I don't know about you, but when I see the free newspaper called amNY I pick it up. First and foremost, it has a really good horoscopes column. I use it as my practical guide for daily activities. How could you not obey an advise such as: "Leo, everybody around you, including this horoscope, has a bullshit opinion on what you should do next. But stick to your own plan of action and you will arrive to the correct destination". I always end up in my studio, working.

The other thing about amNY is that is it made of paper really suitable for paper mache. In regards to this the amNY is my secret gold mine. Now, the question is - what do you make out of this paper?

"The Marriage Project", my new feature film about one woman's journey through her marriages both real and imagined told with the help of Neuroscience and Mythology Sirens, needs a sample footage to show to potential investors and donors. To make it happen I have to make bunch of props and sets. I started with a pattern cut out of paper, like this:

Then I added layers and layers of soaked in glue AM paper. It was really heartbreaking, because each AM paper contained old news about 2016 presidential campaign and by this time we all knew who won and I was not happy. In fact, I was outraged, angry, afraid, worried and in a full go-to-battle mode. Opening the paper's page, putting it on the table and caressing the pictures of the 2 candidates with my dripping in glue hands inevitably triggered the feelings of resentment and resistance every time. Then I would tear the paper in strips and put them on the paper mache coat, like this:

Then I covered the paper layers with black paint:

And finally, the layer of pink paint:

Maybe it is therapeutic to relive trauma over and over again and then cover it with color and joy. But I am wary of normalizing the new Executive Branch of extremists. Is going back to my work normalizing it?

I also struggle to work when I compare the scope of the disaster in front of us with the ineffectuality of my own teeny toothless existence. Is it really prudent to continue to work on a little film about a woman who is trying to define herself and her gender in the world? Does it matter - the world is about to end?