June 2014. SoCal Derby was in town for the Golden Bowl. We were a last-minute booty call because the Bay Area Derby Girls couldn’t get anyone higher ranked to play. We’d just had a team breakfast and were gearing up for our first game of three – our #38 ranked team was taking on #12, #8 and #2, respectively. We were scared but exhilarated. Breakfast was not sitting great, however.
Walking back to the hotel, I saw a manila envelope leaning against what appeared to be a closed storefront – maybe abandoned. The envelope said, “MAKE FREE ART” on the front. I picked it up and turned it over – on the back, in small sharpied letters, “shoot film.” My teammates were shocked – they were like, “That’s someone’s mail!” But it just didn’t feel like it. I looked around harder – somehow I could imagine someone planting this mysterious envelope and then watching from a building across the busy urban street. I didn’t see anyone. One of my teammates took a few steps away from me.
I turned it over and over and over, and then finally decided: this isn’t someone else’s mail. This is for me.
Inside, a note:
That didn’t just make my day. It still inspires me. Guess where my tiny paintings are going to end up?