KINECT || Tequila Herradura Barrel Art Austin - 3rd Place

The day after I signed on to be a participant in the competition, I left for a 10 day silent meditation retreat. There, I spent 100 hours in seated meditation: a process of purification. The Herradura ethos of “patience in the product” resonated deeply within me. Blue agave takes 7 years to mature before harvest. The carbon in the charred interiors of the barrel extracts impurities, and over time, a fine tequila is distilled. As the barrel opens, time itself is demonstrated, mimicking the blue agave plant or the lotus flower blossoming. Our linear understanding of time comes into question as the barrel rotation alternates between clockwise and counter-clockwise— pausing for a transcendent moment of stillness when it is fully open. Being present in this moment is the only time you see the central seeds of magic (agave) fully illuminated.