7 • The Altar of Love & Death

From a declaration of love to a dream come true, this was a weekend like no other.

Photo by Cheyenne Nelson

This weekend I watched a monster parade, made a “potion” in a cauldron using ingredients of music and light, became an alien flower dissolving into the earth as it rained people around us, stylized the world as a graphic novel, jumped off a 20 ft rock into a river, bathed in a “milk bath” of Orbeez, and watched people joust on inflatable chickens in a pool. Yet the best part of my weekend involved an art piece of my own making.

Suffice to say, I was at a playful arts festival in the woods over the past five days. There I contributed to The Altar of Love & Death, an art project made as a declaration of love to the creator's partner. I was asked by my friend Caitlin to contribute since, well, I’m all about love. As I perused the brief I immediately had some ideas. They talked of ceremony, rituals, and magic as some of the activities the Altar could offer to the festival.

Ceremony, ritual, magic… and all of that in the context of Love & Death? Sign. Me. Up!

My primar…