Background
I think everyone should have some kind of creative outlet. Ayahuasca is what pushed
me back toward mine.
Heroic Hearts Project connects
veterans with psychedelic therapy, and they gave me a lot when I went through my own experience with ayahuasca
in 2021. I eventually came back as an integration coach and advocate. For the last few years I’ve worked
with veterans before and after retreats, helping them prepare for the experience and make sense of it once
they come home. I talk about the work openly because plenty of veterans still have no idea these options
exist.
The Heroic Hearts zine and brochure came later as a class project,
not something they hired me to make. Spending a whole term with that material brought me back into my own
experience more than I expected from a school assignment. Projects like the
Café du Monde redesign and
Louilingo come from somewhere else, but they’re personal in a similar
way. I tend to make my best work when I actually care about the subject.
My background is kind of all over the place. I grew up in a military family, moved around, served in the
Marine Corps, and kept traveling after I got out. Somewhere along the way I learned to fly helicopters and
airplanes and became a scuba instructor. None of that is traditional design training, but it gave me a lot of
different ways to look at things. I’ve spent a lot of time being the beginner at something difficult,
and I think that helps when I’m trying to create for somebody other than myself.
