I woke up with it.
Not an alarm, not Shadow licking my eyelids and tapping my face demanding breakfast—just a phrase, sitting there fully formed like it had been waiting politely for me to catch up.
Mel’s Messy Love Lab LIVE!
Here’s the thing. I’ve known for a while that I have a gallery space in Volcano. I reserved it for May months ago. A lovely little 140 square feet on the main drag of this tiny town, well-lit, good walls, a picnic table outside for hanging out. I said yes to it because it seemed cool and I could sell my mosaics there.
That was the whole plan.
Meanwhile I’m in rehearsals for the next show opening at Volcano Theatre. Meanwhile I’m writing to you every Wednesday and Saturday. Meanwhile I’m running short-term rentals in Fiddletown. Meanwhile I’m building something in Amador County that I don’t quite have words for yet—showing up at karaoke, getting to know people, giving hugs, being known.
Silos. All of it in separate containers, humming along separately, none of it touching.
And then I woke up and the containers dissolved.
Mel’s Messy Love Lab LIVE! isn’t a gallery. It’s the Love Lab made physical—the whole experiment of this life I’m logging, walked into. The mosaics are there, yes. But so are the Analog Letters, all 52 of them, printed and covering an entire 14-foot wall. So is a making station where you can create something with your hands and send it to someone you love. So is the woman who wrote all of it, sometimes just sitting there making something, if you want to pull up a chair.
My three YES words in action: Connection. Creativity. Play!
It’s not separate from the theatre or the writing or the community-building. It is all of those things, in one space, on Main Street in a town of 187 (or so) people.
It opens May 1st. Beltane. Of course it does.
Come in. Touch things. Make something. Stay a while.
Mel’s Messy Love Lab LIVE
Volcano West Gallery 16105 Main Street, Volcano, CA
Open Fri/Sat/Sun May 1-31 10am–3pm (closed May 22-24)
Opening Day: Beltane, May 1, 2026
Congratulations on the gallery! Bob Benker, my longtime friend, would be pleased! Do you know his sister Jackie?
AWESOME! I'm stoked for you. We are overflowing founts of inspiration! Do it, gurl.