Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Licity Collins. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Licity, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I don’t know that any one project can ever be the “most” meaningful.” Each project shows up in my life in a way that shapes my life, my self, and my art profoundly. They are all deeply meaningful. I am an intense person—every moment, every conversation, every trip to the grocery store, is really meaningful to me.

A recent project that I am working on is my opera about grief. It has proven to be such a powerful artistic journey that I literally packed up my life and moved to another state in order to make it happen. Throughout the workshopping, composing and collaboration process I have learned so much about my own leadership skills and growth areas. I am embarking on several new levels of artistic expression and challenging myself in huge ways.

And then to explore how grief shows up in our lives, on our bodies, in our words, our thoughts, our memories– it has been a true honor to find ways to put this work on stage for people to see themselves. It’s so touching when someone says, ‘That’s exactly how I feel.” That is what art does best– gives us a space to feel seen, heard, and less alone.

I began working on the opera in 2021 after my dear friend died suddenly. It will be premiering in 2027. So it’s also been a really wonderful journey of spending a good amount of time with a project and letting it lead me, in each step, to what it needs next.

I am pleased to say that this opera was recently funded by and Oregon Community Foundation “Creative Heights” grant for $74,000, so it is also the largest and most extensive project that I will have embarked on.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a multidimensional, genre-busting artist with a passion for intimacy and possibility. I create music in the form of Rock-Folk, Classical & Opera, and Flow State music, as well as Conceptual Art, collaborating with artists from around the world in my SynchroLicity Collective. I am is currently serving as the inaugural Music Fellow at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. It is my mission to expose our shared emotional landscape and ignite the fearlessness within us all.

“Licity is fearless.” People keep saying this about me. What I know, is that I value honesty above all else and I have unquenchable curiosity.

Categories won’t work. I naturally combine disparate things. Cognitive dissonance is exciting to me. This results in creations that don’t fit into many predetermined categories. Someone finally told me to “stop genre busting” which made me laugh, but continue.

I put feelings first. For me, emotions are the primary source. Expressing the inexpressible. How those feelings find their way into the world as art is the adventure. It is critical for my artistic practice that I have a wide range of modes of expression. A feeling can become music, a song or album, a written composition, a video exploration, a spoken story, an assemblage, an interactive street performance, an entire event—anything.

Art is my instinct. I make no distinctions between my forms of art. I create what needs to be created. I use and combine whatever dimension, form, sound, instrument, voice, object, and expression feels right to bring the work to life. This freedom makes being an artist even more thrilling. My work is passionate about the truth. That may be the one thing that ties it all together. I have no mission except to respond to the art that lives in me, and that lives in the ether and calls to me. To make art. Make art.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think that too often creativity is seen as a luxury– like a glorified pastime, something artists choose to do. When real artists actually do not have a choice. We are born this way and we have to exist as an artist in order to feel normal. I wish the world remembered what a gift it is to have artists among us. Artists aren’t like other people, and that’s a good thing. We need to support that. It pains me to see artists have to be something other than they are in order to work jobs for money, jobs that drain artists of the energy we need to make quality art. It’s no accident that art suffers in a hyper-capitalist culture. We are seeing it in so many painful ways these days. All mediums of art are suffering because they are chasing dollars. If we could change this thing about our culture and economy and pay artists and validate art-making as a profession, we would be a healthier world. I don’t like the word “creator” because what we are most “creators” are generating is money-chasing content, not genuine creativity. True creativity is so unique. We are losing so much of our originality these days in “copy culture.” Originality is central to the societal health and growth of a culture. I believe that a lot of our recent decline is in part due to the loss of originality and the way we no longer value original thought and ideas and creations. We need to support, shelter, and sustain artists in order to revive the originality that helps us evolve and thrive.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I am a big fan of a little book called “The Collaborative Way.” (collaborativeway.com) It outlines 5 agreements that help organizations communicate more effectively, and in my mind, demonstrate genuine care for each other. It transports the conversations past basic logistics into a way of communicating that truly highlights our humanity. I also recently took part in a pilot for a artist peer-support protocol called Pollinator. (pollinator.coop) Both of these tools prioritize active listening. There is such a lack of listening in our world today- everything is people talking at each other. There’s so much emphasis on content output that no one is truly taking things IN anymore. As a musician, listening is a key part of what I do, and what I need from the world. These two tools truly help us to re-orient towards listening to each other in a way we all desperately need.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://licitycollins.com
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@licity

Image Credits

Jonathan Marrs
Syon Davis
Licity Collins