600 BOTTLE STEEMIT SALUT! Getting going on Steemit with Joy and an Introduction...

Hellooooo Steemit! Allow me to introduce myself. I am an artist and inventor living in Ubud, Bali Indonesia.

As you can see by the giant Steemit sign that I built over the last month from bamboo and 600 bottles, I am super excited to get going on Steemit. We got the sign up last night precisely for this post and to express my joy to enter the Steemit Creative Commons. The bottles are all recycled, and strategically filled with food coloring and water. The bottles work like pixels in a bamboo grid so you can interchange them and make messages.

I'll post a full story on the construction shortly... but first... my introduction.

My journey

Currently I live in Bali, Indonesia, but how I got here working with bottles, bamboo and plastic involves some key life learnings. I have made my home in several countries. Each of which has shattered my preconceptions and taken my life and art to new levels. From my love of the Wild, escaping from Capitalist Career, loving Challenges, ditching the System, to taking up the path of the artist, and incorporating the indenous, and mandalic principles in my work, it has been an epic journey.

I grew up in the Yukon-- the wilds of the Canadian North-- playing in the forests behind my house, in the mountain air, under the aurora borealis . There amongst the trees and animals (Cougars and bears would often visit) I would explore the wilderness.

The Northern Lights would always light up the winter sky - Photo Yukon Travel

Eating berries, building forts and rafts I developed a deep love for the Wild and the Earth that has been with me ever since.

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Bye Bye Capitalist Career

I studied Business Administration with the hope to become immensely rich and "save the world". After two terms I dropped out, disillusioned with the emptiness of capital and the greed behind it. My questions weren't being answered in my accounting classes, so I switched to take Philosophy-- which let me keep studying and asking questions. I have been following my heart and asking questions ever since.

Choosing the Challenges

I took a term off to follow my dream of working on a farm in Iceland. I had to learn the language and integrate with Icelandic farmers around me. I loved the challenge of it-- fitting in to a fascinating new place and thriving against the odds. I now speak seven or eight dialects and languages and I have loved living in challenging places and integrating in cultures ever since.

Palestinian Crash Through

I went to work in refugees camps in Palestine with a large NGO. I was based in the West Bank and Gaza setting up computer labs when the second Intifada broke out I found myself in a war zone.

Photo of Gaza City by ForeignPolicy.com

I watched tragic events happening to my Palestinian neighbours, after which I would see the twisted version of it being pumped through the the corporate media system. My faith in the media was shattered as the realization of a rigged system crashed through. I completely lost my faith in this system and have not worked within it since.

Tecnologías sociales poderosos

Later, escaping war, I went to live in Costa Rica, where there are no armies or guns. There, I began a web design company in Costa Rica and was wowed with the potential of social media to unite and effect change. I have been loving working with the web and social technologies ever since.

The Path of an Artist

I realized that deep down I was an Artist and left my Costa Rican company behind to pursue pure artistic creativity. For four years I worked and painted in Northern Canada. I have been living a life of full creative flow ever since.

I became enchanted by the ancient Art of the Mandala and I let go of my life and home in Northern Canada to study and make mandalas.

A giant mandala of mandalas that I made with 300 students in Smithers, B.C., Muheim Elementary School

To reach my goal of Berlin (without any funds!) I left my Canadian town by bicycle and made the trip across North American and Europe by bicycle. I stopped to visit labyrinths, Stonehenge, crop circles, Rosace cathedrals, and other ancient mandalas along the way. Deeply inspired, I have been making collaborative art along the principles of the mandala ever since.

I settled in Paris, but then, a short vacation to the Philippines went horribly wrong and I became stranded in a remote indigenous village in the mountains for four years.

Indigenous Wisdom

There, taken in by the Igorot tribe, who had lived for centuries in harmony with their ecosystem, I was able to see the insanity of the many western and capitalist values still ingrained in me.

Photo of me with my Igorot neighbours in Sagada, Mountain Province.

These values now guide my creativity and I have been an advocate and Igorot evangelist ever since. Plastic was a big problem for the Igorots. Pollution of the Earth weighs heavy on my heart.

And now Indonesia...

Since then, I choose to live in Bali Indonesia, precisely because it is heavily polluted with plastic. I am one of the principals behind the Ecobrick movement-- an open source, low tech solution that we use to transform plastic and bottles into building blocks. I have been developing and sharing Ecobricks and other regenerative technologies ever since.

Family of recyclers photo taken by Alex Sattler on our visit to Bali's Suwung Dump Site

I am now committed to seeing an end to plastic pollution by applying my creativity, the principles of the mandala, and the Circle ways of the Igorots to a deep solutions.

image credit @samstonehill

Why am I excited about Steemit?

Most of all I am just excited to move away from "those other social media places" and join the Steemit community (a quotation by @samstonehill who has helped me get going here).
Thanks Sam all the help and guidance to get going.

I am excited to join the movement because it resonates deeply with the values that I have picked up along my journey. To quote @Kevinwong: "(Steemit) is nothing new, really, because our ancestors have been building the Commons even way before the Industrial Revolution. But the magic this time around is the convergence of finance, technology, and community. We are now creating new breeds of platforms that can ultimately be characterised as the Collaborative Commons - complementary, globally-scaled, borderless, voluntarily shared, and open for participation."

My participation begins now!

Steemit sign and group shot by @wolfe

I'll will do a full post on the SteemIt Solar Bottle Pixel sign shortly. Last night, after a Steemit workshop here in Ubud, we all went out and took selfies with the sign! A great experience.

So, I look forward to sharing with you my many stories, insights and ongoing creations.

Looking forward to connecting with you all.

Group shot by @wolfe and Onet

The Steemit sign photo at the top of this article was taken yesterday by @ell1e LoveStories Shop, Jalan Gautama, Ubud, Bali