Dear Friends and Collectors,
I have written and rewritten this message, recorded my face saying it many times, and I still don’t know exactly what to say. So I’ll just come out and give you the information that you need: After 5 successful years, I’ve decided to close down my brick and mortar gallery in Cayucos, CA.
My exact closing date is tbd, but please plan on this being Maven's last holiday season on the Central Coast.
I opened my studio-gallery in the fall of 2020. As I made something, I’d put it on a kitchen table by the door, in hopes that someone would walk in and appreciate it enough to purchase it. The sign was a painted piece of driftwood with stenciled letters on it. There were no hours, there was no phone number.
And it all worked. Really well, actually. Many of you came in, and the support was enough for me to keep growing, keep creating. I got a real sign. I started keeping hours. And I started investing in the work of my artistic peers. My studio became a gallery and that gallery has been written up in publications and discussed in interviews. People have traveled very far to visit it. Quite a few of you, actually, found me at my first gallery in Cherryfield, Maine and have made the trip across the country to see me again in Cayucos, CA. (Like, more than five people have done that.)
As I remember these things, it feels ridiculous for me to say: but I’m closing :( If I’ve created something abundant and devoted so much energy to it, why would I close?
The main reason is that I’m spread too thin. I’m mentally walking this tightrope between creating/curating/maintaining a gallery in a seasonal beach town (wallets! key chains! why no dog collars?! pay the window cleaner!) and plunging fully into the depths of my own creative brain. I can no longer maintain the balance, and I need to choose which side of the river I want to dive into.
I choose my creative brain. I want to see what it does when I put it into another new environment, perhaps in an epicenter of opportunity. I’ve actually never tried that before, and the success I’ve achieved in two of America’s smallest, coolest towns, has me feeling very curious about what my career/life could look like if I immersed it in a larger pond.
Right now, I’m really leaning into that age-old adage: I’m young! I’m single! And I don’t have kids!
I’m also highly creative and ambitious, and I just want to follow my spirit.
So, that's what I'm going to do. I'll be moving back to the East Coast. Maven will go fully online (for now) and I will continue to create one of a kind work, write and produce strange fashion films, share my random thoughts, and grow.
I'll also be getting weirder.. and when I'm in Cayucos, I'll be surfing, not running a store.
There is so much more to say and I plan to say it, but for now, I’ll just say THANK YOU to all who have supported me, over and over again. I want to do a whole post on this but, California has brought the meaning of play into my life - artistically, mentally, spiritually. I am forever grateful for the chill, uplifting vibes you have bestowed upon me here.
I’ll come back to you later with more of the story. Thank you for reading. Thank you for caring. Thank you for seeing me as an artist.
We're open in Cayucos, CA Wednesday through Sunday, 10-5 pm. For more information on our beautiful store, visit this page.
with so much gratitude,
