WHAT I LEARNED FROM BUILDING A PUTT-PUTT COURSE.

It was just another day, building a putt-putt course. The same old duck tape and cardboard dreams.

I pride myself in winding up in interesting circumstances; like tying dead crawfish to balloons, or chasing a FedEx truck all the way to the airport, or that time I was almost killed on a hay wagon and a metal hut….

Life, or perhaps that's too presumptuous to say...I love the unexpected circumstances that happen around me, and building a putt-putt course out of cardboard seemed like a perfect opportunity.

As part of an accidental happenstance from a friend who decided to hit golf balls inside between filming interviews, an idea sprouted in my mind, and that idea blossomed into full insanity. Build an indoor putt-putt course out of cardboard. I’m getting ready to leave the country…(it was only a matter of time before they found me…) for a trip to love and serve those in rough circumstances and our team was looking for a way to fundraise. Our putt-putt course was our ticket out of here! (Quite literally!)

One of the many rewards of hosting and building a putt-putt course came the surprising satisfaction of getting to participate with an audience. Very rarely do I get to interact with my audience. Most of the time my work is similar to Batman's; everyone thinks we’re living the high life of Bruce Wayne, while secretly we’re growling in gutturally voices, in dark spaces, hunched over technology, hoping to create something to end the injustice of bad stories.

Our process involves the collaboration and contribution of many people, but once delivered to an audience, it’s left as a one time reaction that you hinge all your high hopes on.

Putt-putt cardboard courses on the other hand, are like handing boys sticks, and watching them beat each other to a pulp in the name of being Jedi’s. Getting to watch young and old come and interact with the holes, to see what troubled them, hear what they loved, see their face light up, or watch their children cry in fear (Yes I made children cry…) was an incredibly insightful experience for me as a creative.

I might add that this entire event was built by our team of 6 people, plus a few who jumped into help!

This Harry Potter Hole was made by two talented people! 

I learned that night, that we can not only create art, but art that is shared with humans becomes experiences, and experiences become memories that we cherish for life. In retrospect, that night was nothing more than duck tape and cardboard, but to us, it was the sound of laughter, and the thrill of competition! I hope that from this point out, I’m more willing to make art that can be tossed into the hands of an audience, and they intern will make it something I could never do on my own. Unforgettable.