Creative Chemistry
As a musician and an artist, I am totally fueled by creative chemistry. It’s like a magical energy when artists sync up. I was reminded of how fulfilling that feeling was most recently on St. Patrick’s Day. My Kindergarten bff Sara invited me and my other childhood bff to her annual St. Paddy’s Day celebration at her boyfriend’s incredible modern-luxury-home-in-a-church. She had the most impressive food spread that I could barely pull away from the corned beef when it was time for me to get on my flute and join the band.
Irish, Polish and Italian representing our old neighborhood in Chicago. What could be more perfect??
Chicken Dolphin
Tim’s an awesome musician in a band called Chicken Dolphin. He sings, plays guitar, and has this futuristic electric woodwind instrument that he can make sound like a ton of different instruments. It’s wild. This marked the second year I brought my flute to the party. Let me just say I think it was a crowd pleaser.
It was such a good jam session they decided they were gonna keep me. So I think I joined a band again. LOL. I’ll update my site with performance info as it comes along.
Redrum
She gets her name from one of the best horror flicks of all time. Known as the Lon Chaney of Burlesque. fellow Halloween lover and multidisciplinary artist, Redrum and I have finally come together with the help of our very talented portrait photographer friend, Chris Nightengale.
Janelle, Redrum, Nightengale
It’s nuts. I’ve gone to Red’s performances for YEARS. We have many mutual friends. I think one of the first characters I saw her perform was a mummy. I remember sitting really close up to the stage and all I could smell was baby powder. When the special effects lighting hit her in such a way on stage, it created this dusty fresh-out-of-a-tomb effect. So freakin cool. I have always been so impressed by all the detail she puts into her costumes and performance. In other words, I’m a HUGE fan and we’ve lived in the same neighborhood forever and how have we not been picnicking in the cemetery all these years?!
Also, people don’t use the sense of smell enough to create a memorable experience. I’ve been saying this for years. Maybe that’s my marketing brain. My most memorable concert experiences immediately make me think of the smell of clove cigarettes, vanilla fog machine liquid, and pungent earthy mustiness. The sense of smell is so closely linked to memories.
So that was my thought working with Redrum. If she unintentionally imprinted this mummy performance memory on me and now I can’t smell baby powder without thinking of her act, think of what lasting impressions she could leave with fans with an intentional application?!
I FINALLY hosted our collab sesh where we of course feasted on charcuterie. We also smelled dozens of essences, spices and oils. We are creating a custom fragrance line inspired by the characters that Redrum performs. She’ll be able to use her line of products (handmade by me) as merch for her shows! Chris was so kind to document the experience.
Malliway Bros.
My seasonal smudge sticks are now available at a magical shop in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago across the street from Mission Control Arcade. Blake and Wycke Malliway are wonderful and their shop Malliway Bros. carries a lot of great supplies, books, candles, oddities and they host a lot of classes and events, too. If you’re local, check em out!
Custom projects
Recently I’ve gotten a few messages from website visitors about making custom items. Larger sized bottles of perfume, specific soap molds, even a request for an old scent I once made some years ago. Thankfully, I have all my recipes in one place and was easily able to figure out which one it was! The conversations have been great. I love stuff like that. Those are always the most meaningful projects to me. I might not be making a profit doing this apothecary business yet, but I’m enjoying the friendships along the way.