Meow Wolf

In 2018 I was on a plane long enough to watch a movie and I had no idea what to watch. I scrolled through the new releases and the visuals for a documentary caught my eye: Meow Wolf: Origin Story. I had no idea what this was, but the colors were beautiful and so I dove right in.

I was delighted. A group of misfit artists, outsiders in a city of fine artists, came together to create a magnificent and over-the-top temporary art installation. It wasn’t just the end product that had me enraptured, it was the community they formed and the space they created for other outsider artists along the way. They made “belonging.” They had no place to be, so they made a place. They made themselves official, they put themselves inside of their own art circle.

The deep wound of being an outsider artist started to heal a little that day. I was inspired to keep painting, to keep drawing, to keep on keeping on. It was ok that I wasn’t a fine artist, what wasn’t ok was for me to tell myself I wasn’t good enough to paint. I would never tell anyone else not to paint, but yet here I was, telling myself that every day.

After learning about Meow Wolf, some of the energy that had been tied up in feeling like a loser, was freed to let me actually…explore art!

I am so grateful that I was on a plane and the airline had that documentary. I am grateful that a group of ragtag oddball artists made themselves a little place to belong. I am grateful they shared that place with others.