Edition 3: Receiving
The Love Kitchen is a collaborative creative endeavor that began on a rainy afternoon in small town Kansas, when two six year old girls playing at a history museum crossed paths and felt that they would never be alone again. Over two decades later—as seasons pushed that present into the past, and time pushed the girls into womanhood—there was a joint realization that acts of creativity are catalysts for healing. Simultaneously, there was an awareness that there are very few nurturing, gentle opportunities for artists of all backgrounds to share their work with others. These and other musings were synthesized to create The Love Kitchen—a one-year experiment in our collective creative living.
The Love Kitchen was carved from an old oak tree; it was made to fill a gap in the literature. It is four seasonal publications of art culled from community submission, cataloged and shared digitally through this website. The content we share here is meant to reflect an overarching philosophy that each of us are artists. This is a truth that knits the cells of our bones to one another, giving us legs to stand on. And a truth that, as a function of operating in a culture that is addicted to product over process, has been largely forgotten. We are here to support and encourage art in all its mediums, providing a welcoming space for people of all ages and backgrounds to shake in their own way.
New material will be published in four waves, occurring in April (WINTER/INVIERNO), July (CHAOS), October (tbd), and January (tbd). We are still getting the hang of this thing, so there may be hiccups along the way. We’re ok with it, and we trust that you will be, too. It’s all a part of the process.
If you are interested in submitting anything, please send an email to freshoutthelovekitchen@gmail.com with a description of your idea, and we will work with you to determine the best way for sharing.
We are so glad you are here.
xx,
Jo and Bumsita
Meet the Facilitators
Bumsita
Primary mediums: Written (scribbled) word, film photography, collage, bodily movement of all types and qualities, secondhand clothing, canned beans.
Mission statement: I am a born softie with western flair. By day an empirical scientist, though God’s blueprint has me somewhere between a quicksilver daydreamer and a cosmic cowboy. My primary function on this earth is to be kind and try to get my point across.
Known aliases: Joniboni, Patent Leather Polly, The Tin Foil Kid.
Blood type: tender but unafraid.
Jo
Jo is currently writing, daydreaming, singing, working, living, and procrastinating in Lawrence, Kansas. She is a toe-dipper and a dabbler, and most of all, a chronic dilly-dallyer. She has studied social work, creative writing, and drawing, and has borne witness to the creative process for all of her life, coming from a vibrant lineage of painters, entrepreneurs, educators, and musicians.
At this moment in time, her creative energy mostly goes towards making music with local band THIMASTR, and writing sadgirl poems on the backs of Target receipts. She finds life, spirit, and community with folks who are in tune with the infinite cosmic creation/destruction/re-birth cycle. She wears her heart on her sleeve. Her love languages are playlists and meals made from scratch. In the future, she hopes to continue making music, continue writing sadgirl poems, and most especially, to continue going to Target.
She is absolutely delighted to embark on the year-long Love Kitchen journey with herself, her best friend Bumsita, and all of you, our beloved contributors and readers.