That was the first thought that popped into my head when we landed our first international house sit in Ireland. So we created The Globe Squatters, two artists on a little adventure, house sitting their way around the world. And since this year is the 10th anniversary of when The Globe Squatters was born, I thought what better way to celebrate it than to share the experience! Why? Because house sitting changed the way I traveled and I think it might change the way do too. If you ever wanted to know how to get started house sitting, and see it play out in real life, here it is!
“Wouldn’t it be cool to be the first people to house sit their way around the world?”
Bit of back story… We were both working behind the scenes in movies and television and one fateful day, we were joking around about a phrase commonly used at work, “living the dream.” Then Patrick (sidekick) said something that would change our lives forever- “Yeah, living the dream, but whose?”
Whaaaatttt…(insert needle on a record noise here).
It was then that we both realized that our dream of making art and traveling the world was taking a back seat. So, we downsized and began housesitting. And after we landed our first international house sit in 2013, The Globe Squatters was born.
We went to Ireland with the idea we would create our own reality web series about house sitting and started documenting everything. We edited all the footage together and started posting shorts. It somehow grew its’ own legs and turned into a 15 minute episode which would become the pilot we would send to a reality production company.
Thinking nothing would probably happen, we continued with our web series. But then the company did in fact sign us for a year and we had to remove everything we had posted!!! The year went by and they produced very little results, so we went our separate ways.
However, during that year, we continued house sitting around the world and documenting the experiences. By 2015 we had a bunch of footage and decided to shop around for another production company. But then life took a drastic turn…Patrick was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and within five months, he had died. I lost my husband, my best friend, my travel buddy, and, most importantly, my creative collaborator in life. So that was awful.
I began referring to him dying as “the big bang” because that is what it felt like. I was lost in the abyss. So I did the only thing my fiercely resilient person would allow me to do and started to build a new universe with the debris. I stormed the castles, slayed the dragons (real and imagined), and saved the only person I really could, myself. And I lived to tell the tale.
These days, in my new(er) universe, I am Jolene Dames: artist & alchemist. I aim to inspire, motivate, and encourage others through my art, writing, adventures and life experiences. Why? because I believe we all have the capacity to create beauty from chaos. My hope is that I would inspire others to do the same, no matter what their “big bang” looks like.
Life is short, but only if you are living it.
It can be very long if you don’t.
My recommendation? Live short.
– Jolene Dames