Once Upon a Time there was an Artist Named Garry Sanipass…

I’m moving back to my home in the forest. Still working on my studio—and on this whole idea that being an artist doesn’t have to mean being a starving one. Today I’m hoping to install a window. Maybe even build a wall. We’ll see.

Here’s what’s on my mind:

There’s a housing crisis. The economy feels like it’s collapsing. And honestly, I think it’s because the idea of an endlessly growing consumer economy is a fantasy. You can’t exploit resources and people infinitely.

Even the way we build houses is consumer-driven. We clear-cut forests to pump out 2x4s so we can build faster. Everything is about speed. There’s no long-term planning—not for the next generation, and barely for the next quarter.

We take out loans to build these homes yesterday. Our futures are tied up in mortgages. It’s all become an empty ritual: a worship of money and a dream of luxury or convenience. But those loans shackle us to jobs that demand long hours and decades of work—until we finally retire, only to die a few years later.

There has to be a better way. Consumer capitalism cannot be the natural inevitable evolution to humans. We simply took a wrong turn.