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LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF: HAILEY KINTER

LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF: HAILEY KINTER

LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF: HAILEY KINTER

PROFILES

BEN CLARK INTERVIEW

If you could write a letter to your younger self what would it say? We asked some amazing people in our community to write letters, and were blown away by the love, compassion and humor they shared. Hailey Kinter shares her letter here.

Dear Little Hailey,

Your life is going to appear very different, yet feel just as ordinary as anyone else’s.

Life is hard.

Your childhood will suddenly be taken from you. There will be many terrifying 911 calls, ambulance rides, and traumatic resuscitations. You’re going to survive this to see your twenties, but you won’t be “okay” for a long time.

Doctors won’t take you seriously until you require CPR at just 18 years old. You won’t get diagnosed for several more years, and there’s no cure yet. You will get very familiar with suffering. You will have countless heart, vascular, GI, and kidney surgeries. You will experience physical pain so severe you will beg for your life to end. You’ll fight hard but remain sick. Sometimes you will lose hope, and feel helpless. You will feel totally alone. You’ll spend numerous birthdays and holidays in the hospital. Doctors, nurses, and sometimes even people you love will say hurtful things out of frustration, fear, and denial. Friends and family will get desensitized to your suffering and fragility. Only people who are brave enough to love someone who is facing death so often will stick around. You will forever grieve.

You will be made to feel not disabled enough, while at the same time too disabled. You will never be enough for other people. You do too much while you don’t do enough. You will make many mistakes. Because you’re human and you’re not special.

Acceptance isn’t giving up, it is waking up. You are always enough, you’re perfectly imperfect.

Even though sometimes you’ll feel alone, you never truly are. You are loved and appreciated so much more than you know. The unlimited love you shower others with is returned to you every day. You just have to remember to open your eyes. Your courage to stay vulnerable and open is rewarded with others around you feeling safe to do the same. Your kindness creates a ripple effect that spreads in ways you do not see.

The most important person in your life is you. Prioritize how you treat yourself, how you talk to yourself, and how you love yourself over any other relationship. Your opinion of yourself, your validation, your acceptance, is the most important.

What do you want? What do you think?

When life gets you down, don’t fret; downhills are much easier than uphills when you’re in a wheelchair. The comforting thing about rock bottom is that it’s only up from there. After rock bottom, your sensitivity for joy and gratitude are heightened.

Most people are not awake to the small ordinary moments, they lack appreciation. They don’t look for the beauty amongst the pain.

Being human means suffering. Feeling alone, not having others validate our experiences, looking outside of ourselves for acceptance and love…everyone experiences that.

You’re still going to be educated.

You’re still going to be successful.

You’ll save lives and make a difference as a paramedic. Then your disability will change, and you’ll have to adapt the ways you impact others. Don’t underestimate the power you have in sharing your story. Your resilience will help and inspire people to keep going when they’re in the dark themselves. When you light your path, you light the way for others, too.

You’re going to fall in love. When you are least expecting it, you will fall in love with a lifeguard who you’ll grow and laugh with for eight years. Then you’ll grow apart and fall out of love. Your heart will break and heal many times. You’ll learn to fall in love with yourself, and your life. You’ll fall in love again, in many ways, like with your zebra friends, yoga, and parasurfing.

In the end, none of us get out of this alive, so celebrate each day you wake up. Rock your scars and wrinkles, you’re a survivor! When life gets tough, lean on people, we weren’t meant to suffer alone.

Keep your head up, and your heart open. Strive to be present, but not perfect.

We made it to 29,

Hailey Kinter

Interview with Artists Lee Baker and Catherine Borowski

Interview with Artists Lee Baker and Catherine Borowski

Interview with Artists Lee Baker and Catherine Borowski

Founders of Graphic Rewilding

By: iana velez

ART & MUSIC

Ashish Arora
Ashish Arora
Ashish Arora
Ashish Arora
Ashish Arora
Ashish Arora

Do you each have a personal movement or meditation or wellness practice? Does it influence your art?
Each of us has our own definition of wellness on a personal level. I practice reformer Pilates most days to move my body. I’m lucky enough to have an incredible teacher in the U.K., Ilana Rogol-Dixon, who ensures that every class feels like a journey of the body and the soul. I never know what to expect, except that she will take me through some cosmic experience and I’ll leave class feeling fabulous, transformed, and alive. Even if there is a lot of work to do, I know I have to exercise and breathe consciously. For me, happiness is a fusion of feelings: Pilates means moving my body, clearing my mind, and a good mood.

For Lee, the balance of mind and body is crucial to feeling in a good state. He sits all at the computer or canvas working, painting, and drawing, which in itself is a kind of meditation, especially when creating the sweeping calligraphic lines of the flowers.

We both love life drawing, there’s something extremely calming in sitting at an easel and creating on paper or canvas in silence. There’s no talking in the drawing studio because everyone is focused on the model, the lines, the perspective, and the negative space. It feels like a dynamic meditation. It’s one of the things we like to do and actually close to a meditation practice. It stimulates alpha waves in the brain and calms the brain. 

We spend a lot of time dreaming up ideas, actively manifesting opportunities, and making shizz happen. Even when the opportunities are sparse, we make them up ourselves. If we don’t have a commission, that doesn’t stop us; we’ll set up our own lighting installation by poking our projector out of our studio or apartment building and lighting up the building opposite with our flowers. That sort of thing keeps us excited and busy.

What is your art background/training? 
Both Lee and I went to art schools in the U.K. Lee specialised in painting and art history, and I specialised in sculpture and installation. Lee then spent the next few years in bands and as composer creating music for TV (all the time painting flowers in his studio). I became a producer/curator of public art and fashion shows.

We came back full circle to visual creativity after meeting on a flight to New York and bonding over our love of art, especially public art. From that point on we started working and creating together and soon started SKIP Gallery, a mobile exhibition space in a dumpster/trash can.

SKIP has become an ongoing series of collaborative, site-specific artworks housed in dumpsters in public sites, bringing unexpected eruptions of art into the everyday urban landscape. Since setting up SKIP, we have collaborated with some of the biggest names in contemporary art, including David Shrigley (Look At This, June 2017), Gavin Turk (Transubstantiation, November 2017), Richard Woods (Upgrade, June 2018), and Ben Eine, as well as ‘the world’s most artistic football club’ AS Velasca in Milan. We’ve curated over 24 shows in London, Milan, New York, Rotterdam, the Scottish Borders, and a Greek Island.

In 2021 as an artistic counterbalance to the severe lack of green space in cities, we co-founded Graphic Rewilding to create vast, flower inspired, attention grabbing, positivity inducing artworks and immersive environments in often-overlooked and under-appreciated urban spaces. Lee is responsible for creativity, and I am responsible for production and implementation. All of our works are hand-drawn by Lee, who is the color expert, whilst I bring my expertise in fabrication, making things happen, making sculptures, and working in public spaces.

Can you share more about the connection between mental health, nature, and art?
It’s been shown that a 20-minute walk in nature is enough to significantly improve your mood and reduce feelings of stress and anxiety. However, as nature becomes less available for many in urban environments, it’s also been shown that exposure to simple pictures of nature has a positive effect on the mind. For example, patients who have images of nature in hospital waiting rooms have lower levels of stress and anxiety. Though these images could never provide the same environmental and psychological benefits as real nature, we want to inspire people to connect and empathise a little more with the natural world, hopefully mitigating some of the negative effects of a lack of exposure to green space.

Can you share some artists who inspire you? 
We are both inspired by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. 

Catherine Borowski: 
Martin Creed
Elmgreen and Dragset

Lee Baker:
Ito Jakuchu
Lee Ufan
Van Gogh

What is your process for creating large installation art works?
We always start with a place, all our works are site-specific and rooted in the community and place where they’re going to exist. We spend time getting to know an area, its people, and of course its flora and fauna. We create drawings of the flowers and colours we feel represent the commission and build from there. Our works vary wildly, sometimes we’re creating animated digital arrangements that get projected onto tall skyscrapers, designing sculptures, or at other times we’re painting real grassroots murals in under-loved areas of the city. We spend a lot of time working with technical partners on production, print and fabrication, and of course all works need to be 100% on the health and safety front.

How did the collaboration with lululemon evolve for Shanghai’s World Mental Health Day?
We had one of those life-changing phone calls (that I didn’t answer at first), inviting us to collaborate with them on World Mental Health Day, and to be honest, the partnership was a match made in heaven. We have a complimentary ethos and love of moving the mind and body. 

We created the concept of The Wellbeing Garden and worked closely with lululemon to bring our ideas to life. Each of the flowers we selected – iris, sunflower, torch flower, and chrysanthemum – represents a different movement/activity. Yoga, running, training, and recovery, each becomes its own space, an individual garden of our imagination.

Yoga 
For this contemplative composition, we selected each flower to embody the essence of yoga — a practice rooted in harmony, growth, and the deep connection between mind, body, and spirit. The artwork serves as a botanical metaphor for the principles of yoga, weaving together the origins, the tranquility, and the transformative power of this ancient discipline.

Running
We chose these flowers to embody strength, speed and the pursuit of light. At the heart of this narrative are sunflowers and nasturtiums, plants celebrated not only for their rapid growth but also for their inherent quest towards the sun, mirroring the human race against time and our collective journey towards enlightenment and warmth. 

Training
For training, these plants weave a narrative of growth, resilience, unity, and transformation, paralleling the journey of individuals dedicated to training and exercising. They symbolize not just the physical aspects of this journey, but also the mental and emotional growth that accompanies a commitment to personal health and well-being.

Recovery
These flowers celebrate recovery as an essential, beautiful, and natural part of the physical activity cycle. They remind us that growth, healing, and strength are nurtured not just through activity but through rest and care for the body and mind. This image serves as a visual homage to the quiet yet powerful process of recovery, highlighting the botanical allies that support and enhance this journey.

The images not only represented the characteristics of different movements, but also combined the ecological landscape of Xuhui Riverside Park, where the exhibition took place. For example, the fireflies seen in the Recovery space can be seen in the Riverside Park in the evening.

Alongside the visual aspect, we composed a bespoke soundscape, so when you enter the space you can hear the chirping of hummingbirds from near to far, the slight vibration of insects flapping their wings, and the ‘singing of flowers, all created using special technology to extract data from flowers and converts it into MIDI signals.

This series of works was beyond incredible, visiting Shanghai, realizing larger-scale murals and art installations on and in multiple epic buildings. To create art installations in a city with a highly technical and visually literate population is not an easy task. The bar is set so high, but we enjoy that challenge, it’s what we’ve been dreaming of.

You’ve collaborated on projects that range from wrapping paper to large urban installations, from London to China. What is your dream project and dream location to create your next art piece?
We’ve got some many ideas, some are locations we’d love to work in and others are specific ideas. We’d love series of high-rise apartments featuring our single stems all in a row, plus there’s a really long industrial building/factory on the coastal road from the airport to Reykjavik in Iceland which we would love to get our hands on. Locations include:

The Highline: New York
Naoshima ‘art Island’: Japan
Turbine Hall at Tate Modern: London
Arken Museum: Denmark
The Kunstsilo: Norway 

Learn more: graphicrewilding.com

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT: NEW JERSEY

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT: NEW JERSEY

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT: NEW JERSEY

Photos and Article by: WANDA BOGACKA-PLUCINSKI

TRAVEL

New Jersey, nicknamed the Garden State, is surprisingly a very culturally diverse state and it’s home to iconic names like Frank Sinatra, Albert Einstein, and Thomas Edison. It is not only diverse culturally, it has undeniable differences in its landscape too. The northern New Jersey landscape is mountainous and rocky, while southern New Jersey has beautiful flat farmland. But what New Jersey is probably most known for is its famous beaches, which stretch for 130 miles along the Atlantic Ocean coast, from Sandy Hook to Cape May. It’s also the home of some of the best yoga teachers and studios in the nation, who like me, happen to call New Jersey home.

Paul and Shire Lopresti are the owners of Yoga Revive yoga studio as well as Revive Juice and Bowls vegan restaurant in Marlton, New Jersey. Paul is a truly rare teacher, and has been dedicated to health and fitness his whole life. As a young adult, due to some pretty serious health problems that left him in debilitating pain, he tried yoga as a means of healing himself. After taking just a few classes, he was hooked and knew that yoga had the power to be transformative. So, in 2014, he got his Bikram yoga certification, followed by Barkan Hot vinyasa in 2017, and most recently cYoga in 2020. As a teacher, he is extremely passionate about helping everyday people, as well as athletes, overcome their struggles through the act of movement and mindset. I’ve taken many of his classes, and although his style of teaching is tough, it’s also deeply caring and compassionate. He’s a teacher who is not only well-trained, rooted in years of knowledge and experience, but also comes from a genuine place of understanding.

Paul is married to Shire, whose curiosity and love for yoga is what lead her to practicing hot Bikram yoga and eventually even meeting Paul. She fell in love with yoga and Paul! She went on to get certified in various styles of yoga, as well as inferno hot Pilates, kettlebells, barre, and yin yoga. Shire’s goal is to not only focus on the physical aspects of yoga and wellness, but to also continue to build a genuine community of yogis at the studio. After all, what’s a yoga studio if not for its community? Because Shire has an incredible intuition and deep sense of caring for others, she’s able to bring support, harmony, and love to the yoga studio. Most students will say that the studio is their home away from home and their community because she is able to create that for everyone who comes there. Shire is a certified cYoga teacher, as well as a meditation and breathwork instructor. She is also a dedicated student, expanding her knowledge under Jimmy Barkan.

Our third featured yogi is also a lawyer. Meet Jennifer Mohamed, affectionately known as Jen the Yoga Lawyer. Yes, you read that right! Jen has been practicing law since 1998, and teaching yoga since 2011. Her journey into yoga began in college and law school to help her manage stress and build strength, but Jen also credits yoga for helping her heal, discover her voice, and embrace her life’s purpose. She holds a 500 hour certification in Hatha Yoga, certificates in Vinyasa Flow, meditation, and lifestyle coaching, and extensive training in Eastern philosophy, shamanic healing, and Pilates. Jen offers an online wellness membership community and teaches in person at HealthQuest in Flemington and Dig Yoga in Frenchtown. What is so refreshing about Jen is her authenticity and fearlessness in being herself. She is passionate about helping others harness the power of yoga, especially women in the demanding field of law, to effect positive change and transformation. Her mission to empower others to be their best self through yoga is inspiring and frankly contagious.

As part of the Celebrating Age issue, I asked these inspiring yogis to share here the advice they would give to their younger selves.

“You know who you are more than anyone else ever will. Trust your instinct and be that person, and everything else will fall into place.”

Jennifer Mohamed

@jentheyogalawyer

“As an aging yogi, I would tell my younger self that yoga can be the best gift and tool in life. It’s been a journey of self-discovery: physically, it’s a way to unwind, to relieve tired muscles and calm the mind, but also a way to connect with myself, heal, a way “through” difficult times of daily life, and a path with which to walk on to the next life with grace.”
Paul Lopresti

@thebudoyogi

“Yoga has been a unique gift throughout my life; from a newbie, to a teacher, to opening a studio, then to opening a vegan restaurant, each stage holds a special place in my journey. Looking back, I would tell myself to trust where you are in this very moment, and always be yourself!”
Shire Lopresti

@shiremaclo

LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF: JIVANA HEYMAN

LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF: JIVANA HEYMAN

Letter to my younger self: Jivana Heyman

photo: SaritRodgers

PROFILES

BEN CLARK INTERVIEW

If you could write a letter to your younger self what would it say? We asked some amazing people in our community to write letters, and were blown away by the love, compassion and humor they shared. Jivana Heyman shares his letter here.

Dear Jivana,

Sending you love and support for your journey ahead. I know there will be challenging times, but you’ll find your way through. You have more strength than you realize. In fact, your biggest weakness is your self-doubt. The sooner you let it go, the more you’ll enjoy life, and the more service you’ll be able to offer the world. Embrace your queerness as quickly as you can, and as fully as possible. Being queer is a gift, not a curse.

Your youthful idealism is a strength, not a weakness. Keep on imagining a world full of peace and justice, even if they constantly tell you that you’re naive. In the end, the love and care you have for other people and for nature is all that really matters. Love your friends, family, and pets even more, but don’t become too attached at the same time. Nothing is permanent, and many of them will leave you, and many will die. 

Keep practicing yoga and meditation with your full heart, and start teaching as soon as you can. Don’t get stuck in imposter syndrome and wait so long to share the practice you love with your community. It’s a great way to deepen your practice and be of service simultaneously. (In fact, we’re going on 30 years of teaching in 2025!) Teaching yoga is the biggest gift you’ll receive. Appreciate it for what it is, and recognize the awesome power and responsibility that it brings. 

Remember that ethics are the heart of spirituality. They’ll protect you and keep you on the right track. In fact, the yamas, yoga’s ethical principles, are the protection that you need to navigate the challenges that life will continue to throw at you. They are like a shield to help keep you safe when things feel dangerous.

That reminds me–work on your boundaries! They are the key to everything. Love everyone, but don’t fall in love with everyone. Be open and welcoming, but don’t let people trample all over you. In fact, that’s my main message. Find a way to believe in yourself that is stable and grounded. I don’t mean that you should become egotistical; instead, feel your strength in your mind and body, and know that it’s a reflection of your spirit, which is shared with all beings. Allow your strength to be a vehicle for connection with others, rather than separation. 

In general, people are good, but that doesn’t mean you have to listen to them. Instead, listen to that small voice in your heart and don’t ever stop listening. Remember, meditation is the language of that voice, so the more you practice, the easier it will be to understand the messages that are coming from deep within you. Like sonar echoing in the deepest ocean, meditation will help you navigate the dark, treacherous waters of the world. 

You’ve got this!

Love,

Jivana

LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF: DIANNE BONDY

LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF: DIANNE BONDY

Letter to my younger self: Dianne Bondy

PROFILES

BEN CLARK INTERVIEW

If you could write a letter to your younger self what would it say? We asked these amazing people in our community to write letters, and were blown away by the love, compassion and humor they shared. Dianne Bondy shares her letter here.

Dearest Dianne,

It’s me, your older self. I LOVE YOU. I want to tell you something important. If everything seems overwhelming, I assure you that childhood is just a phase, a small part of your entire existence. I know it’s tough; you might feel small, awkward, and unseen. But your uniqueness is what makes you special. School is temporary, and it’s okay to feel this way. It’s just a tiny part of your journey.

I know no one looks like you at school or in your friend circle, and it makes you feel ugly. But you are not ugly; you are beautiful. Societal beauty standards are ugly. Authenticity is what makes people beautiful.

People will make fun of and underestimate you based on their insecurity. Kids are cruel. I know school is hard. You will learn later in life your grades don’t reflect your intelligence. You are not stupid. You learn differently. You have a learning limitation that is not yet diagnosed or known. You will overcome it. You will learn to manage it. You will teach yourself. The teacher in 12th grade who told you that you were illiterate will eat those words when you write two best-selling books. Yes, you will become a writer and published author. Yes, you, the one with the bad grades. School is a limiting force for you. You need to get through it.

Ignore the bullies. With all its challenges, high school is just a temporary phase in your life. It is meant to teach you important lessons. One of the most important is to choose your friends carefully, observe how people treat you, and keep your friend circle small and close. Not everyone is for you, and that’s okay as long as you know who you are and what you believe.

Stay true to you. I want you to celebrate your fierce independence, outspoken will, and dedication to justice. These qualities will serve you well in the future. Your independence will help you make bold decisions, being outspoken will give you a voice in important matters, and your dedication to justice will guide you in making fair choices. It feels inconvenient for people around you who want to keep you small. It is because of their insecurity and small ideas of how young women and girls should behave.

One of your most significant challenges will be believing in yourself. Your father will both feed and thrive on your insecurities, not out of malice, but from his unhealed wounds. Your strength threatens him, yet you will be the one to break this cycle of generational pain. You will be the one to chart a new path forward. Stay strong and trust your instincts — you’re exactly where you need to be. Trust the little voice in your head. It’s your higher self moving forward. Ignore the voices that drag you down.

You are brave, strong, and beautiful. You don’t look like everyone else, which makes your beauty unique. Stay true to your dreams, and don’t let anyone shake your confidence. You are brilliant, and one day, the world will know this. You will survive this and flourish.

Believe in the future that awaits you, Dianne. You will be a changemaker, an innovator, a disruptor, a culture shifter. You will build a beautiful family and lead a good life. All this is possible if you trust the process. The challenges you face now will only make you stronger. Your unique qualities and experiences will make you a successful and compassionate individual.

Trust in yourself and the journey you’re on.
Dianne