Gaea grew up in Powderhorn Neighborhood, Minneapolis and surprised no one (except herself) when she decided to pursue art full-time.  Before that decision, she worked on an ambulance, built houses as an AmeriCorps volunteer and spent three years living on a tropical island in the South Pacific as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  She produces and facilitates art in many forms from writing and photographing the world around her to stilt walking with Chicks on Sticks or teaching stilt walking with the Philips Project to facilitating the community around her create art through paper mache, theater, and love of beauty.