Leading with Curiosity
welcome to my paid newsletter
Next month will be my two year anniversary of Bells & Whistles. I have long tip toed around paid subscriptions, scared people won’t find my information worthy of their hard earned money, but I am throwing that out the window. For two years, I have provided articles week after week featuring ideas, inspiration, new thought processes, cultivated relationships, and hopefully motivated just some of you to make something with your hands. So today, I am very excited to share my monthly paid newsletter, Leading with Curiosity.
Through my years as an artist, I ground myself in my sense of curiosity. I do not tend to place myself into one box or one medium, I strive to venture into other realms. I love to learn and push myself to try new things, freeing myself from any expectation of perfection I have made up in my head, and Leading with Curiosity will be a space for just that. Each month, I will do a roundup of all my recent creative ventures, my inspiration behind them, my thought process during, all the how-to’s, my travels, my experimentations and whatever else comes up naturally. I also want to use this space as an opportunity to connect and speak with other artists in fields I am less familiar with- there are so many incredible creatives in my life and beyond that I would love to share with you all. I am sure as time goes on that Leading with Curiosity will evolve and shift naturally, but I am so excited for everything that lies ahead.
And as an added bonus, all paid subscribers will get a special handmade (digital) postcard from me at the end of each newsletter.
For my free subscribers, you will still be getting free posts throughout the month- do not worry!!!
Two years into Bells & Whistles, I am making the leap and taking a chance on myself- and I so appreciate any one of you who decide to come along with me.
Welcome to Leading with Curiosity 01
The ethos of Bells & Whistles has always been to make something with your hands. I had to start this off with a charming video by Judy Tuwaletstiwa, recounting the quote “our hands are the visible parts of our brains”. It’s simple, yet speaks perfectly to the artists experience. We long to use our hands, to sculpt, to carve, for language, for love, to write, to connect- it’s the center point to everything we create.
Growing up, my father was a custom woodworker. The smell of home was cedar and sawdust. I speak in the past tense with a heavy feeling of grief, as many of you may know I am now estranged from my father and have not seen or spoken to him in years. Though it’s a painfully complicated dynamic, my father still lives inside me in many ways.
In my teens and early adulthood, while still in communication with my father, he liked to joke that my hands were proof of my lack of labor. Perfectly manicured long nails, usually with some sort of crazy intricate nail art, hands soft and moisturized, not a crack or crevice in sight. I took his wise cracks lightly, but what comes with age can be wisdom.
