On January 2nd at 5am, I left San Francisco with what I hoped would be the right clothes for a year, the right art materials to keep creating, and the right electronics to keep me connected. The weeks leading up to that moment had been nothing short of crazy as I cleaned out everything from the home I had known for the last 9 years, packed up my studio, and put everything that wasn't now in my SUV in storage.
According to Google Maps, I had 44 hours of driving ahead of me before I reached my ultimate destination; Charleston, SC where I'd be kicking off the year with a 6 week artist in residency program at Robert Lange Studios. So, with an entire library of audio books and podcasts downloaded and a cooler filled with a wide variety of caffeinated beverages, I said goodbye-for-now to the city I'd loved for 15 years and pointed my SUV toward Tucson, Arizona, my first stop on the trek.
I had these romantic notions that I would drive across the Bay Bridge with the downtown in my rearview mirror and a few tears in my eyes for all the dear ones that I was leaving. But the morning I left was raining and the combination of early morning darkness and thick layer of fog completely blacked out the city. There was nothing to see except the rain in my headlights and the lines on the road ahead.
And so I started my journey. Not looking back. Focused ahead, but not very clear on what was to come.