Dona E. Bowens

I didn’t start out life as a weirdo. In fact, I think I made it all the way through college before I began to let my freaky flag fly. No, not that freaky flag, the creative freaky flag.

Fun Fact! In Spain, they’ve adopted the word “freaky” into Spanish spelling it “friki.” So chicos and chicas will say, “I’m a friki,” and my general response was, “Uh, that’s too much information, but I thank you for sharing.” They use the word “friki” to mean nerd or geek and not the Rick James “Super Freak,” definition in English…

…but I digress. I need to surround myself with creative freaks and Barcelona had me spoiled. Every single expat was also a creative. Photographers, filmmakers, dancers, visual artists, designers, writers, sculptors, chefs, musicians, actors…I just started taking it for granted that conversations would go like,

“I got this idea to paint tiny portraits of Pete Townsend on 303 rocks before throwing them into the sea. Nothing is permanent.”

And then someone responds, “I like it. I could film it, if you like. We could film the whole process and submit to Cannes.”

And then I’d say, “I’m not a documentary script writer, but I’d proof whatever you come up with.”

And on from there it would go. I need the energy and affirmation of being surrounded by creatives, just bouncing bonkers ideas off of each other and pushing one another to be our creative best selves.

Have you ever been in a situation in which everyone was speaking a foreign language you don’t understand. In that situation, you suddenly hear your native tongue. Has that ever happened to you? Your native language cuts through the static of the foreign language and you pick up the signal loud and clear.

Something like that happens to me when I get around other creatives. It doesn’t matter in which field they create—music, dance, painting—we speak the same language. The language of the frikis, the creatives, the artist, and it’s like Zzzing! I’m so glad I found you in this room full of accountants. How the fuck did we get here?

I’ve been so long in rebuilding my “survival life”—meaning job, car, housing—that I’ve had little time to seek out those artists necessary for my creative health. Not so easy in Ohio. I know they’re out there, but it’s definitely not every person you meet like in the expat community of Barcelona. (sigh) I’ve been spoiled.