How Bill Gates informed my career as an… artist?!

How Bill Gates informed my career as an… artist?!

September 30, 2015

You’re probably wondering, really? Bill Gates, artistic inspiration? That can’t be!

Yes, it’s true. You read that right. Bill Gates was indeed one of my primary influences as a young artist. Allow me to explain.

I finished college in December of 1998, a semester ahead of schedule. I had left high school a year early as well, so I was 20 years old and full of ideals, living in Paris at the time. Though my French boyfriend and I were talking about getting married so I could stay, I was in no way ready for that and I was starting to get restless.

In the spring of 1999, a message from a family friend came across the Atlantic: if I did not take the next apartment, I would be taken off the wait list. What apartment? What wait list?! I had no recollection of signing onto any lists.

It turned out, I had accidentally landed an invitation to the nexus of the universe.

How I came to be a Grateful Dead licensee

How I came to be a Grateful Dead licensee

July 17, 2015

In the summer of 2001, when I was wide eyed and ready to see the world, I set out on a mission to photograph music festival culture.

The previous fall I had been in Los Angeles working for a photographer where I met the people who would soon introduce me to the jamband world. That winter back at home in New York City, I went to shows at the Wetlands (RIP) every weekend, meeting lots of people and learning everything I could about festivals.