By Katie Pfotzer | Echo
There are some who love to make things and there are others for whom a dedication to create emotional narratives becomes an obsession.
Sean Sele ('18) falls into this latter category of artists.
Sele has donned the title artistic entrepreneur. What this looks like is a life absorbed by projects. Currently, he is working simultaneously as an actor in Portland, Oregon's professional theater scene, creating various jazz projects and pouring almost every spare moment into "Liminal Souls," his pet project.
"I have been learning lately that if you want to do something, you should just do it one hundred percent," Sele said. "I was going to say especially in art, but I think that is true in all areas of life."
He started working on this project with his former Taylor roommate, Andrew Davis ('18).
"Liminal Souls" is a music-centric, multimedia storytelling event.
"It uses a combination of melancholy R&B tracks and ambient interludes that demonstrate how the thoughts of our waking self and our dreaming self inevitably fall into each other's arms," Sele said.
One of Sele's goals for this project was to promote collaboration among current and former Taylor students in the arts.
This collaboration, for Sele, looks like inviting another voice into the discussion rather than issuing a directive.
Senior Suzie Quinn said she was allowed to channel her own experiences into a dance she choreographed for a portion of the project.
"I think the project is evidence of the collaborative sensibilities that Sean has as an artist," Tracy Manning, assistant professor of theater arts, said. "He is bringing together the elements of things that he loves into an articulation of thought and expression."
Sele explained that upon hearing music, he often sees colors or dance.
He expressed that the project came naturally to him, saying that he could not fully convey the message of the music without visuals.
"Every art form has its own strength in articulating truth," Sele said. "So the more mediums you can unite together into one project seamlessly, like one stream-of-consciousness experience, the more truthfully you can represent the world that you are trying to create."
"Liminal Souls" is available for preorder now on the musician's website. It is currently scheduled to come out in January 2020.
Throughout the project, Sele enjoyed the privilege of seeing community flourish outside of the university itself.
"It has really meant a lot for me to have people who grew with me so pivotally at Taylor take on this project along with me" Sele said. "And it is also important because they have been students at Taylor and understand the importance of the unity of faith and humanities."
