ABOUT

Hello! I am your host, Laura Milkins. I am producer of The Depression Session.

Thank you so much for your interest.  I really just wanted to start this project to help people understand the difficult concept of depression.

The Depression Session

I’ve been depressed since my dad died in 2011, and a lot of people have approached me to say,  “Oh well, you know, maybe it’s just  grief.” But grief feels different than depression. I grieved very hard and felt deeply saddened, and it’s not that I don’t miss my dad  (and my step-dad who also died the same year), it’s a different feeling. When I was feeling grief, it was as if the color went out  of the world and everything looked gray. I didn’t want to go anywhere, or do anything, and I felt destroyed, which was really, REALLY oppressive.

With depression, I feel it’s almost like a hangover from that period; like a hangover from my dad’s dying. At a certain point, I tried different things, (while still going places, still actively doing things, still visiting and seeing people),  it’s just that every invitation felt like an ‘ugh’, instead of a  ‘weee!’ And it’s been that way for a couple of years…

About Me

I am a multimedia, interactive performance artist, living in Tucson and teaching Art and Visual Culture at Pima Community College since 2012. I received an MFA in painting from University of Arizona in 2008. In 2009, I was a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico City. For this public performance, “Walking Stories: Mexico”, I walked across Mexico City in the company of strangers, posting the stories they shared each night on a BLOG.

My recent work includes “The Kindness Project”, spending a year contemplating kindness, and “Walking Home: stories from the desert to the Great Lakes”, in which I walked 2,007 miles from Tucson to Michigan wearing a live webcam. In 2014, my friend Gina Cestaro and I founded Spiral Journey School of Movement, a school dedicated to teaching authentic movement in Tucson.

Since 1993, I have been organizing art shows, performances and festivals, and have received grants, awards and international recognition for my work. My performances focus on community and social interactions, and the role that technology plays in both.

Photo by Stu Jenks.

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