wdydwyd? weekly blog

2008-07-23T07:47:00.000-07:00

i wonder if, ultimately, i have any say in the way my life moves

By Adine Schoonmaker | Artist/Photographer | Brooklyn, NY

I spent most of my 20's suffering from undiagnosed Thyroid cancer and my early 30's in treatment and recovery. I began to feel as though i was normal and pretty by my late 30's. I am now experiencing all the excitement and passion that i should have been enjoying in my youth. But now that i am "blooming" i am also noticeably aging. I do what i do because i still want to feel alive when men stop noticing me.

Andres Amador | artist | San Francisco | analogia.org

sometimes i wonder if, ultimately, i have any say in the way my life moves and how i respond.

Are you going to Burning Man this year? — Sign up here to be involved in wdydwyd as a Collaborating Artist on a playa-wide photo project, or just hang out with us.

Crimson Rose | Director of Art Management for Burning Man |
Burning Man staff Polaroids

Burning Man staff featured each week through August. Sign up for weekly email. Larry's portrait coming soon. Why does he do what he does?

Call for Entries in collaboration with Brooklyn Art Project & Working With Artists
[due July 31]

More info, examples, criteria, and uploading instructions here.

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit here.

2008-07-16T04:42:00.001-07:00

Sign up here to be involved in wdydwyd if you're going to Burning Man this year - as a Collaborating Artist on a playa-wide photo project, or just to hang out.

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit here.

Burning Man staff featured each week through August.
Sign up for weekly email.

2008-06-25T13:45:00.001-07:00

Time away from the wife is limited

By Vikki Cobain | digital imagery | Birmingham, UK

i am very happy these days: i am studying a wonderful craft and learning all the time. I have wanted to do this all my life but money and kids prevented this freedom. I used to work in corporate offices .... i used to get told off for ringing home, checking on my kids, for wearing a white stripe on a black top.... i hope i can do this justice. My son, Max (22) said, 'Do it - it's your time now, Mom'. Its great they understand. i love my kids and want them to be proud of me.

See Vikki's gallery of images

Vicki is a wdydwyd Collaborating Artist.

Sign up here to be involved in wdydwyd if you're going to Burning Man this year - as a Collaborating Artist on a playa-wide photo project, or just to hang out.

Blue | Professional Instigator | Burning Man staff Polaroids | San Francisco, CA

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What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit here.

2008-06-18T00:11:00.000-07:00

anonymous | Willmington

I like someone who runs every time she's scared. When I have her, I don't want her. When she cares about me, she runs away. She always runs from every relationship. Then I want her back.

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Submit your answer anonymously here.

Molly Renda | graphic designer | Durham, NC

Sign up here to be involved in wdydwyd if you're going to Burning Man this year - as a collaborating Artist on a playa-wide photo project, or just to hang out.

Malcolm Baker & Conrad Kohn | educators, musicians | Denver, CO | collaboration with Working With Artists

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What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" Submit here.

2008-06-04T01:19:00.000-07:00

I've abandoned responsibility and embraced frivolity

David Brown | Postdam, NY

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just living is not enough

Michael Michael | Genetic Programmer | Burning Man staff Polaroids | Black Rock City, NV

wdydwyd?
Experience is the only real value that comes from being alive.
What Michael does to help make Burning Man work:
I use my time to visualize Burning Man into the future.
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Because the world is too flat

Tony Deifell | visual artist & social entrepreneur | San Francisco, CA

I lived in Florida when I was a teenager. I didn't realize how flat it was there — in so many ways — until I had left. My dad is a pastor, so I read the Bible from time to time. One of my favorite passages: "Before every man there lies a wide and pleasant road which he thinks is right. But, it ends in death." What else is there to say about flatness? It ends in death.

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Beacuse the door was open

Anonymous | somewhere in the world

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I pick up bottles and cans because it's money and I'm not stealing from people

Clyde Martinez | former United Airlines employee | loaded planes | Bismark, North Dakota

I came to California to have my cancer treatment.

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What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do? We dare you to answer it. Submit here
Or answer anonymously here.

2008-05-28T18:30:00.001-07:00

By Preet Shihn | software | San Francisco, CA

I am overjoyed when someone comments on my photo on flickr, or comments on my non-existent blog. I am saddened when I check my email and there is no non-spam email. When I grow up, I want to be e-popular.

Preet is a wdydwyd Collaborating Artist. See his other answers. Submit your own images answering "wdydwyd?"

Bryan Donnell | filmmaker | Los Angeles, CA | www.bryandonnell.com

Sign up to be involved in wdydwyd if you're going to Burning Man this year.

* Honest * | multilingual mix media art student | United Arab Emirates

Mum walks in and asks: why are you painting with your blood? I answer; because that is the way I can feel. I don’t know what I would have done if it was not for art. It is my breathing space, my world out of this world, where no one exists but everyone does in a different way. I don’t paint every painting literally with my blood, but they are representations of my blood, my soul, my inside brought out through an image. I’m okay

Paul Showalter | Genetic Programmer | Burning Man staff Polaroids | San Francisco, CA

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By Savannah | art student | Columbus, OH

the antithesis of depression

By Liz Evans | photographer | Malvern, United Kingdom

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do? We dare you to answer it. Submit here
Or answer anonymously here.

preserve world funkiness

2008-05-21T20:10:00.001-07:00

Self-forgetfulness

By Crosscreek | Las Paredes, Mendoza | Argentina

Writing requires solitude, stillness and silence. Absorbed in the act of creating prose or poetry, I forget the limitations of self and the material world.

Because it's nostalgic and it use to make me thin

By Tom | cashier & struggling pre-pharmacy student | Royal Oak, Michigan

i don't take as many now

Because it feels so good when I stop

Ludwig | computer guy | Burning Man staff
Polaroids | San Francisco, CA

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Graffiti book | Burning Man

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" We dare you to answer it. Submit here.
Or answer anonymously here.

2008-05-14T23:59:00.000-07:00

To vibrate higher

By Mikhayla Harrell | Artist, Designer, Dreamer, Yogini, Dancer, High School Art Teacher | Albuquerque, NM

To vibrate higher....to remember what the heart
already knows.

Mikhayla did wdydwyd with her class at Albuquerque Institute of Math and Science. Join the Teachers & Educators Group for more.

I am a feather in the wind

Jade Castrinos | singer | Hollywood, CA
Burning Man Polaroids

dreaming gives me hope

By John Moyer | Psychotherapist | Pittsburgh, PA

Because I wanted the pain to go away 4 awhile

anonymous | small town, Illinois

what I did has ruined me

Submit your answer anonymously here.

Because there's no place like home

Josh Camire | Media Communications | Burning Man staff Polaroids | San Francisco, CA

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Graffiti book | Burning Man

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" We dare you to answer it. Submit here.

2008-05-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Because Katrina made me

Stephen DeBerry | fixer | East Palo Alto, CA |
Burning Man Polaroids

I took my wife down to New Orleans last spring so she could experience Jazzfest and get a sense of some of my Creole family heritage. I hadn't been to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. A friend of mine took me to the Lafitte Housing Project in the Treme neighborhood and I was shocked that after seeing hundreds of private residences that were crushed, torn, twisted or completely missing the Lafitte buildings were standing tall and strong, yet the doors and windows were blocked with steel barricades and the residents who had been displaced by the storm had been evicted by the city and federal governments. I stood on one door step and read the illegal eviction notice posted by the Housing Authority of New Orleans and in that moment I realized that I had nobody to run to; that I had to be part of the solution rather than relying on someone else to fix the problem. Since then I've joined the board of a nonprofit called www.friendsofneworleans.org and I've also been working on a housing project to build new homes for New Orleans — see the NYTimes article. What's (not) going on in New Orleans and the gulf region after this natural disaster simply isn't right. If you're interested in contributing skills, time, funding or any other form of support, please contact me at: stephen at deberry dot net

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So others will experience the amazing things you are capable of creating and sharing

Melissa Alexander | Executive Director, Black Rock Arts Foundation | San Francisco, CA | Burning Man staff Polaroids

wdydwyd?

I believe there is room for everyone to experience the phenomenon of the world, and one of these is the very human one of creating and experiencing art. I also believe that we live in a world we make up, and I'm working hard to make up a world that's good to live in and at every scale.

What Melissa does to help make Burning Man work:

I work for the Black Rock Arts Foundation to inspire community and civic engagement through the creation and exhibition of interactive art.

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To help you put the pieces back together again

Hannah Engel | student | UNC-Chapel Hill

I am taking a class about disaster relief help, and the content of that class really inspired me to create this image. Being left in a situation where you have absolutely nothing can be stressful, confusing, and even lonely. Disaster relief workers are the people who are there to help the displaced survivors and...help them put the pieces back together again.

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Join the "Teachers & Educators" group & see how wdydwyd has been integrated into classrooms at UNC, UCLA, SF State and others.

Because... (I love the word because)

Leila Davenport Ross | Charleston, SC | META

I have always loved words- big ones, little ones, interesting ones, simple ones, words that are fun to say, etc. I especially love to hear a six year old read them slowly and steadily from a page in a book or write them down on a piece of paper with the concentration and care of a tight rope walker. That's why I taught first grade in a public school for five years. Some children are lucky enough to learn literacy from a family member; this process begins at infancy under ideal circumstances. But the sad reality is that many of our children learn in an old, moldy classrooms under florescent lights with the help of kind, passionate, patient teachers. When the right pathways connect in their little brains, the magic of literacy happens... it is amazing to witness firsthand. Smiles wash over their faces (usually a tooth or two is missing) and to feel their true happiness and pride. Unfortunately, I fall directly into the U.S. statistic of a young teacher who quits after a five year burn out due to bureaucratic red tape, the emotional toil of some abused or neglected students, the ridiculous demands of standardized testing, being overworked and underpaid, blah, blah. So now, I am in limbo about what to do with my crazy life- still trying to figure out what to be when I grow up. I also must believe that my teaching a few great kids how to read and write and instilling the love of learning in them in some way, has paid off. My love of words however, remains steadfast.

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I feel so luck because everything, I have managed to keep...

By Eric "Vavoom" | Middle-of-nowhere, MO

Never give up hope because sometimes,
it's all you have left.

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Eric is a wdydwyd Collaborating Artist.

Become one yourself.

Because I see

Dave Gilbert | graphics / photography / promotion | Rocky Hill, CT

BECAUSE I SEE, I take pictures.

More specifically: Because since birth I have seen everything in two dimensions (using only one eye), I love photography and all forms of art that involve a flat surface. Or at least that's the explanation that makes the most sense to me! I have never minded having no depth perception -- it's just the way it's always been, and I believe it has defined me and given me certain advantages.

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Graffiti book | Burning Man

What's your answer to "Why do you do what you do?" We dare you to answer it. Submit here.
Or, submit anonymously by uploading here.

2008-04-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

Heal the planet thru intimate communication of love

Shanti Owen | Dating Coach | New York, NY |
Burning Man Polaroids

Je t’aime encroyablement mon amour…I want to expose this planet to the real possibilities of magic in this life time. I personally have never found more of this magical energy that in an intimate relationship with a lover. Life is a beautiful paradise as a singular observer and a mythically epic novel or gigantic sensual majesty in communion with a sacred other…

Shanti Owen's page

See the endless potential

Kat Steinmetz | Human Resources Consultant - Singer - Make Up Artist | San Francisco, CA | Burning Man staff

wdydwyd?

Because the beauty, the creativity, the inspiration, the…endless potential…is blinding and breathtaking and I simply MUST take part in it.

What Kat does to help make Burning Man work:

At Burning Man/Black Rock City, I’m the Human Resources Consultant…I’m also a singer, makeup artist, and costume bitch extraordinaire…never the same girl twice.

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Because I can

Leslie Burns | photographer (and critter wrangler) | Charleston, SC headed to Athens, GA

So often we take for granted all of the abilities we have, the powers we possess. People tell us we cannot do something. We tell ourselves we cannot do something. So, we don’t do it because we think we can’t do it, but we never even try it. I do it because I can do. This is reason to celebrate.

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Because I love drums

John Barron | community drummer | Waterford, Ireland

World Gallery | created & submit your own photo here

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I do a lot of it to avoid doing something else instead

jtf mulder | film, TV and pop culture historian | southern CA

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jtf mulder is a wdydwyd Collaborating Artist.
Become one yourself.

Graffiti book | Burning Man

2008-04-21T23:09:00.000-07:00

wait a moment: i'm thinking about what i do

Giuseppe Gavazza | composer | Turin, Italy | META

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It's easier this way

Shannon Holman | writer | Brooklyn, NY | META

Life can be quite jagged sometimes, lots of slings and arrows, very few outrageous fortunes. It seems quite natural to want to take the edge off with a drink or whatnot. But for me, as it happens, it's actually easier to live without all that. I find that a surprising fact, and that's what I was thinking about when asked why I do what I do.

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I do what I do in order to put my son and daughter through college

Tom Whiteside | filmmaker & film historian |
Durham, NC | META

I know that there are many ways to answer the question. I answered in the conventional sense, as if I were meeting someone for the first time and they ask "What do you do?" meaning "What is your job?" So my reading was "Why do you have your job?" My son and my daughter are both in their twenties. Parenting changes over the years - no longer involved with the daily routine of their lives, I nonetheless still feel responsibility towards them every day. Helping them pay for college is a big part of that. So without being philosophical or without telling too much of my personal story, I stated what was an important reality in my life at that point in time. My daughter has graduated, my son will graduate in a few months. Things change.

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Because I care and want to share

Harley Dubois | Black Rock City Urban Planner / BRC City Manager | Burning Man staff | San Francisco, CA

wdydwyd?

When I was in college I decided my ideal job would be in the arts and have real meaning in the world. I got my dream. I have the opportunity to change people's perspective on the world and their place in it on a daily basis.

What Harley does to help make Burning Man work:

On the playa I manage Black Rock City and year round I work to improve the operations of Burning Man and the Black Rock Arts Foundation.

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Thank God I woke up in time

By anonymous

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Submit your own image answering "wdydwyd?"

Or, submit anonymously by mailing to the address in postcard above, or uploading here.

2008-04-14T02:51:00.001-07:00

To feel

By Frederic Bourgeois | culture (dance, music, literature) + english teacher | Brussels, Belgium

"and yet, feeling is a large thing without which one could carry out nothing." vincent van gough, in letters with his brother théo.

i'm a selfish person. i first want to feel. that's definitely what drives me out of me. so i wrote that i wanted to feel.

then, as i like to quote, i opened this book i'm reading at the moment and the first underlined sentence i saw was the quote above. so it's just a coincidence, somehow. but a good one.

as a selfish person, i think it's more about being emotional, so that maybe, somehow, people would be emoted by the feelings that went through me? but that sounds a bit too pretentious for me. so let's just say i want to feel. yeah. just... feel.

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Frederic is a wdydwyd Collaborating Artist.

Become one yourself.

Feel proud and never ashamed

Burning Man Polaroids

Nicole Johnson | playa name: Hot Damn | counselor | San Francisco, CA

I work for the homeless, the junkies and crackheads, the criminals, the wild men pushing shopping carts—our cultural cast-offs. For me the work comes with a sense of peace and gentle ease. I need to be useful, I need to be virtuous. Compassion and curiosity are my highest ideals. When I fail to be those things I die in pieces. When I succeed... ah! To feel proud, to feel open and transparent and unfolding. That is why I do what I do.

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Because I have to live up to their expectations

By Numair Abbasi | student | Karachi, Pakistan

everyone expects something of you... whether it's your parents... your friends... your family or your teachers...

i don't do what i want to do... i do what others want me to do.

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It gives me joy. I can do no other

Tom Maxwell | musician | Pittsboro, NC | META

So, I wrote "it gives me joy," which seems a good reason for doing something, and "I can do no other," which felt more correct.

Truth be told, I seldom know why I do anything. Well, actually, I do, but "vanity" or "testicular/intestinal compulsion" don't read well, and can result in a kind of joy.

The second line was a rip from some dimly remembered German. I almost wrote "Ich kann nicht anders," but that would have been just too "too." I recently looked it up. It was Martin Luther who said it, freezing outside with Castle Church in Wittenberg. He had been called to account for his 95 Theses.

"I stand here," he said. "I can do no other."

Works for me.

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So I don't have to do the same thing over and over

Mara Sloan | journalist looking for work in political affairs | email her marasloan@gmail.com | Atlantic Beach, FL | META

From about the age of 12, I knew I wanted to be a journalist. Every day you get to learn something new. You also get to learn a lot about things you never could have guessed would come your way. One day I wrote about the history of butterflies and how they are harvested in other countries and sent here. Another day I met UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and learned how the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee works. The possibilities are endless, and that’s what keeps it interesting. I knew I’d never be one to sit behind a desk and do the same thing every day. Another perk in writing – you can go anywhere and still have a fun job.

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To vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition

Burning Man Polaroids

Terry Schoop | playa name: Retro | Manager - Burning Man Community Services | Burning Man staff | Berkeley, CA

wdydwyd?:

I quite enjoy the collaborative nature of the work I do at Burning Man. It seemed the right thing to choose at the time (about three years ago) and I haven't regretted it since. That, and it's pretty cool too.

The wdydwyd? shoot at the Burning Man office fell on Halloween. Terry's mask, costume, and words on his sign in the photo are all from the film "V for Vendetta", and Terry originally answered wdydwyd? in character.

The mask and costume are from the film V for Vendetta. The film is set in a near-future Britain after a limited nuclear war. An extreme fascist party has arisen and is now the ruling power. "V", an anarchist revolutionary dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask, begins an elaborate, violent and theatrical campaign to bring down the government. The V-rich quote is from the moment in the film when V meets a teenage girl named Evey Hammond. V has just saved her from a gang of police agents who were about to rape her. She asks V who he is? He remarks upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is, then explains he is a "vestige of the vox populi . . . " and the Vs grow from there on.

One of the inspirations for the V for Vendetta source material, the eponymous graphic novel, is the short story "Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" by my favorite author, Harlan Ellison.

What Terry does to help make Burning Man run:

I support and represent the project managers or councils that govern twelve departments that run the city during the event. I review several email lists, attend many planning meetings, work on budgets, plan staff training and other events, write reports, edit documents, and do everything I can to keep the cats herded.

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2008-04-07T04:30:00.001-07:00

On a good day...

By anonymous | Grapevine, TX

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Bring art & dreams to life

Bettie June | Art Production Manager & Artist Advocate | Burning Man staff Polaroids

wdydwyd?:
Connecting with people and learning about their ideas, their visions, their artistry makes each day a vibrant adventure, one that can catapult from executions of sacred geometry to plans for mobile light installations to visions of genius surrounding the Man. I offer an ear, a shoulder, a brain for figuring out how to make these ideas come to life, both for the artist as well as the viewer. I feel excited and honored that I get to learn more and celebrate artists every day! Working with the artists is my art project!

What she does to help make Burning Man work:
I spend my time working at Burning Man helping artists. I work closely to help them identify the best ways to execute their artistic visions, while upholding the ten principles. I also help organize and curate the art space around the Man, and manage the art tours.

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To finally do it without doing it

Dyanna Taylor | filmmaker | Santa Fe, NM | META

I've been exploring how we first limit ourselves in our imaginations, long before the world limits us.
Self editing. Filmmaking is a collaborative art. It is the rare filmmaker who can complete a film project totally alone.

In that collaboration, and I've been making films for over 30 years, the single creative entity must give way to the collective, no matter how singular the vision.

I have wanted to create, to make films without a self consciousness, without the imagination "editor" in my head, without any outside influence. I've wanted the moment of creation, and in my case cinematography, to do itself. To happen without mind, without efforting. It is dawn here, and I am watching the wind in the pinon trees outside my window. It is just wind doing wind. No thought, self awareness, or limitation. I guess I'm really talking about life. and I'm getting a little too serious for 6:55am....

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For Love

Tom Patterson | freelance writer, independent curator & art critic | Winston-Salem, NC | META

I took the wdydwyd question broadly & "seriously," as it were. I also answered it with the title of a widely known collection of poems by Robert Creeley, a Black Mountain poet, which seemed appropriate to the occasion: for love. Love of particular someones and somethings—another person, an object made by another person, an idea, an ideal, a vision—is my motivating inspiration in just about any serious endeavor I undertake.

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To never let the kid in me die

By Andrew John Busscher (pictured) | student |

Chapel Hill, NC

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Because it's convenient

By Kevin C Pugh | photographer | Worcester, United Kingdom

Pictured: James

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Kevin is a wdydwyd? Collaborating Artist.

2008-03-31T10:52:00.001-07:00

Reason # 2: because I want to stay connected

By Preet Shihn | software | San Francisco, CA

Fascinated by the question, I want to take a series that entails all the many reasons. This being the second one. See the first one.

Preet is a wdydwyd? Collaborating Artist
Submit your own images answering "wdydwyd?"

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My soul is hungry

Dawnna Marie | Burning Man | Polaroid

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I can't fight my destiny

HazMatt | Purchasing / Logistics Manager

Burning Man staff | Polaroids

wdydwyd?:
I do what I do because curiosity compels me; the more I learn, the more questions I have. I do what I do because everything in my life has led me to this moment and I'm trying to get to a place where I can feel the moment for what it is, endless. Also, I picked up a bucket of sh*t in 2001 and never put it down. Long story.

What HazMatt does to help make Burning Man work:
I manage DPW Business Services which includes the purchasing department, for event-related materials procurement, and oversight of many of our infrastructure vendor contracts such as the port-a-potties, heavy equipment rental, generator rental, golf carts and portable buildings. I am also a member of the management team that oversees DPW and Burning Man's Nevada Operations.

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To be closer to the person I want to be

Leonardo Letelier | founder, Sitawi | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Polaroids of Harvard Business School graduates

Alternative answer:

To be closer to the person I want to be.

A year and a half ago I decided to leave a prestigious consulting firm. Having received several offers, a good consultant always makes a table and determinates pros, cons, short term/long term trade offs and options, but even after that I could not decide whether it was better to open a private bank in Rio for a major bank or become the COO of one of the most successful NGOs in the country. There was simply no better answer to “ what do I want to do next?”. Only after I changed the question to “who do I want to be next?” the answer was evident: I started sitawi, a loan fund for social enterprises in Brazil to provide capital and advice in adequate terms, leveraging my background to accomplish a higher purpose – in the process reconnecting my rational and emotional sides and receiving daily doses of inspiration from the most generous people one can find. Last week I was in a plane when a former colleague asked me “are you content with your choice?”, I just replied “no, I am happy!” (http://www.sitawi.net)

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You do what you can

Herb Parker | sculptor & Professor of Art at the College of Charleston | Charleston, SC | META

You work hard and try to realize your ideas. Never stop.
Discipline and determination will see you through. Your work is not outside of life but an integral element of that life. Allow your work to grow with you.
(http://www.cofc.edu/~parkerh)

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