Bodee Render
Alchemist of Becoming
Bodee Render makes symbolic visual art from things in the process of becoming.
His path to making it was indirect. Each stretch taught him another way of seeing, making, or changing things. Then, periodically, the season felt complete. Its purpose had been fulfilled; the time came to change. Each time, he leapt, and kept growing.
His path to making it was indirect. Each stretch taught him another way of seeing, making, or changing things. Then, periodically, the season felt complete. Its purpose had been fulfilled; the time came to change. Each time, he leapt, and kept growing.
I. Learning to see
Space → culture → meaning
Architecture first. Then European and Scandinavian studies, international affairs, and modern art history.
They offered different ways of understanding what surrounds us: the spaces people inhabit, cultures they construct, symbols they inherit, and stories they use to make sense of themselves.
They offered different ways of understanding what surrounds us: the spaces people inhabit, cultures they construct, symbols they inherit, and stories they use to make sense of themselves.
The Lesson
Surroundings and identities are an ongoing conversation.
The leap
From observing ways of being to exploring how to become.
II. Learning to change
Systems → people → possibility
Sustainable business led into leadership, innovation, human-centered design, brand, and customer experience.
The work changed scale. Bodee spent years helping organizations understand complicated situations, find patterns within them, imagine alternatives, and make change comprehensible to the people responsible for making decisions.
The work changed scale. Bodee spent years helping organizations understand complicated situations, find patterns within them, imagine alternatives, and make change comprehensible to the people responsible for making decisions.
The Lesson
The strongest beliefs often contradict the desired outcomes.
The leap
From learning to be me to acting on who I became.
II. Learning to change
Systems → people → possibility
Sustainable business led into leadership, innovation, human-centered design, brand, and customer experience.
The work changed scale. Bodee spent years helping organizations understand complicated situations, find patterns within them, imagine alternatives, and make change comprehensible to the people responsible for making decisions.
The work changed scale. Bodee spent years helping organizations understand complicated situations, find patterns within them, imagine alternatives, and make change comprehensible to the people responsible for making decisions.
The Lesson
The strongest beliefs often contradict the desired outcomes.
The leap
From learning to be me to acting on who I became.
III. Learning to show
Strategy → symbols → Keynote
Consulting created a peculiar practical problem: complicated ideas had to become clear enough to understand and compelling enough to act on.
So the presentations became increasingly visual. Diagrams became systems. Icons became more elaborate. Symbols carried more of the argument. Slides became constructed compositions. Made possible by working in Keynote (PowerPoint would have killed it).
At some point, icons stopped supporting the material and became the story.
So the presentations became increasingly visual. Diagrams became systems. Icons became more elaborate. Symbols carried more of the argument. Slides became constructed compositions. Made possible by working in Keynote (PowerPoint would have killed it).
At some point, icons stopped supporting the material and became the story.
The Lesson
Assumptions drive actions more than most admit.
The leap
From offering what to do to conveying a point of view.
IV. Learning to become
Symbols → worlds → RebelFor
What had been a means of communicating ideas became a way of discovering them. Symbols could be separated from their expected roles, recombined, contradicted, made funny, made uncomfortable, and allowed to say things that couldn't quite be said directly. Keynote remained. The presentation did not.
RebelFor emerged as a practice for following those possibilities into physical work. And Bodee Render became its first artist.
RebelFor emerged as a practice for following those possibilities into physical work. And Bodee Render became its first artist.
The Lesson
Reasonable expectations are artificial barriers to joy.
The leap
From needing a good story to discovering it day by day.
IV. Learning to become
Symbols → worlds → RebelFor
What had been a means of communicating ideas became a way of discovering them. Symbols could be separated from their expected roles, recombined, contradicted, made funny, made uncomfortable, and allowed to say things that couldn't quite be said directly. Keynote remained. The presentation did not.
RebelFor emerged as a practice for following those possibilities into physical work. And Bodee Render became its first artist.
RebelFor emerged as a practice for following those possibilities into physical work. And Bodee Render became its first artist.
The Lesson
Reasonable expectations are artificial barriers to joy.
The leap
From needing a good story to discovering it day by day.
Bodee
