Beyond the usual, February also brought the return of the Twist and Shout Balloon Convention. This is one of my favorite opportunities to learn as a balloon artist, and it draws some of the best from around the world. If you’ve been following me for a while, you may remember my shark costume winning top prize last year and my stage act being among the winners as well. This year the conference rotated to my home state, so I decided to build something enormous as my competition entry in the large artistic competition. When they said the size was “unlimited,” I don’t think they were prepared for me. Using the Sistine Chapel as inspiration, I built a small cathedral you could actually walk inside, and I built “The Creation of Adam” painting by Michelangelo out of balloons on the ceiling. It’s not often I’m able to create a balloon sculpture that feels like an act of worship, but the “Twistine Chapel” felt like more than a silly bit of fun to me. Since I know you’ll be curious, it came in second place, but I’m more excited that it started good conversations about God.