radical /răd′ĭ-kəl/
adjective
- Relating to or advocating fundamental or revolutionary changes in current practices, conditions, or institutions. “radical politics; a radical political theorist.”
- Arising from or going to a root or source; basic. “proposed a radical solution to the problem.”
- Departing markedly from the usual or customary; extreme or drastic. “a radical change in diet.”
Beginnings
I first began selling my artwork as a freelance web designer in 1995, exploring self photography as I ran one of the first webcams online. I was a social fixture of the hacking community in the mid 90’s, spending most of my adolescence on USEnet and IRC and directing operations of a retail computer store in Sacramento.
In 1998, I relocated to break software and run test labs in Seattle, transitioning client-based chat service networks to what would eventually become our centralized web-based social media, and later working a bit on burgeoning smartphones.
I was active in the first waves of the digital music era at the turn of the century, recording, mixing, and releasing independent electronic music online at Mp3.com under the moniker “Not Applicable”, contributing to news articles, collaborating with other artists, and developing an international cult fanbase of a select few gen-x geeks and weirdos.
Frustrated by the industries direction and my lack of influence upon it, by 2003 I had left tech. Circus was my gateway to reconciling communication with my alienated body, combining performance, emotional expression, mindfulness, exercise, and eventually teaching as well. I’ve performed internationally as a freelance aerialist, including Seattle venues ACT theater, The Pink Door, and Seattle Center.
By 2007 I was a resident aerialist and ensemble troupe member at a Seattle underground theater, working full time administrating a medical office, and putting myself through massage school at night. Beginning in 2009 I served four years as the board president, co-founder and creative director of Vita Arts, a 501(c)(3).
In my years in massage practice as Artful Touch I integrated the work of Karen Clay’s Somatic Unwinding and became certified to teach The Grief Recovery Method in 2014, the same year that radicalized me with the murder of Michael Brown.
By 2015, I was facing chronic housing insecurity and moved into a van, traveling the country while sustained by Patreon supporters. I returned to Seattle in the summers to work with DirtCorps restoring wetlands and installing green water infrastructure with Rainwise and working to support the White Center Food Bank with fresh food grown at Citysoil Farm urban farm.
In 2018, after multiple years on the road, I settled for a time in Tacoma, WA, re-establishing Artful Touch there and participating in activism with 350 Tacoma. In 2020, COVID-19 finished off that iteration of my practice, which has run its course. I’ve yet to decide what if anything I will do next.
“I would like to be remembered as somebody who made the path a little easier for somebody behind me” – Heather Flemming