After a fun and fairly meaningless four years of college at a state school in NY, I meandered through various genres of the creative world with stints at book and magazine publishers and in the music business. I held a few creative positions in less than creative organizations before feeling in harmony with my work which began when I joined the record label Ellipsis Arts (and The Relaxation Co.) as their Creative Director. For them I produced, Gravikords, Whirlies & Pyrophones, a three-day exhibition and performance at New York's Winter Garden space featuring experimental musical instrument builders from around the world. I then joined forces with pop-culture marketing company Green Galactic where I served as Creative Director and partner.
While working in both of these positions, in 1996, I started up a record label called 28 Days Records (distributed by Polygram/Ryko) which supported female artists including my own band Moxie 28 Days Records released Moxies music as well as the first LadyFest compilation. A songwriter myself I sang and played bass in Moxie for six years. Many of my songs can be heard on popular TV shows such as Dawson's Creek, Joan of Arcadia and Men in Trees.
In 2002 I contributed to the localizing of a NY based community for artists who attended Burning Man. I produced two events to gather this community - Blast Furnace I & II. As a last hoorah and before quitting PR, I donated my skills to projects close to my heart: Black Rock City's media team and The Dali Lama's press team for a 2003 talk held in Central Park.
Free of the 9 to 5 rut I produced events and did some freelance publicity while I developed my own artistic voice. In 2003 I began a series of conceptual art works in New York City. The Vomitorium and No Bush were most notable. Considered "artivism" actions my work spoke addressed social issues of the day such as materialism.
In 2004 I began teaching yoga. To my own surprise, after fulfilling a one-time request to provide naked yoga to a local nudist community, I became the city's first co-ed naked yoga teacher and offered class through 2006.
In 2005 I created an event to offer alternatives to consumerism.Swap-O-Rama-Rama, got off the ground with a grant from Black Rock Arts. The event now takes place in cities the world over including Istanbul, Jerusalem, Panama City, Littelton New Zealand and about 100 others. The event has repurposed hundreds of thousands of pounds of textile waste while pointing the way for a transformation from consumerism to creativity. Because Swap-O-Rama-Rama solves a pressing planetary need I turned it into a non-profit through fiscal sponsorship provided by New York Foundation for the Arts and through a Creative Commons license I protect it from misuse while keeping it free and open.
Swap-O-Rama-Rama's message opened up opportunities for me to speak publicly on the subject of materialism and I began giving a talk titled 'The Maker is the Revolutionary in Commodified Culture.'
In March of 2006 I made an oath to create a post consumer life. I moved to Truth or Consequences, NM to an acre of raw land to study life hands. In August of 2007 I started a blog titled Holy Scrap to share my experiences. I write about building, water, fuel, power and food (to name a few), my own movement towards nature and away from materialism and related subjects like value, abundance and money.
In 09' and having completed a 4 year initiatory study of Sufism at The Suluk Academy. I became a representative of the order and began to teach and guide others. I am particularly interested in the development of projects by theSeven Pillars House of Widsom a related organization that fosters beauty and depth in human culture through events, think tanks, writings, art and the study of mysticism in our modern day.
In 2011 I stepped into a cottage industry, a web store to sell botanicals, teas and products that I make from wildcrafted plants in the Chihuahuan desert of southern New Mexico.
I write for a variety of publications including Make Magazine and Craft. In January 2013 my first book will be released. It will offer up what I have learned about living a life outside of materialism.
I believe the universe likes to be poked at by us and by our intention. Sometimes it moves for me and then I know that the smallest who can change the world.
Feel free to get in touch and meanwhile I hope you will do some poking too. - Wendy Jehanara Tremayne
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Blog-Holy Scrap
