#ONTHEMOVE
Brooklyn. San Miguel de Allende. Sydney. Los Angeles.
One afternoon in her Brooklyn loft, Van picked up a large roll of butcher’s paper and several widths of black tape. With eight friends coming for dinner, she was in the mood to create a black tape design on the paper. That night, no one gave a damn about the food. They all walked away from the dinner filled with the memory of a black line madness.
Van was hooked. She gave it a name and Black Line Crazy was born.
Soon after, she took out that roll of black tape again and designed the first layouts for a messenger bag. After all, she'd always been mesmerized by those lanky New York City courier dudes on bikes weaving in and out of Sixth Avenue traffic with a vinyl messenger strapped across their back. She still has those layouts.
In 2012, she flew off to the middle off Mexico.
on a quick visit to friends living in a 15th-century Mexican mountain town.
Imagine landing in a different culture: new customs, language and a high altitude (6,234 ft/1900m). For the first time in her life, Van picked up a brush and can of black house paint and started to paint floor to ceiling.
Life started to feel big.
Painting her way back and forth between Mexico, USA and Australia, Van was taking care of serious business, too — a successful exhibition in Saint Cloche Gallery in Sydney. Leading a two-day workshop, Branding with Heart at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. Guest lecturing at The University of Sydney Business School master's program. Guest lecturing at UCLA in Los Angeles. Running her NY Brand Lab workshops for Time Warner Cable in Los Angeles, Viacom in New York and ComCast Cable in Philadelphia.
Life was full.