After graduating from AI in the spring of 2007, part of me thought my life was over. So much happened while I was in school, how could I top it? Not only the wild parties in Chicago but also traveling and making documentaries in places such as Mexico, New York City, and cross-country to the Burning Man Arts Festival. It had been a strange and wild four years. I was afraid of the whirlpool of the button-down job: Making corporate approved art in a cubicle, but that’s not what happened. Right now, I’m free-lancing, a nice way of saying that I don’t have a job. Although, I choose my own hours, giving me time for my own creativity such as movie screenings, art shows, and concerts.

Upon leaving, I was cut off from Daddy’s cash. It was sink or swim. I had to visit the Plasma Donation clinic a few times to make ends meet. (CTA Kimball Brown Line Stop- Tell’em Wes sent ya!) I then got a job photographing for Budlight on their promo party tour. I found myself being catapulted to many different parts of the country as part of the jet-setting class. I found little artistic fulfillment taking pictures of drunk people, Buds in hand. Finally, I raised enough money to do what I really wanted to do: Live out of my car! I saved my checks, packed my possessions in my station wagon, couch-surfed for a while, and finally set off on what every young video major dreams of doing: Driving to L.A.

Los Angeles was everything they say it is: Pretty in a plastic way. No one had much interest in my documentaries. L.A. didn’t seem to care about art much at all. After drinking on the edge of the Grand Canyon, getting kicked out of a Casino in Vegas for acting obscene, and sleeping on beaches I felt it was time to head home to Chicago. I missed the scene; it is one with less condescension. I think Chicago is soon to be a cultural center of the country. After all, no one expected San Francisco in the sixties or Seattle in the nineties. We have the talent and the originality here to outshine both L.A. and New York. We just need the will to do so.

Enjoy being in college. Be free while you can. Don’t compromise your true vision. Keep time for personal art and the artistic community around you. Art is not a job, but a way of life. Don’t forget what first made you want to become an artist when you were young. Remember that moment of beauty and wonder. Your twenties are a horrible thing to waste, but of course wasting them just might be the greatest part of your life!

Check out Chicago artists and participate yourself at: www.OMcollective.com or www.middlemindproject.com

Wes Heine’s book: “Swallow the Sky” at: Infinigon3@hotmail.com

Look for screenings of the documentary “The Life I forgot to Live”at www.LifeIForgotToLive.com