https://www.kickstarter.com/…/expanding-horizons-artists-jo…
So sometime around October I found myself stumbling into the opportunity of a lifetime. Those of you that know me well already know
that I have dreamed of seeing Africa’s wild places since I was about 12
years old. Since then this personal preoccupation has matured and been
channeled into specific directions.
The more I explored Africa
through stories, documentaries, books, art and the animals that inhabit
this variegated environ, I found my attention hyper-focused on a very
specific place in the vastness of the African continent: Botswana. One
of my earliest works of fiction(its a pretty awful but emotionally
honest work of fiction from the mind of a teenager) told of visiting the
parched grasslands of Botswana’s Kalahari Desert and later, discovering
the incredibly moving documentaries of Dereck and Beverly Joubert, I
stumbled upon a calling of sorts. These documentaries
coalesced the many ideas, philosophies, accrued knowledge, and deeply
rooted sentiments I held towards animals into a single unified climactic vision, a
story. Savuti.
I have worked on this story over the course of
several years now and in truth it was a story I had searched to tell for
many more years before that. But there was something missing, something
persistent and nagging that I knew only one thing could address. I
needed to know the place in which the protagonist, a lioness named
Savuti, was born and came of age. This was the place that shaped her,
that made her who she would become and set her upon the journey she
would embark upon. More than that I felt I needed to see and experience
the world in which she lived so I may give the story the integrity of
reality for the viewer to feel the story as poignantly as I intend it to
be told. Savuti is meant to be a visual philosophy, a narrative with
the viewer that explores the landscapes of morality, free will, and the
meaning of humanity as we now define it.
It is my most earnest
hope to make this visual treatise a visceral experience, one that moves
the mind as well as the heart. This is a story that I feel may be one of
the most important I will tell in my lifetime and so it is incredibly
important for the foundation to be sound.
I genuinely did not
believe I would be visiting Africa so soon and though it is an
incredible financial drain on me as a freelance illustrator, it was also
made possible and more affordable through the efforts of some
incredible friends ( Foxfeather Zenkova and Roman Ženka
whom spent years arranging this Safari at a fraction of the cost it
would take to make the sojourn alone!). I will always remember how I
felt when Foxfeather graciously and unexpectedly extended me an
invitation. I sat in a stupor of roiling anxious euphoria before I tried
to pretend I would just think about it and weigh real life
considerations before giving an answer. From the second she asked I
knew I wanted, needed, longed to go and whatever I needed to do, would
be done, so I could go. Not only this but the group of people going are
some of the most inspiring creative people I know and I had not even
begun to dream that when I went it would be spent in the company of so
many esteemed fellow creatives!
While discussing the cost of the
trip, some of the folks going hatched an idea to do a Kickstarter to
help, even slightly, offset the cost of going. While I have not a single
regret about this decision to go, it is an incredible financial burden
on me and I will be returning with at least 2k of debt to pay back to my
incredible mom ( Ivory Mastiffs
who made it possible for me to afford the deposit and airline tickets).
But beyond financial considerations, the creative folks being who they
are, wanted to make something unique and creative that could serve as a
keepsake for this phenomenal adventure. So the idea for a travel
journal was hatched and after much hard work and hair pulling, the
kickstarter was born and launched.
We feel humbled to have blown
not only past our initial 3500$ target but also our very first stretch
goal of 5000$. WOW!! Thank you to all that have already sponsored this
endeavor! Though we are already funded, every extra bit will help those
going buffer the financial burden just a wee bit more…and also make
the keepsake even more profound. Every little and large bit helps!!!
So if you want to be part of our journey and my own personal journey of
finding the heartbeat of Savuti, please feel free to join us by
sponsoring this Kickstarter. I’m certain with the crew that is going
this book will be jam packed with more than a few zany antics, close
—too close?– encounters with alligators and other friendly Botswana
fauna as well as heaps of gorgeous artwork and stories fueled to atomic
proportions of inspiration by this once-in-a-lifetime trek into the
hinterlands of Botswana.
Join us here: https://www.kickstarter.com/…/expanding-horizons-artists-jo…
Also to those that made it this far….an extra thank you for reading. I appreciate each and every one of you!
