The past few months have been so tumultuous that every time I sat down to write, all that came out was rambling. As much as I wanted to stay on schedule with my monthly updates, it didn’t make sense to force it. Now that tensions have reduced a bit, I’m in a spot where I can string all the thoughts together to write a little summary.

JANUARY

Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota upended everyone’s lives and derailed most of my creativity as I tried to find my place within the chaos. While other artists started flooding social media with merchandise to help raise money for various organizations, I struggled with how to use projection to connect with people.

It was too cold for me to set up my projector outside, so I made a simple text animation and projected it out my bedroom window onto the neighboring building for about an hour or so on January 9th, two days after the murder of Renee Good.

Click on the video below to watch.

FEBRUARY

At the beginning of February, I attended the Portland Winter Light Festival. Deciding whether to go was tough, and I hemmed and hawed right up to the day I had to leave. There were two things weighing on my mind: the weather and guilt.

Not receiving the grant I had applied for to cover the travel expenses meant I would need to sleep in my van on the way out and back instead of staying in hotels. I actually really enjoy that, as long as the nighttime temperature is above 32°F. The forecast for the days I would be traveling showed the average night temps as being in the low 20’s.

As far as guilt, leaving during the occupation—especially after Alex Pretti's murder in late January—felt like abandoning my community. Having an easily recognizable vehicle prevented me from participating in crucial actions like rapid response or grocery delivery, but it still felt important to stay home and bear witness to what was happening.

To deal with the cold, I purchased a water bottle. I can boil water in the van and tucking a warm water bottle into my sleeping bag would radiate more heat than foot warmers, plus it’s reusable. I waded through the heavy emotions as best I could, reminding myself that I needed the mental break in order to keep my career afloat.

The water bottle worked well, but as I kept checking in on what was happening at home, reminding myself that I needed a break was only partially effective.

I enjoyed Portland immensely and the festival was incredible, though in a different way than other festivals I’ve attended. While most highlight top-tier artists, Portland featured a broad spectrum of style and skill level.

Aside from sculptures and projections, there were dance performances, a bike parade, and roaming characters. It was clear that the focus was bringing the community together around art, which is exactly what I needed to experience at a very difficult time.

At the end of February, I once again participated in Monticello Glow Fest. This year was a bit more challenging than last since there aren’t many surfaces in the park to project onto. I needed to create a surface.

I made a graphic of a heart overlapping the shape of Minnesota, cut it out of corrugated plastic, and mounted it on a wood base. I created 2 videos for a projection: an ongoing video loop highlighting the seasons and Minnesota-themed items, and a 2-minute show synced to music.

Facing a temperature of single digits and not wanting to put my equipment at risk, I set up everything inside the park’s warming house to project out onto the sculpture.

The organizer didn’t understand my proposal of projecting from inside the building, and I had no idea how the crowd was going to flow through the event. The result of our combined misunderstanding was the projection being blocked repeatedly.

It didn’t make sense to play the 2-minute show at the event since no one was watching, but I did record it at home.

Click on the video below to watch.

MARCH

Fresh off the rejections for both the Lakewood Cemetery artist-in-residence and Blink, at the beginning of March I applied for another grant and submitted work to Digital Graffiti, the festival in Alys Beach, Florida that I attended May.

The piece at the heart of both the grant proposal and the festival application is called Occupied. I’m still working on the official description; the following is what I wrote for the description on Vimeo.

“As federal agents descended on Minnesota for Operation Metro Surge in January 2026, people still needed to go to their jobs and advertisers continued to compete for our dollars—all while residents were fighting for their rights and the rights of their neighbors. This piece attempts to visualize the emotional toll of living under federal occupation and the feeling of living in two very different worlds simultaneously. It utilizes a minor portion of the license plate database kept to track federal agent vehicles.”

Click on the video below to watch.

I’m happy to announce that Occupied was accepted into Digital Graffiti!

I’ll be making some tweaks to it as the “division” part with two flames doesn’t feel quite right to me. I hadn’t been able to land on what I wanted before the deadline, so I submitted it as is. Now that it’s been accepted, I have until April 29th to send in the finalized piece. The festival is May 15–16.

This will be my first juried event and I’m both nervous and excited! There are monetary awards for Best in Show, Curator’s Choice, and Special Recognition. It’s such a cliche to say it’s an honor just to be included, but it really is. An award would be icing on the cake.

As always, thank you all so much for being here. Your time and energy is valuable, especially given the current state of things. That you spend some of it to read my updates means more than I can express.

Until the next newsletter, be well!
Giesla

My birthday is this Thursday, March 26th! If you are in a place to do so and would like to contribute to the cost of travel to Digital Graffiti as a birthday gift, click the donation button below.

If you feel more comfortable giving to me directly, my Venmo is @giesla and CashApp is $giesla.

Thanks so much for your consideration!