My summer as a Likable Art intern.

I am on the last leg of my adventure here in Fort Wayne.
I came for the art and I stayed because my flight was scheduled.

Before this summer I always planned to one day work for Likable Art. This desire was put in me 5 summers ago. It happened at a summer retreat. I have always been a bit juvenile, but that summer on that retreat I made a firm conviction be a faithful artist and an artist with faith. The criteria of this conviction is, “Be Catholic, be an artist, figure out how to make money, be authentic, work for Likable Art”. The necessities.

The dream.

I chose Likable Art because their video was played at my retreat, and with a mix of some loud music, even louder high schoolers, and the silent intuition of the Spirit. I bore a dream.

God is good, and the 5 years between that summer and this show evidence to it. But I must state. I was nervous, the problem with actualizing a dream is that you are actually not dreaming anymore. You are kind of living.

I didn’t have a lot coming into this internship: a borrowed bike, a few nice shirts, and a vague sense of direction. I biked to work using those three daily. Each morning I tried to prepare myself for the dream.

The excitement.

And at first, I was enthralled, everything was so new and I was editing video as a job! Everything was new, everything was fresh, and I was in the midst of so much creative peace. Working with Cory was exciting and so useful. I started keeping a list of all the things I was learning and what I wanted to learn. It was like the train of my future was chugging away brightly through an Indiana corn field. I felt affirmed in my pursuit of beauty.
and I don’t even know how to transition this story because this pain came out of nowhere.

The desert.

Almost like the pain of taking a misstep, I seemed to have jammed my passionate toe. It was the middle of the summer, the weather was no longer constantly cool, and I came with sweat trailing down my neck as I rubbed my bike into the factory office space. And I sat in front of the computer, and I didn’t want to do it. I felt like my work was work, and for a solid week… I was dissatisfied. Where was the passion? the dream?

I started doing little things to gain small modes of satisfaction: taking out the trash, organizing a box, making a quick graphic design, and trying to do small tasks. The big tasks drained me and I just wanted Cory to make them. Because it seemed that he could do a better job and a faster job. But I soon realized, the big tasks were my tasks too.

I wanted this internship for 5 years, I want to be able to work, I want to make something beautiful. So I started praying to be courageous. Courageous to fight myself.
To find the beauty in the difficult.

My heart desired so much to make something of my time at Likable art, it was the same heart talking that wanted me to have faith in my art. The heart that spoke 5 years ago.

The pivot.

But I have learned that is was the passion that gave me the patience to pursue my dreams, but it was my courage that I constantly prayed for that allowed me to profit from them.

Tonight as I write this before I go into work tomorrow for my last day at Likable Art, I wonder why I needed to work here to satisfy my conviction. Surely the spirit has a plan. I realize now in my sleep deprived, but spirit filled state that my time spent at Likable Art was to learn from Cory.

The guy has courage

His courage to wrestle with the big questions of beauty, his courage to put down his work and be a father to his family, his courage to define what he makes, his courage to being open to outside ideas, his courage to make a business out of a passion and follow so faithfully to Christ at the same time.

He put a lot of trust in me, and that is what I needed.

Not to mention all the dope creative dance parties, late night fruit snacks parties, toddler birthday parties, and small office space parties were needed too.

It’s honestly a party over here daily in the Suite 208.