Meet Bianca Pettis

We recently connected with Bianca Pettis and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Bianca, so happy to have you with us today and there is so much we want to ask you about. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others developed certain skills or qualities that we are struggling with can be helpful. Along those lines, we’d love to hear from you about how you developed your ability to take risk?

Meet Bianca — artist, mix engineer, performer, and one-half of the experimental sound duo Beatrix*Jar.
From touring art museums to navigating a life-changing health crisis with her partner, Bianca’s story is full of unexpected turns, raw resilience, and the kind of courage that isn’t loud — it’s steady. We’re honored to share a glimpse of her journey below.

—————-
My mother is a cowgirl.

Not in the “country aesthetic” sense — in the real sense.

We moved cross-country more times than I can count: Houston to Charlotte, Denver to Charlotte, L.A. to Charlotte. I have memories of sitting in the front seat, reading paper maps while she drove through it all. That rhythm — of movement, of trusting the road without knowing the ending — has always been with me. I learned to trust my sense of direction.

As a teenager, I discovered acting. I trained at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and later explored puppetry, set design, and began writing plays and developing solo performances at Antioch College. After school, I moved to Minneapolis and worked professionally as an actor in theater and film — and as a temporary employee by day.

Years later, I met Jacob, my partner and future husband, in a video editing lab at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Jacob studied Sound Art at the college and performed as a solo musician under the name JAR.

Eventually, we formed Beatrix*Jar — a touring experimental sound duo. We performed at museums, colleges, and community centers across the country, sharing hands-on circuit-bending workshops and sound collage. We received numerous fellowships, including the Bush Fellowship. Our collaboration truly fed me. Despite our issues, I loved working with Jacob.

In 2014, everything changed. Jacob started having blackouts. He was diagnosed with hydrocephalus caused by a tumor pressing on his hypothalamus. He had his first brain surgery — a VP shunt placement — that year. After his first surgery, we played a major gig at Wake Forest University. Minutes before going on, Jacob turned to me and said, “I don’t remember how to do our audio setup.”

I faked the setup. We sounded terrible. I knew something in us had broken.

From there, I pivoted. I got an MFA in Fine Art and followed a dream I’d carried quietly for years — making murals, building installations, and doing art exhibitions. During the pandemic, I enrolled in the MFA Music program at CalArts — a full-circle moment, since I had been accepted there for Acting back in 2003, right before I met Jacob. That time was difficult. Jacob was struggling, emotionally and physically. In 2022, his condition worsened and he was diagnosed again. He had a second brain surgery in 2023. By then, I was pursuing an MA in Music at Berklee, trying to hold all of it at once: school, sound, and the weight of love and fear.

It was overwhelming. I had no idea how hard it would be. But I stayed with it. I learned.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Today, I work under the umbrella of Bee Wilde Studio — an evolving world where art, music, storytelling, and technology meet. My current focus includes:

— A new AI-assisted comic series called The Bee Wilde Sessions blends autobiographical elements with surrealist world-building, grief mythologies, and digital play.

—-Solo performance work that merges artist talk, multimedia visuals, and live music — think grief sermon meets art-rock cabaret.

—-Workshops and talks on creative resilience, sound art, and the power of imaginative care — especially in museum and mental health spaces.

What excites me most is building bridges between formats — mixing humor with healing, sound with silence, and live performance with personal transformation. My work is deeply informed by trauma-aware practices and my own journey through loss and creative recovery.

What’s new? This fall I’m releasing my first zine + digital music drop, and developing a multimedia solo show that weaves together visuals, songs, and story. I’m also dreaming of touring again — not just as a performer, but as someone creating intentional spaces for connection, expression, and beauty.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1. Curiosity + Ongoing Learning
I’ve always been someone who asks questions — about people, ideas, systems, symptoms, feelings, tools. Curiosity has kept my creative life from going stagnant. It’s what helped me move between disciplines and kept me going back to school, even in times of personal upheaval. If I have any advice for people starting out, it’s: stay curious. Keep learning. Don’t let fear talk louder than your interest.

2. Deep Listening
This is something I practice across every medium — sound, teaching, performance, conversation. Listening is active. It creates space for something new to emerge. I think the best creative work often starts in silence — in giving someone, or something, the room to be heard.

3. Compassion (including for yourself)
When I started learning mix engineering, I realized how much compassion it takes to be a beginner again — to be bad at something, to keep going anyway, to learn gently. Technical humility lives here. So does kindness. So does rest. If you’re early in your journey: be patient with your process. That’s how you’ll make something honest.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

Right now, my biggest challenge is reinventing myself — again.

I’ve had a long, layered creative life: theater, sound art, visual art, education, performance. But after a series of life events — my partner’s health challenges, the pandemic, going back to school — I find myself somewhere in between all the versions I’ve been. I’m not starting over. But I’m not exactly who I was.

That’s a strange place to live. The in-between.

I’m working on it by showing up to the work anyway. By letting the new shape of things emerge slowly — through study, practice, and deep listening. I’m not rushing clarity. I’m building trust with myself again. And I’m trying to stay open to the idea that this next version of me might be softer, smarter, or stranger than I expected — and that’s okay.

Reinvention isn’t just about branding. It’s about becoming. And that takes time. I’m still here. I’m still becoming.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Image credits: Bee Wilde Sessions (Bianca Janine Pettis)

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