Waiting to Fly centers around the idea that at some point in our lives, we are waiting for things to happen. My initial inspiration came to me at an airport years ago, looking around at all the interesting people in the departure area and realizing that we all had one thing in common: We were waiting to fly somewhere. I was a budding photographer, a practice I’ve since abandoned, and thought it would be clever to document these interesting people. That never really got off the ground. (Yes, the pun is intentional. I don’t apologize.)

Trying to be clever again, I once quipped: “My dreams have wings and are just waiting to fly.” It became sort of a personal mantra. I have dreams! I do have a lot of ideas. More ideas than a single person could hope to accomplish in a lifetime. Too many dreams, perhaps. I have a tendency to dream, but not pursue. Another artist once called me on this: “Stop dreaming and start flying!”, she said. It was good advice, but not something I followed right away.

Over the years, the domain was used for various projects, but eventually fell into disuse.

At the end of 2020, but not the end of the pandemic (yet), I was taking stock of the year, what I had done, and what I hadn’t. I had a visual in my head of a hot-air balloon, filled with potential, and the sandbags being the various things that I have allowed to hold me down: Doubts, insecurities, baggage, distractions, excuses, or just plain laziness. I felt motivated to tackle something in 2021 – but what?

The more I thought about the hot-air balloon, a separate story began to form in my head. I would create an animated short, telling the story of someone who has been waiting, but not flying. I would post my progress (or lack thereof) online, thus having some level of accountability, and also hopefully maintain momentum and motivation.

I even already had the domain I needed to host this project.