March 17th & 19th, 2026, 8pm est - 2 Session Online Workshop via Zoom

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:

What if you imagined the end of your story first?

In this two-session online workshop, artists and arts workers will write fantasy obituaries—then reverse-engineer them into clearer, more aligned professional materials. Using morbid humor, speculative thinking, and practical storytelling tools, participants will collapse past, present, and future into a single moment of clarity.

This workshop is designed for artists who are tired of being humble, stuck, or frozen by imposter syndrome—and who want their bios, statements, and project descriptions to actually reflect who they’re becoming, not just what they’ve already done.

You’ve already died fabulously. Now let’s work backwards.

MORE DETAILS: 

This workshop invites participants to momentarily step outside linear time—borrowing from quantum theory’s idea that all points in time exist simultaneously. By imagining the end of their story first (their fantasy obituary), artists access a kind of narrative superposition: long-hidden throughlines surface, imposter narratives loosen their grip, and aspirational vision becomes legible.

Across two live Zoom sessions, participants will:

• Draft a speculative obituary centered on their desired artistic legacy
• Identify values, patterns, and future milestones embedded in that text
• Translate those insights into stronger bios, statements, and project language
• This is not a traditional grant-writing class. It’s a brave space for imagination, humor, honesty, and re-alignment—designed for artists who hate writing about themselves but still want to be legible to the systems they move through.

Prep List — please arrive with:

• One or two obituaries that speak to you — however aspirational, poetic, or unhinged
• A current artist bio and/or statement (in whatever state of denial it’s currently in)
• Optional but encouraged: a first attempt at your own obituary or legacy statement — messy drafts welcome, whether trauma-informed or blissfully trauma-uninformed
• A notebook and pen (or digital equivalent) for jotting down thoughts you may not want to think alone
• Emotional support creatures encouraged (living, imagined, or inanimate — taxidermy counts)
• A safe word (you never know)

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR: 

Marsian De Lellis (they/them) is a Los Angeles–based transdisciplinary artist, writer, and teaching artist whose practice centers puppetry, dolls, and object-based performance. Their installations and performances use morbid humor and meticulous craft to create intimate narrative worlds focused on obsession, desire, and legacy.

De Lellis has presented installations and performances at the Pacific Design Center, Automata, REDCAT, LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, and the ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art (Ishøj, Denmark). Their projects have received support from the Jim Henson Foundation, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and Center Theatre Group. Their practice has also been developed through residencies at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts & Sciences and Ucross.

As an arts worker, De Lellis mentors artists in professional writing and helps them take control of their own narrative.