From the pages of Issue 4: Plans Change

Changing plans is likely part of any successful creative process, especially if you are doing a significant amount of creating. Many times our best work is quite derivative of our original intent, and most of the time far exceeds expectations (all of this provided you can roll with the punches and hang on through the tight corners). The lesson: Let go and hang on at the same time.

Inside Issue 4: Plans Change, you’ll see artifacts found, created, and sought out from Editor Jennifer Gurecki’s travels through Nepal––a journey she imagined would happen one way, but progressed quite differently. She found herself in places, mentally and physically, that she didn’t expect. She did, however, end up immersed in the essence of the place, sort of like Alice on the other side of the Looking Glass. In this issue of Sisu Magazine, we experience her trip via her documentation through the lens of a Lomo wide-format instant camera, interviews with unexpected acquaintances, found artwork, and unusual stories of the road. It’s clear that when Jen stopped expecting, she started finding.

Nepal is full of color and texture. The brightest and most familiar of sights are the strings of iconic prayer flags that bless the countryside. Imbued with layers of symbolism, the flags are decorated with imagery, mantras, and the repeat of five colors, representing the elements of the earth and sky. Though they often appear to be ancient, the commingling of brand new and threadbare prayer flags flown together actually represents the acknowledgment of a never-ending cycle—the permanence of change. As the new flags fly bright and bold, the older flags fade with their prayers and blessings blowing into the wind. This most beautiful icon of change is captured on this issue’s cover, joined with instant and analog photography, sometimes double or over-exposed, a snapshot of the perfection of flux.

Join us in celebrating this creative lesson, to embrace change as a given, and let it teach us to follow paths to places we never expected.