A Guide for Quitting Your Job and Crossing Europe

Copenhagen, Paris, and Sweet Sweet Sarajevo

- By Shaquille Heath

Many moons ago, probably illuminated by the light of a starry night, and a few glasses of wine, I came to the realization that my life needed more. This story begins at the start of the pandemic. I know, eye roll, but at this point, doesn’t every story start there? The world we knew melted into a Dali-like nightmarish dream state. It felt as if we were all players on a board and someone picked up our thimble or little red car and firmly put us back on square one. I’ve been interviewing artists for Juxtapoz for around three years now, since the heart of the pandemic, and not one conversation I’ve had hasn’t mentioned the time-warping influence of that moment. The abrupt transformations in their practices. The losses that overwhelmed them and made it onto their canvases. The freedom of hours and hours upon end to let their minds go, wander into uncharted territory, and come back with a new story to tell. So in my own life, the reckoning that came upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary, was, well, there’s got to be more to my current existence. And thus, I was destined to go out and find it.

Luckily, I had a companion in this realization, my partner Jonathan. For the next three years, we would focus on saving our coins, and in our spare time, planning what we imagined would be a fix to our current exasperation: a four-month trip to Europe to drink wine, sip it slowly, watch the clouds go by, and see lots and lots of art. Art has always been at the core of what brings us both happiness, inspiration, and a connection to the world. It felt as if life had pulled us away from that.