Chapter 3: The Exit is Collective

The Wellness Garden - June 2024

"There's no public crisis that is not also private"

- Wendell Berry

Back in May, when everything felt confusing and without a clear direction, it was worth taking some steps back to look at the project of The Wellness Garden with a cool head and a wider perspective. Reflecting on that time, however, what helped most propel this project forward was the impetus built from communing with others, a result of simply asking for help.

The first step to implement the design, which evolved between May and July, was to design The Labyrinth. This process was particularly challenging due to the scale and the both regularity and intricacy that's inherent of labyrinths. I had to come up with creative solutions and found many - many - obstacles, made a few mistakes. Finally, I figured it out. In this way is how artists create problems for themselves in order to solve them and become better at what they do.

The final design for the Labyrinth and the design at scale on tarp. May 2024.

Meanwhile: imagining a garden

The Labyrinth took me so long to figure out that the series of Community Offerings that The Well supported started without anything in there. When I spoke to Froggie - our stellar local Permabuds co-shaper - they said "even better". Why? Because it gave the participants an opportunty to imagine and make offerings to the Garden-to-be. In my language, that meant some faithful - and powerful - prayer at work. We imagine the world we want to live in, and thus we are already creating it.

"There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about."

- Margaret J. Wheatley

Finally, one day in late June we got to work.

It took us three volunteer days - a total of around 30 people helping - to implement the design and leave it ready to bring in plants. Some of those days were long; we made them so. As a group that kept changing shape, sometimes the collective mind propelled us to finish a task, to not leave it halfway done. I was happy and often surprised at folks coming in to help; this really showed me how little faith I had in people caring for this project, and I was happy to be wrong.

I think it's worth mentioning the special presence of Chris Pohlar, Scottie Bellissemo, and The Well's amazing people: Stacy Sims, Bryce Kessler, and Patrick Raneses, in the implementation of this first part of The Wellness Garden project. This project also received funding in kind (materials, tools, and supplies) from Sean Mullaney. 

Last trim + covering the future plant beds with fabric - June 2024

It took us - I always say "us" because it was never only me doing the work - about two months from beginning to end to implement the design and start seeing something. My dream of having something like 15 species of native perennials was adjusted to the reality that that would require a big investment; instead, I asked for plant donations and brought cuttings and seeds from Jardín de Sol, my garden. It felt right, after all what highest honor for a garden to become two. Chris and Scottie donated some plants, most of which thrived (a couple died though, that is the nature of nature). Finally, Sean contributed with a sprinkler that he graciously turned on and off the whole summer. I felt held in the joint willingness to bring life to this side of Camp.

The Labyrinth finished and plants and seeds in place - July 2024

"In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it."

- Marianne Williamson

The process of building the Labyrinth was collectively supported at all times. This also showed me that, while the Garden was initially my vision, it soon became that of many. Sometimes artists become catalysts for a community's deep desire. Then, it is easy to bring people together: we all want it, we all care about it. We all love it for our own reasons. Mine is my commitment to the Earth.

When I spoke to Sean about the idea of a Labyrinth, he told me that their parents - both passed - used to love labyrinths and even had one at their home. This Labyrinth then became an homage to Mary Pat and Dale Mullaney. 

In August, once the Labyrinth was finished, I went back to Argentina, to visit family and do some research in the Northwestern region of the country. I bought "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" from Joseph Campbell to read on the plane, without really having any context for it. It turns out the first pages of this book are dedicated to labyrinths as metaphors for processes of self-knowledge through signifiers and symbols. It ocurred to me that, in the journey that became making the labyrinth, I felt like going into one. The goal of walking a Labyrinth is to find the center, where the biggest challenge - and therefore the biggest gift - awaits. We face the challenge, retrieve the gift, and come back to share it with others.

All the meanwhile, every step of the way, there is someone - maybe more than one - waiting for us on the other side. They are holding the thread so that we don't lose our way. They are holding the thread so that the gift can be retrieved and shared. They are holding the thread so that we return safely.

In my studio I have this screenprinted poster that a colleague made a few years ago, that says: "la salida es colectiva" - the exit is collective. Only in community we can thrive. We need each other. I feel making the labyrinth left me with that gift: the knowledge that together - we blossom.

The Labyrinth - Late August 2024