Picture this:
A massive cactus right in front of you.
And you're giving it a big old hug.
But between you and those spines… there’s something.
Pillows. Thin as a whisper.
Just enough to keep you from getting shredded—but not enough to leave you unchanged.
That’s the place.
Where you feel, but don’t fall apart.
Where you touch what burns, but don’t go numb.
Even pain, when dressed right, you can sit with it.
It’s not cozy. It’s not cute.
But you can bear it.
That’s from where art crawls out.
Here’s a little math for the nerd inside you:
(Desire + Pain) × Protection = Bearable connection
Sounds about right, doesn’t it?
Art—among other things—is just that.
A soft collision with what’s eating you.
The itch you hide but can’t stop scratching.
And hey, it doesn’t have to be some dark emotion.
Sometimes, it’s beauty so raw it hurts to look at.
You don’t dig up the cactus.
You understand it.
You hug it—no drama.
Calm.
With style.
From just far enough to stay whole.
Balance, always.
This isn’t therapy.
IT’S EMOTIONAL TECHNIQUE.
We’re not promising to save you. Or turn you into a shaman.
We’re not your savior.
We’re not selling sage and salvation.
We’re not burning incense or any of that crap.
For seven days, we hand you weapons, strategies.
Stuff no one else has ever given you, my word.
The kind you didn’t know you needed.
Not paint-by-numbers tricks.
But sharp tools of the mind.
New ways to jostle how you see things.
So the cactus stops looking like the enemy.
And starts feeling like the key.
You hug it.
And the sting? You use it.
You carve deep, through your art.
And use its spikes to stab even deeper—through your art.
We don’t banish demons.
We bargain with them.
We train them.
We make them build for us.
This next round, “STRANGE HEAVEN,” is all about that.
Hugging your cactus.
And turning it into art.
SIT DOWN WITH YOUR DEMONS. ASK WHAT THE HELL THEY WANT. THEN MAKE A DEAL.
P.S. — Yeah, I know, you didn’t really need to picture it… but opening with that guy’s photo would've been weird. Even we’ve got limits. Link’s up top, cactus-hugger.
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