for being such a kind, compassionate, generous, and deeply inspiring friend. I am in awe of the ways you exist in the world and in your prolific ability to channel your innermost thoughts and feelings.
I remember vividly how excited I was when you told me that you were going to start minting your art and that you were on tezos! It was March 22, 2021 and I was so pumped to be able to collect some of your art on the tezos blockchain! I had already been a huge fan of your physical artwork, your music, your musings on podcasts, and have had the honor of having your yearly calendar in my office for the past three years. You're also a close friend that I feel like I've known for decades although it's only been a few years.
I remember how emotional I got when I saw this piece for the first time. How seen I felt and validated. For years I had found ways to numb my psychic gifts and empathic sensitivities. I once had a witch outside of a bar in Portland say to me:
"I know why you drink so much?"
She stopped me in my tracks and made me pause on lightning the cigarette I had mindlessly placed in my mouth. "Why?" I asked her, afraid of what her answer might be.
"To quiet the voices you hear. Are you a Scorpio?"
I'm not a Scorpio, I'm a Gemini. But, I didn't know back then that my MOON is in Scorpio...which basically means I need a fifth of whiskey to quiet MY voices! ahahah
It can be overwhelming to exist in a world that is filled with so much tension, noise, and discomfort when you're highly sensitive. And, knowing you, and some of the conversations we've shared in private, I also know how much you've had to interface with the world and how much that weighs on us as sensitive people. This adds another layer to what already feels overwhelming and at times unberable.
As someone who has also stepped more and more into the public light, I have often fantasized about "disappearing" away into the void, of leaving the party early without telling anyone, of not having anyone notice that you've shown up to the art opening, of not being seen or even known about. This piece reminds me that it's okay to feel this way and that it's okay to both want to be seen, to deeply crave it, and to also feel overwhelmed and, at times, burdened by it.
This piece also reminds me of our friendship and of the joy and excitement I feel when I know that it was your art that I collected first on the tezos blockchain! Knowing how far you've come and how much you've mutated and transformed as an artist, how much you've galvanized entire communities and created so many connections, I am blown away to know that I have some of your earlier works. That I was there from the beginning and that our web of weirdos and highly sensitives has helped us become the magical beings we are today.
