“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

The spirit of Holi has forever colored my professional and personal narrative, authoring an experiential opus on life change as both a source for inspiration and a catalyst for transformation. My relocation to Barcelona was about venturing away from a creative life that had become somewhat mundane and prosaic, to invigorate the evolution of my artistic identity through the lens of the city’s colorful culture – diving into what would become a lifelong love affair with Spain. As the notion of spending it so distant from loved ones became perceptibly disconcerting, I was so grateful that my new found Catalonian community of friends gathered together to celebrate and help ease my yearning for the familiar.

That Holi along Barcelonata beach stands so vividly in my mind as a day flavored with food, filled with music and laughter, and laced with color and creative discovery. We all danced ‘til the bottom of our dresses were trashed against the sand and the rocks…and then danced some more. As the concept of playing colors was a bit too novel, they watched curiously from a distance while I dipped my hands, wet and salty from ocean water, into a wooden box of colors.

In the ensuing unfettered moments, Jackson Pollock’s spirit was present, and I began to truly harmonize with the soul of my creative aesthetic. I sensed the mist from the ocean waves washing off the heat of the festivities, as dusk bathed me in an introspective, yet open stillness. I could see the vastness of my canvas more clearly, as if a thick marine layer of fog was lifting from my vision. The smells of the sea became more crisp, the pastel hues of the ocean layering up into the horizon became more clear, and the feel of each rock and grain of sand buffeting my feet became more discernible through the embroidered hem of my slip. The dripping hues streaked eagerly over the white slip dress as I swayed through past memories, toward perspicacity in the present. Where I once would have seen simple colors melting into a dress, I now realized a symphonic statement of design.

Barcelona catalyzed my creative epiphany. It nurtured a distinct evolution in my perspective toward becoming far more attuned to the poetry of change. Rather than being a hindrance or source of trepidation, change became an empowering agent of creativity. Throughout my time in the city, the influences of culture, artists, architecture, and great literary poets all began to weave into my work in a fashion that has imparted a defining soul to my designs.

Holi, family, community, and Barcelona are inextricably intertwined in my spirit. Just as Holi’s customs can strengthen the fabric of community, its essence of new beginnings and change can invigorate our creativity. So this year, I pay tribute to celebrating Holi in Barcelona, when I welcomed a warm, new-found community and family to my life – sparking a poetic series of art, color, tradition and memories that became sacred to my creative ethos, and imbued “my art of living” with the strength of woven moments of change.