We were lucky to catch up with Bianca Pettis recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Bianca thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I’m working on right now is something that didn’t exist in my life until recently – the creative world I’m building called Bee Wilde Studio!

For most of my life, my creative work lived in separate places. I trained as an actor and performed on stage and in commercials, and later toured as an experimental sound artist in the duo Beatrix*Jar, which I founded with my husband Jacob. We spent years touring and working in museums: ICA Boston, the Andy Warhol Museum, the Walker Art Center. That all feels like another life now, but moving through so many art spaces, shifted something in me. It ultimately led me to study visual art more deeply and pursue an MFA in Art at the University of Minnesota and back to school to study music — first through the MFA Music program at CalArts and later at Berklee College of Music.

Each discipline shaped me, but for a long time they existed as separate chapters. So, what is most meaningful about my current work is that it finally allows those parts of me to live in the same world.

As Bee Wilde, I’m using generative tools to combine visual art, sound design, storytelling, performance, and moving image work. This has taken shape through several interconnected projects: The Bee Wilde Sessions (a comic and sound-based series inspired by Peel Sessions), Echo City TV (an experimental video project exploring music and grief), and Future Couple Records, a label that releases the music created within these worlds.

The work has become a space where all of those practices can meet. It still feels new, but I’m beginning to see the thread that has been connecting my creative life all along.

In many ways, what I’m building now is about weaving together a lifetime of influences, disciplines, and experiences – including love, grief, loss, and resilience – into a creative universe that feels honest to who I am today.

For the first time, I feel less like I’m jumping between mediums and more like I’m directing a world.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m an interdisciplinary artist, sound designer, and creative producer working at the intersection of visual art, music, storytelling, and digital media.

My creative path hasn’t followed a straight line. I began in theater as a teenage actor and performer, earned a BA in Theater, later earned an MFA in Visual Art, and eventually returned to school to study music through mix engineering and music production. Over the years I’ve worked across many formats: performance, installations, experimental music, visual storytelling, and multimedia projects.

Today my work lives under the umbrella of Bee Wilde Studio, where I create projects that blend art, sound, narrative, and technology. Some of my current projects include:

Echo City TV
A video series featuring late-night style transmissions that air at 3:33am – from a fictional place called Echo City, exploring themes of grief, music, and emotional resonance.

The Bee Wilde Sessions
An ongoing series of comic and audio releases, including recent music I’ve released as part of the project, exploring grief, transformation, caregiving, and ambiguous loss.

Future Couple Records
An independent label supporting experimental generative music projects, including Bee Wilde Sessions releases, as well as artist Jar Drugs.

Alongside my own creative work, I also collaborate with artists and small organizations as a multimedia freelancer. My background across disciplines allows me to help people bring their ideas to life through:

• audio production and mix engineering
• video editing and digital media creation
• website design and creative storytelling support

Because I’ve spent years working across art, sound, performance, and technology, I often act as a kind of creative translator — helping people shape their ideas into something tangible and shareable.

What I’m most proud of is the ability to keep evolving creatively while navigating difficult life experiences, including my partner’s long health journey. That experience reshaped how I think about creativity less as a career ladder and more as a lifelong practice of curiosity, resilience, and care.

What sets my work apart is that it’s rooted in storytelling and emotional honesty. Whether I’m producing sound, building a digital project, or collaborating with another artist, I’m interested in work that creates connection work that allows people to feel something real.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I believe one of the most rewarding aspects of being an artist is living a reflective life. People often assume artists “just make things” but the artistic practice is also about paying attention – listening closely to the world and your own life and also tuning into the materials you work with.

Whether an artist works in theater or with paint, sound, images or dance – each art form has it’s own qualities and possibilities. Overtime artists lean into their materials, almost like a collaborators, allowing the process itself shape how an idea takes form.

I tend to be an introspective creator. I like to pause, observe, and translate moments from my life into creative work. Art gives me a way to process the complexity of being human – all the joy, grief, confusion, curiosity, and all the emotions in between.
And of course, creative work becomes a document of time.

I love the ongoing cycle of reflection and creation, it allows creativity to become not just a profession, but a way of moving through the world with curiosity and awareness.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

A couple of books that have influenced my thinking about creativity and personal growth are:

“Your Art Will Save Your Life” by Beth Pickens and “The Mountain Is You” by Brianna Weist

I had the opportunity to study with Beth Pickens during a semester online at CalArts (during the pandemic). Her perspective on the creative life had a lasting impact on me. Her work focuses on helping artists build sustainable creative practices while navigating the emotional and practical realities of being an artist.

What resonated with me most was the idea that making art isn’t just about productivity — it’s about building a life that supports your creative voice.

The Mountain Is You has been meaningful in a different way. The book explores how self-sabotage often comes from parts of ourselves that are trying to protect us. I love climbing a mountain – so the very metaphor of the book has helped me think more compassionately about growth and change, especially during difficult transitions in life and work.

I find that resources like these are helpful because they acknowledge something many creatives experience: the inner work is just as important as the external work. Developing resilience, self-awareness, and compassion for the creative process can be just as valuable as learning technical skills.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.beewilde.rocks
• Instagram: @beatrixjar and @beewilde.rocks
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@beewilde_sessions
• Other: Spotify
  https://open.spotify.com/artist/70O5vHGyBSCbHzusrLdcSh?si=oakF3SZ2THigTp51zfQy1A

Image Credits

Image credits: Bee Wilde