BONUS MATERIAL
What I think about when I am NOT thinking about bees
BONUS MATERIAL
There is a fair amount I think about which does not involve bees. In my writing and in my life, bees give me a lens through to look through and learn through. Fascinating insights into big themes. AND also, there are many other teachers and pursuits in my life. Other insights to be gleaned, shared, and observed. BONUS!
Variety is the spice of life. Diversity keeps things interesting. I want to tell you all the things I discover as I obsess over bees. I also want to tell you about the other projects, materials, and worlds I’m exploring. And to offer up things that I find beautiful, funny, interesting, curious, important, or perplexing.
LIKE WHAT
Once I produced an elaborate collective collage that became twelve feet long, created across eight different households. Coming together in 48 hours during the crazy early period of COVID lockdown as part of a creative collaboration event on the theme of “Distance” by families, friends, and creative teams around the world—Australia, Brazil, California, Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, and beyond! I love a deadline AND a global feat.
I was inspired by the idea of interoffice mailers at the time. I was also playing around with the idea of organizing my collage material thematically as a way of giving newcomers starter packs. This all blended with the concept of Exquisite Corpse drawings where someone draws a little part of a monster, folds the paper, and the next person continues the drawing with only a couple guidelines in view. You unfold it at the end, and voila! A tremendously exquisite monster has been born. Below is the one that Wikipedia includes in their description. Supremely weird!
LONG story short, I devised a simple yet elaborate system of interoffice mailers and a timed schedule across twelve makers. Each person made a collage, sliced off the right two inches, dropped that slice into a big orange envelope and passed it on. The next maker incorporated the slice into the start of their collage, built something new, sliced off the right edge, and kept the process moving. The rest of the collage came back to me.
We all made original analog works on the theme of distance. We passed our envelopes with extreme care for lockdown rules. I assembled the full piece at the end and hosted an art opening in our alley on the door of our garage—everyone spaced 6 feet apart.
This was “Exquisite Distance”. We made a video! We won the competition! And the concept of Bonus Material was born.
In addition to the starter packs I sent to each maker, we also circulated a shared folder of material labelled “BONUS!”. People added their scraps and new material into that folder as we went.
This is the basic tradition I would like to establish here.
More stuff to work with. Sourced from wherever. For more fun.
OK, WHAT ELSE?
Other items in the recent and semi-recent creative archives include: collages I make, workshops I’ve hosted, handmade zines, game concepts, typed essays, and one review of my Tarot decks.
I also spend a ton of time making playlists for basically any gathering that I host. Intentional hosting is both part of my professional practice as a facilitator AND part of my social life as one node of a lovely, active, and supportive creative community.
I’d like to share music with you too. Because I was raised on radio and mix tapes, and still find a human playlist irresistible.
Maybe you will find yourself beside a pool debating the validity of Hawaiian pizza, driving through a mountain pass with a bunch of powerful women in New England, or navigating July through a musical reconciliation of your complicated feelings about America.
I’ve got playlists for all of that.
LET’S DO THIS
Man, I love the way you get on board so quickly. Thanks.
I thought about making BONUS MATERIAL a whole separate newsletter, but a) I don’t want to drum up a whole separate audience, and b) I believe the bees support nearly all pursuits of beauty and joy, and will not mind sharing space with other creative realms.
My hope is that you, dear reader, will find these bonus contributions delightful and thought provoking and fun.
From time to time, maybe this will even serve as a catalyst for you to make a thing, do a thing, or enjoy some new experience. A tiny slice of my life, lopped off and incorporated into yours.
EXQUISITE!
NB: You may see me pop paywalls onto some of this bonus content. The material will often be a little weirder, a little more fun, and definitely less essential to what I’ve got to say about bees.
So I may show some love to my paid subscribers along the way, and perhaps even entice some followers and free friends to jump in!
ALSO: Look for BONUS CHALLENGES at the bottom of these posts where I share ideas of how you might dive in deeper and explore.
FINALLY: I’ll preface these posts with “BONUS” so you know what’s what. The ALL CAPS is me shouting to get you hyped up!