AOTA-231229 - Sam DeCarlo | Rachael Ingram | James Jankowiak

This transcription is a radio show called "Art on the Air" that features interviews with artists. The first segment highlights hyper-realistic artist Samantha DeCarlo, who shares her art journey and is exhibiting at the "For the Love of Art Fair" in 2024. The next segment features artist Rachel S. Ingram, who has turned her illustrator training into designing animal-themed fashions. The spotlight artist is James Jankowiak, who is a painter, installation artist, and educator. He discusses his work exploring the metaphysical properties of light and color and the integration of music into his art practice. James also talks about his current show "The Song That Doesn't End" at South Shore Arts. The interview ends with information about upcoming events and exhibitions. This New Year's weekend, Art in the Air features hyper-realistic artist Samantha DeCarlo sharing her art journey and is exhibiting at the 2024 For the Love of Art Fair. Next, Perpetually Yours pets artist Rachel S. Ingram is turning her illustrator training into the designer of animal-themed fashions. Our spotlight is on artist James Jankowiak, who will give an artist exhibit talk at South Shore Arts on January 6th. Express yourself you art, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you art, and show the world your heart. You're in the know with Esther and Larry, Art on the Air today. They're in the know with Larry and Esther, Art on the Air our way. Express yourself you art, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you art, and show the world your heart. Welcome, you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, WVLP 103.1 FM, our weekly program covering the arts and arts events throughout Northwest Indiana and beyond. I'm Larry Breckner of New Perspectives Photography, right alongside here with Esther Golden of The Nest in Michigan City. Aloha everyone. We're your hosts for Art on the Air. Art on the Air is supported by an Indiana Arts Commission Arts Project Grant, South Shore Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Art on the Air is heard every Sunday at 7 p.m. on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, also streaming live at lakeshorepublicmedia.org, and is available on Lakeshore Public Media's website as a podcast. Also heard on Friday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 5 p.m. on WVLP 103.1 FM, streaming live at wvlp.org, and Tuesdays at 4 p.m. on WDSO 88.3 FM. Our spotlight interviews are also heard Wednesdays on Lakeshore Public Media. Information about Art on the Air is available at our website, breck.com.aota. That includes a complete show archive, spotlight interviews, plus our show is available on multiple podcast platforms, including NPR One. Please like us on Facebook, Art on the Air WVLP, for information about upcoming shows and interviews. We would like to welcome James Jankowiak to Art on the Air. James is a painter, installation artist, and educator. He makes abstract paintings that explore the metaphysical properties of light and color, while also investigating the use of repetition. He is a dedicated teaching artist and currently teaches throughout the city of Chicago. His current show, The Song That Doesn't End, is with South Shore Arts at the Center for Visual and Performing Arts in Munster, Indiana. It is a survey of his work from the past 10 years. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome. Thanks for having me. Nice to meet you, too. How we always like to start on our show, James, is finding out your background. I call it your origin story. I always like to say how you got from where you were to where you are now. So tell us all about James. Yeah, I'm a visual artist, primarily painter. I'm a teaching artist. I've been working with young people in the Chicago area for about 25 years. I run a painting program called Contemporary Painting Studio. It's an after-school matters program that is entering its 19th year. And I've got a really great group of students from Hancock College Prep that I work with intermittently through the year. I love being a teaching artist because it also allows me to have ample studio time to keep up a pretty robust studio practice. I've kind of intertwined my studio work with my teaching work and also music as well. I've been playing the piano since I was a kid, and a lot of musical language fits with what I do in the studio. So I'm just kind of working with these three aspects of my life in a kind of integrated, synchronized kind of way where everything kind of feels the same. Can you give us an example of what that means when you're integrating the music and the art? How does it play out for you in the studio? Well, when I'm painting, I'm breathing. And when I'm playing, I'm breathing. Also, I'm obsessed with rhythm and counting and the centering that that brings to myself. It's a meditation in a way. There's a lot of similarities between a lot of the patterns that I use in my work and the patterns that go into creating chords on a piano. Right. I like to use fields of color. It's pretty common to see a base with a certain field of color or a certain gradient kind of juxtaposed with something a little bit busier. For me, it's the vibration. The vibration of your painting sort of equals the vibration of music in some of them. I get a sense of that musicality in them. I'm kind of pursuing this idea of how do you take a beautiful chord and make it visible? By you comparing it to a vibration, it's perfect. That's what a chord is. It's a beautiful vibration. If you could see... For me, personally, I don't know how other people feel, but the only time that the hair stands up on the ends of my arms from digesting a work of art only comes through music. For me, at least. Not even through painting. I love painting. I think I'm trying to get there, if possible. For me, it's music. There's a certain kind of... One of the paintings that's in my show is called The Deepest Cut. It's kind of a reference to those songs that are really particularly special to you and might not be so special to other people. It's not physical because it sounds brutal, but how music really cuts through you and comes into you and gives you a physical sensation. How it's possible for a sound to affect other feelings like that is... I don't know. That, to me, is one of the joys of life. That's essentially what I'm chasing. I'm trying to... I'm immersed in joy right now in the studio with that. I think with the condition of the world right now, we need some sort of balance. Tell us a little bit about what you have in the Bachman Gallery of South Shore Arts real quickly. Bridget Colbert invited me to participate in this exhibition before COVID happened. When COVID happened, we kind of dropped out and out of touch, like a lot of people did. A lot of things that were going to the wayside, nothing was expected anymore. Everything seemed like the world was upended and what have you. Tom Terlemke and Linda Dorman, Indiana legends, they became curators at the space. They asked me to be a part of the show. They wanted to basically make a 10-year survey. They wanted to get an impression of where I was a decade ago to now. They see this as a decade that's worth showing off there. Most of the pieces are pretty new. Most are within the last few years. There's way less pieces from the past than newer ones. The show went up in November. Briefly, you have a gallery talk coming up in January. Tell us a little bit about the time and date on that. Right now, the gallery talk is scheduled for, I believe it's Sunday, January 6th at 2 p.m. So people could expect to, of course, to meet me, ask me questions. I will give them, most likely I'll bring a PowerPoint with me. I like to show pictures. I think I'm a fun storyteller. The majority of people that come out to support me are entertained. I do believe that. I want to make sure that people are having a good time and that it's open, it's accessible, and that they have fun and they learn something. Yeah, I know. I'm sorry this is ending so quickly. I have so many questions for you about your paintings. It's okay. It's okay. Are we already at the end? I didn't realize that. We are. Well, James, we'd like to thank you for coming on Art in the Air. It's great sharing your whole story. It's the song that never ends, Bachman Gallery, South Shore Arts, the Center of Visual and Performing Arts. It'll be running through January. January 6th is his artist talk. We appreciate you coming on. That's James Jankowiak. Thank you for coming on the show. Thank you, James. Thanks to both of you. I appreciate it. Take care. Art in the Air Spotlight and the complete one-hour program on Lakeshore Public Media is brought to you by Macaulay Real Estate in Valparaiso, Olga Patrician, Senior Broker. And as a reminder, if you'd like to have your events on Art in the Air Spotlight or have a longer feature interview, email us at aotaatbrek.com. That's aotaatbrek, B-R-E-C-H, dot com. This is Karen Matavia with It's Just Serendipity, and you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM and on WVLP, 103.1 FM. Underwriting for this Art in the Air feature interview is brought to you by the 2024 For the Love of Art Fair at South Bend Century Center, running February 17th and 18th. More information is available on the web at fortheloveofartfair.com. We would like to welcome Samantha DiCarlo to Art on the Air. Sam became interested in art at a young age and was encouraged by her family. She is one of the exhibiting artists with Shireen Johnson-Klein for the Love of Art Fair in South Bend at the Century Center, happening February 17th and 18th of 2024. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, Sam. Hi. Hey. How are you? We're doing great. Good. Good hearing about your story. Yeah, so I always like to say, you want to hear your whole origin story, and I like to hit it up by saying how you got from where you were to where you're now. So tell us all about Sam. Oh, my goodness. It goes way back. So I have drawings from when I was 4, 5, 6 years old framed at my parents' house. My dad kept every documented piece I've ever seen. So art has been a really integral part of my life since I could hold a pencil. I took so many classes, still life classes at the art museum, you know, when I'm in elementary school and even exploring other avenues of art like drama, ceramics, until I got to high school where I filled my entire schedule with art classes. So I was able to learn digital illustration at a very young age. I was one of the only students entering college with a Photoshop background. Many of the other students totally rejected it, but it's how I use. I use Photoshop exclusively to sketch, so it's been a really important tool for me. And then hitting college, I decided I just wanted to stick with illustration, just drawing and storytelling mostly. So that's what I spent four years at the American Academy of Art studying, was drawing. Was it an artistic household? Because you say your parents, like, encouraged everything, or were they also artists in some form? That's a great question. No, my parents are not technically fine artists. My dad's a general contractor and home remodeler, so he has— Oh, well, that encompasses all of it. And my mother is an incredibly talented writer. So, you know, I've been able to articulate what's going on in my paintings, and then my dad, you know, excited that I had this flair for art, totally encouraged it. And my grandpa, actually, my mom's dad was a professional artist. So I have that kind of bloodline. And I'm an only child, so I don't have any siblings. I don't know if anybody else would have been talented. Yeah, being an only child is kind of a unique experience with your parents, as I can attest to. I loved it. Yeah, you're part of what I call a triangular relationship then. You know, instead of parents and kids, you're now a father-mother kid. You know, it's sort of an interesting dynamic there. Yeah. So tell us some of your post-high school things. You've done a whole range of careers, some of which I found interesting hooking up with Sharpie and Prismacolor was. But, you know, tell us about some of that post-career. My dream was to work for Sharpie Markers. It was the only medium I used for college. I loved ink, and so I applied for an internship right before graduation in 2012. And I got it. I was so shocked. Sharpie was only about 15 miles from my parents' house. So it was a really quick drive. And their facility, you know, it was just so close. I was able to do a lot of illustration for them, on-site illustrator. So they would just hand me items, let's say a lamp, a lampshade, and I would have to draw on this lampshade. And when they plugged it in, it would look like this beautiful stained glass. Or, oh, my gosh, I've drawn on kites and lanterns, the weirdest stuff, you name it. That was a really fun challenge for me. Sharpie seems so much fun because we spoke to the artist Amy Alexander, and she was a Sharpie ambassador for a year. And she does exclusively Sharpie work still. Oh, wow, still. Yeah, that's incredible. They have such a huge line of products, the oil-based and water-based paint markers. I still use those today. And Prismacolor, of course, is, like, top of the line for everything. So, yeah, it was an honor to work there, for sure. But I felt a calling for something else. I ended up following a coworker from Sharpie to Bottle and Bottega, which those are located nationwide. They're, like, the paint and sip classes. You go, bring a bottle of wine, get a little tipsy, and paint something fun for the night. I taught those classes for about five years. But I had zero experience painting going, and I'd never painted during college. So my boss who had hired me, she was wonderful. She knew that I had talent but just needed to kind of tap into it. So she sent me home with tons of canvases. She gave me brushes. I already had some paints. So I just sat in my room, painted on my floor, like, seven days a week, and came back, brought all my paintings with me, and she said, okay, you can teach painting now. So what were you painting then? What were those? Explain those first experiences of experimenting. They were what I would consider to be very amateur ideas. We're talking simple. Blue water, kind of like sunset sky, and a sun. I mean, it's just a painting that could take me about 20 minutes to create now. It took me about three hours to do at the time because you just don't know what you're doing. So were those first experiments, were they oils, watercolors, acrylic? Yeah. All those paint and sifts are exclusively water-based mediums. Oil, you know, they take a year to cure. So it just makes more sense to have something that would dry in about five minutes. But, you know, still terrifying. Nonetheless, the beauty of acrylic paint is if you put something down you don't like, even pure black, let it dry, you can paint right over it. So it was a very forgiving medium. So then what did you do after you were teaching? Did you move on to other things? I did. So I had an opportunity to work at an art gallery. It was never a dream of mine to work in such like a corporate space where you have to like be somewhere professional. I've always been covered in paint my whole life. So the thought of being clean was a little nerve-wracking. But I started representing Peter Lick, who is this phenomenal Australian photographer. And it was one of the coolest jobs I ever had. While it wasn't a creative field, it was sales, I still felt like I was in the art world. I was constantly inspired by his imagery. And eventually, I did take a little bit of a break from painting while I worked for him, but came around during the pandemic. So, you know, he sent us home for three or four months. I got nothing to do, so broke out the paint. Oh, good. You brought up the pandemic. Tell us a little bit how that influenced you. I mean, we've had people on the show that said they kind of withdrew into themselves and did nothing. Other people, it was an extraordinarily explosive creative period. How did it affect you? Yeah, the latter. I painted every day, all day long. It was a complete resurgence for me because I had been not painting for almost two years. So to have all this free time again, I was completely inspired. I hate being stagnant. I'm not just going to sit around and watch TV. It's just not my personality. So I need to be doing something. And I ended up painting, I think, like 12 pet portraits. I created a little children's book. I painted a couple self-portraits and an entire new collection. So I was successful. Two paintings a day. It was like crazy. But it was really wonderful. It's a sad time, you know, for a lot of people. But for me, it was a time of productivity. So was that when you did the bouquets, that whole series of bouquets? No. No? Interest in bouquets. I did paint one floral painting towards the end of 2020. And I was like, oh, wow, I really like to paint flowers. I'm going to keep this up. And so I started to push myself painting more, like, simple roses just to get the concept of a rose down. There's a lot of layers. And then eventually I blew it up and bigger and bigger and more developed. But, you know, I find it's very important to start at the foundations. You don't just go from zero to 60 in a painting. I probably painted 50 flowers before I really tapped into creating a finished piece portfolio-worthy. So I try to put my 10,000 hours in, as they say. Oh, I think the cerulean one is just so – I mean, there's so many that are so beautiful. That was one of my first oil paintings ever. And I spent a lot of time on it because it's got to go slow. You just don't really know what you're doing. Layering is very evident in that one. Yeah. Do you still use Photoshop in your process currently? Oh, yeah. It's my everything. So I am not – I know I got my degree in illustration, and I don't draw. I don't draw ever. I actually detest it. My least favorite part of the art-creating process. So what I like to do is take photographs, stuff from Google, my own imagery, and collage it in Photoshop. So I'm cutting, pasting, layering, changing colors, manipulating into a finished digital rendering, which I could probably just print out and sell as is, but I am much more interested in then painting that digital image. That sounds very creative. Of course, I'm a Photoshop user myself. I'm a photographer. When did you collide with Tony Fitzpatrick? Oh, my gosh. What a guy. One of my best friends, Danny Torres, we went to college together. He's really good friends with Tony. He works for him, and they've really built a beautiful relationship. And Danny's always talking me up and told Tony, you've got to get my girl, Sam, in your gallery. He owns the Adventureland Gallery in Wicker Park. And so Tony said, all right, I'll give her a solo show. And that really was a huge benefit to me. It happened right before the pandemic hit in the beginning of February, and I'm so grateful for that opportunity because that was the last show we had almost like a year and a half. So then moving forward, the following year, Danny and I were commissioned by Tony to recreate his collages. I don't know if you've ever seen Tony's work, but it's intricate, little cut pieces of paper. And, oh, my gosh, he's like punching holes. It's insanity. There has to be thousands of little pieces of paper. Well, the city of Glen Ellyn in Illinois wanted Danny and me to paint Tony's collages, huge. We're talking like 8 by 10 feet. And they installed them outside right downtown Glen Ellyn. It was gorgeous. The College of DuPage allowed us to work in their facility. So it was just another really cool project that, you know, Tony wrote me into. So your color palette is very vibrant. I mean, I look at it, and I don't know, I almost would describe your work as hyper-realistic, a step beyond like pure realism. I mean, I'm looking at it on my screen here, and it's just like I'm looking at some of the animal portraits, and there's just something about them that they're realistic, and yet they're taking a step beyond. But what's your technique in like your color palette and everything like that? Color is the most important thing to me. It's what inspires me. I am so attracted to blue and oranges in particular. So you may see a common theme of a lot of like browns, kind of dirty olives, these blues and oranges. But I would attribute all of my bright colors to working for Bottle and Bottega, because we had rainbow every painting, and for five years, I painted the rainbow. So it just kind of stuck in me. I am so attracted to neon paint and bright, warm colors. So I think that's just why I must include them. I feel compelled. I don't paint anything in dull grays. I love gray paintings. I have a buddy, Jason Farley. He paints with this beautiful muted palette, and while I love looking at it, I could never do it. And you've done several self-portraits in various renderings I've seen, you know, with different themes and everything. Tell us about how you work in that process. Oh, my goodness. Okay, so self-portraits are really, I find them to be an interesting way to judge how I've progressed in my painting career. So starting with my first self-portraits, using acrylic paint now and moving into my oil paints, getting more and more realistic. But I like to kind of play off these old master's portraits. For example, Frida Kahlo is a massive inspiration for me. I have recreated my own self-portrait twice in the image of hers. I've also tried to copy Chuck Close, another, actually, he was probably my first inspiration coming out of high school, Chuck Close. He does these beautiful hyper-real paintings, and occasionally he does them in grids, these squares that kind of go around. He'll paint each square individually and then zoom out and it turns into a whole face. That's what I have experimented with. So if you look at a lot of my self-portraits, the styles are varied, but it's a point in my life that I was trying to explore. It's like my impressionist phase, my blues phase, like Picasso's. So are you working from a photograph or are you looking in the mirror when you do them? Always from photo. I like to take pictures and then manipulate them in Photoshop, change the colors, all that stuff. I want to get back to the bouquets because they're so lovely, the mixture of the flowers with insect life, let's say. What brought you to not only the shape necessarily, but the composition of it? Was there one of those moments where you could visualize it before it actually happened? Absolutely. I usually have such a clear image of how my painting will turn out because I have that really hard Photoshop image. I connected with a woman on the East Coast who creates these bouquets that are meant to last a very long time. I was able to use some of her images and Photoshop my bugs or my moths. I actually raised moths one summer, so I'm very attached. Sometimes seashells, gems, whatever. It was so beautiful. They were like little surprises. I like to hide things. I like to make my art different than real life. I appreciate you, Larry, saying that my art is hyper real. I'm always going for that surreal, that next level. It's not quite the norm, but almost. The composition, I love circles. I love circles. I paint on circles. I create circular things. I feel like there's a magic to the circle. It's all-encompassing. The world, life is circular. It's just everything. Power in the circle. Have you ever taught any classes? Bring your technique to some other people. I have taught many things. I've taught workshops. I've hosted the parties at Bottle and Bottega. I was teaching probably six hours a day. I also occasionally substitute teach at my alma mater, the American Academy of Art. Those kids are the best. I love just the total art school. It's only art, even the gen eds are art-related. But I've thought about getting on YouTube and trying to teach my methods, but I have a little insecurity being self-taught. I'm still learning things that I should have known as a beginner painter. So it's tricky. I don't want to give somebody bad intel. But I don't think you would give them bad intel. You've discovered on your own a technique that it's okay. This is what I've learned. I did it this way. And so I would encourage you to do that. I think that would be a great way to share. I mean, your work is so remarkable. When I came across it, I'm like, oh, my gosh, this is just stunning. You go from one piece to another. And I always like on Facebook how you do a reveal where you're standing there and you turn the piece around and everything. And that's just really kind of fun. Those reveals. Everybody's doing those reveals on Instagram. Right. So any projects you have down the road or in the future that you have not worked on but you want to? Oh, right now I'm working on a self-portrait, ironically, because I have not made mine this year. And I realize it's already November. I would love to do more mural work. And I know that's a water-based medium, so all murals are usually created in a latex or acrylic paint. But I love working big. And I love having my art, like, kind of a permanent place. So I did a series of murals this summer that really inspired me and gave me the confidence to say, like, okay, I can do this. I can paint bigger than standard 16 by 20. But, yeah, they're fun. So that's what I would love to kind of explore more, or maybe get on a team so I can learn more about the muraling process. Do you have one in mind? I mean, have you already designed? I know there's sites that's specific usually, but. I haven't created a mural design that I am looking to put anywhere. But I am always – whenever I get a job from a client, I love to, you know, pick their brains and see what's kind of going on in their heads. And let's try to combine our ideas together. So any other collaborations that you're working on? Or do you like to work solo? I like to work solo. However, I love being in a group. Like, tonight I'm going to try to hit up figure drawing classes. It's a small group of, like, 20 of us will get together and draw a model. And there's some kind of excitement being around other creatives in the same space creating the same thing. But as far as, like, sharing my canvas, I'm a control freak. And that comes with being an only child. I've never had to share anything. So, yes, I mean, I like to work on my own thing with others. I get it. Now, where do you do your work at? Do you work at, like, a home studio? Yep, I've got a very tiny little painting studio in my apartment, downtown Chicago. But it's functional. It works for me. It's got great north light. So I really cannot complain. So quickly, how did you get hooked up with the art fair in the South Bend? Oh, yeah. I met Shireen at the Merchandise Mart when they have One of a Kind. It's a holiday event annually. Gosh, I think they've had it for decades. Forever. Yeah. It's the best, so every year and the spring. But she popped over to my booth. I was in the Emerging Artist section. So I was a newbie to showing my work. And we just really hit it off. I just loved her energy. I think she's a go-getter, and I want to be around other go-getters. So when she asked me, you know, I said, okay, it's been three months. You got it. Let's do it. So did you only do it that once, One of a Kind? What year was that? That was the 2022, so December of 22. You know, it's a rather expensive show to participate in. Yes. I'm going to pass this year. But I find Shireen's show to be just a very inviting, easy show to participate in. And it's affordable. Right. For marketing for artists. And having going out, taking your things out. Well, we only have about a minute or so left. We want to give you an opportunity to talk about how people can find you, whether it be online, Instagram, and everything, and also see you at the For the Love of Art Fair in February, 17-18. Absolutely. So I'm pretty Google-able. You could Google Sam DiCarlo, Samantha DiCarlo. Something's going to pop up of mine. But my actual website is S for Sam, G for George, my middle name, DiCarlo. So SGDiCarlo.com, and it's going to have all my work there. Instagram is the best way to hit me up. If you want to send me a message, my handle is SGDiCarlo. I try to keep things very easy around here. But, again, you could just Google my name, and I'll pop up. Well, we appreciate you coming on Art in the Air and sharing your whole art experience. And you'll be part of the For the Love of Art Fair in South Bend at the Century Center. Sam DiCarlo, thank you so much. And we'll have a link on our website to link you directly to there. Thanks again for coming on the show. Yeah, thank you. Best of luck. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye-bye. Art in the Air listeners, do you have a suggestion for a possible guest on our show? Whether it's an artist, musician, author, gallery, theater, concert, or some other artistic endeavor that you are aware of, or a topic of interest to our listeners, email us at aota.brech.com. That's aota.brech.com. Art in the Air is supported by an Indiana Arts Commission Arts Project Grant, South Shore Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, on WVLP, 103.1 FM. We would like to welcome Rachel Ingram to Art on the Air. Rachel is the owner and designer of Perpetually Yours Pets, an animal-themed fashion company. She's an illustrator, graphic designer, fashionista, punk rock chick. She is constantly designing fun new items, bringing her unique DIY punk style and retro flair. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, Rachel. It's so good to see you. It's so good to see you guys, too. Thank you so much for having me on the show. I really appreciate it. We appreciate you coming on. And like we ask all of our guests, we kind of want to know your origin story, everything. And I always like to say how you got from where you were to where you are now. So tell us all about Rachel. Oh, man, that is quite the journey. Well, I am a Chicago girl, born and raised. I was born on the west side of Chicago. My mom, shout out to my mom, who will probably be your very first listener of this. I have two older sisters, Tiana and Dominique. Also, shout out to them. And we all grew up there on the west side. And honestly, you know, it wasn't the best. My mom did what she could. She was a young mom. And we were all in school. And the principal actually called my mom in for a meeting. And he sat her down and he said, look, I know you're a good mom and your kids are good. But all of your kids are having some difficulties in school, not because they aren't doing well. It's because they're doing a little too well. And I think that, you know, given the neighborhood and given the limitations of the school, he said I think you should move your kids out to the suburbs, if you can, and get them, you know, into some different programs. And my mom really took heed to that. And she said, okay, I'm going to pack us up and move us out to the suburbs. So when I was in about, I want to say fourth grade, we moved out there to the suburbs. And I think that that was one of the biggest, you know, kind of changing moments of my life. Not that I don't love Chicago, but at the time it just wasn't really serving us, given what my mom could provide at that time in the city. So we moved out to the suburbs. And from then I think I just got to experience a lot more, see a lot more, had a lot more programs at my disposal. I was always a super nerd kid. I was in every honors and AP class gifted program that they offered. So I'm a huge, huge nerd, huge science nerd. And so I just was always really big on gathering information, learning things. My mom likes to joke that I was never a child. I was born an adult. Yeah, she said that when I was a kid I would ask questions that she didn't know the answer to. And so she would just kind of have to pat me on my head and send me along. And, yeah, so I just was constantly learning, constantly doing that kind of stuff. And I was always creative. My dad was creative. And my mom is not creative at all. So she always encouraged that in me. But she was like, hey, you know, you've got to do whatever, you know, you want to do. But I think in my own mind I thought that art wasn't a possibility. I knew that I loved it. I knew that I wanted to do it. But I wasn't sure, given growing up in kind of, you know, poverty, basically, if that was the right choice for me because I was smart. I knew I could do pretty much anything that I wanted to do. So I kind of geared my life toward that. I actually was going to go to college to be an astrophysicist. And in my senior year of high school I looked around and took stock and I said, you know, I like this, but do I love this? And I didn't. I loved art. So I decided to go to art school. And I told my mom and she said, look, we're poor, we can't get any poorer, you may as well do what you like. And I said, you know what, yeah, yes, Mom, yes. She said great. So I applied to one school because I didn't have a ton of money to apply to a ton of different programs. So I applied to Savannah College of Art and Design because I wanted to go to somewhere that was completely different than Chicago. Chicago has a lot of amazing art programs. But I've been in Chicago my whole life. I wanted to travel, you know, do something. So I applied to the one school and crossed my fingers and they took me. So off to Savannah I went. So what was your portfolio like? Garbage. I mean, it was good. For what I could do then. Because I had never had any formal training other than at school and taking art classes in school, you know, I didn't have any, like, outside things. But I will say another shout-out I would love to put out there is my middle school art teacher, Mrs. Coburn. She hates that I call her Mrs. Coburn now. She wants me to call her Christine. But I can't. I know, I'm the same. Yeah. And we're still very good friends to this day. I hesitate to even say friends. She's like a second mom. She realized how much I loved art, even in middle school. And so she was always kind of pushing me along. And she knew that I was, like, smart kid and wanted to do smart kid things. Not that art isn't smart kid things. But she was like, if you love this, you can do this, you know. Just let me know. Just let me know. And seeing her be an art teacher kind of put the idea in my head that, you know, art can exist outside of just drawing on a paper. You can do something with it. So I was kind of dabbling in a lot of different stuff because of that. But I did. I remember there was like a self-portrait, a huge self-portrait I did of myself. I was really big into, like, pin-up art back then and into college. So I did a lot of that. Although now looking back, I was not that great at, like, drawing. But I've improved since then. A lot of just, like, super colorful things. In fact, I did a lot of flowers. I did a lot of, like, kind of still life, so that kind of stuff. And I was in AP Drawing, which, believe it or not, that was a thing. It had an AP program. And my portfolio was actually with the AP Review Committee. At the time, it needed to also be at SCAD. So SCAD actually accepted me without my portfolio because they accepted me on academic and athletic merit. And so they got it afterwards. And they were like, okay, good. They got a bonus. But they did take me before fully seeing the portfolio. So, yeah, I entered into SCAD's doors as, you know, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. And I came out with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Illustration. And I graduated in 2008 and walked out of SCAD's doors into a recession with a fine art degree. There you go. As you can imagine, that was its own fun little challenge. But being the stubborn person that I am, I said, you know what, I have to get a job in the art field. I can't let this go. This is what I want. I'll figure it out. I have to figure something out. And, of course, when you leave college, every door is open, you know, generally. Where do I go? I've got to go back to Chicago. Chicago is a metro center. Also, if I have to live in a box on the side of the road, my family doesn't have to go that far to visit me. So that was a good thought. So I came home, and I originally came home to my mom's house. She lived out in the suburbs at the time. And I was sleeping on her couch. And my best friend, Sarah, said, hey, I've got a place out here in the city. I've got an extra bedroom. Come out here with me. You can stay in my bedroom for free until you find a place, blah, blah, blah. And I said, okay. So I got my stuff and went back out to the city and stayed with her and just went looking for jobs. And this was in, I want to say, June of 2008. And by July of 2008, I actually did land a job with a local, kind of a local hot topic of sorts called The Alley here in Chicago. You might be familiar with it. Most definitely. Yes. So I was actually, yeah, I worked as a staff designer at The Alley for about two and a half years. And while I was there and still living with Sarah, this is kind of the origin story of Perpetually Yours, we were fostering dogs. Sarah was already on the list of foster dogs. And we got this dog, and her name was Penny. And she had come from a puppy mill and had been crammed in a cage with a bunch of other puppies. And she had a broken leg, and the broken leg had fused together improperly because she had just been left in there. So they needed someone to foster her. Through the surgery, they were going to kind of break her leg and reset it while she was still a young puppy so that she could, you know, still have use of that leg instead of, you know, just amputating it. So we were tasked with taking care of Penny through this. So we got this dog, and we were just going to have her for a short amount of time. And long story short, foster fail. Fell in love with her because how could you not? She was literally the cutest puppy. And so Sarah kept her. I eventually moved into my own apartment. But it was sort of our dog, in a way, together, because we kind of raised her together. So when I left Sarah's place, I said, I want to get her something nice. But I had no money, you know, because I wasn't getting paid great at the alley, let's be honest, at the time. I won't even tell you how much I got paid then. And I was like, okay, I can make her something. I'm an artist. I can make something. And so Sarah had just gotten this ugly couch. And she knows that I thought it was ugly, so I don't really feel bad saying that on the air. And it was like Frankenstein in couch form. It was green. It was corduroy. It was foxy. But she loved it because she loved the mid-century, and it was very that. And so I said, I'm going to make her some pillows for this couch because nothing in the store is matching this thing. So I made her three pillows, one of each of her favorite things, which was bikes, coffee, and Penny, the dog. And I made it out of scraps of fabric because that's all that I had. And I had made this kind of applique, sewn, pieced-together portrait of the dog. And when she got it, she loved it, of course. And she posted it on Facebook, and people were like, where did you get that? Oh, my God, it's so amazing. And she's like, well, my friend made it. And then from there I just started making them. And I'm working at the Alley, and I wasn't too jazzed about it at the time. It was kind of getting stale to me. And I realized that people loved this stuff so much that maybe I could turn it into something else. So I made an Etsy shop and put it up on Etsy. And I want to say maybe a couple of weeks later, I woke up to a bunch of emails. And I'm like, what are these emails from Etsy? I don't understand. And I realized they were orders. People were ordering them. And Etsy had featured me in a new maker's email for the holidays. And so suddenly now I have this influx of orders and attention from people and blah, blah, blah. So I said, okay, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to leave this job. I've got to leave this job. I've got to get out of here. So here's my idea. You have to follow that magic trail. You have to. The magic dust trail. You have to. It's like a glittery little thing. It's like a make-your-own-book. It is. Which page are you going to turn? So I said, okay, I'm going to leave this job. But what am I going to do to pay the bills? So I figured I'm going to take up some freelance design work. So that's what I did. I took up some freelance design work and started building a client base. But it wasn't quite enough. So I was also a dog walker. And so I walked dogs, did freelance design work, did these pillows on the side, eventually was able to phase out dog walking, full-time freelancer, and kind of run into business. And Esther, that's where you and I kind of ran into each other. I know. I was doing that, the show circuit, doing little craft shows and things like that. And I was approached to do that one-of-a-kind show at Merchandise Mart, which was actually a very cool show. I'm so glad I did that. Also because here I am today because of it. And so I was a freelancer for many years. And then finally, about five years ago, someone found me on my freelance network and said, hey, do you want a nine-to-five job? And at the time, freelance was getting a little dry due to just the way things had changed in the market and the industry. So I said, yeah. And so now I've been working at the company I work for now for about five years, still building my brand and doing all that stuff. And here I am. And here you are. You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media 89.1 FM on WVLP 103.1 FM. So Penny was the first. And then who did you move on to? And how do you, like, tell how you develop all the backgrounds and the things you added? I just think, like, especially like the French bulldogs with the bats. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What kind of research do you do? With the custom pillows, which I don't really do the custom pillows anymore. I mean, I would if somebody wanted one. But now I've sort of transitioned into doing, like, actual painted portraits because I have a fine art degree in illustration. So drawing paints and all that stuff. And I also do the digital artwork, which is my dog breed line that you're referring to. So how I come up with that is that line is the dogs are all dressed in a costume based on something from the history of the breed. So I, like, figure out which breed I'm going to do, like the French bulldog you were saying. And so I go and read a bunch about the French bulldog. You know, I push my glasses up on my face, make sure I'm in nerd mode. And I go and do my little research and I find little tidbits of information about the dogs. And I go, well, what's interesting? And what is visually, you know, kind of alluring? So the French bulldog was bred specifically for those bat ears over the course of the history of the breed and developing the breed. That was the characteristic that they loved the most. So they were kind of breeding for that. And so I decided, OK, what's the best way to speak on that? It's dressed as a vampire bat, of course. So it's got the little ears. And then I make a male and female version of each one. So if you have a little boy, if you want the boy one, or if you want him to have a little partner, you can get the female or you can get the matching set. And they're coordinated. And they come in a bunch of different color options because, of course, I'm a colored girl. So, yeah, that's kind of the concept. And my cat people are a little angry with me. I'm in the process of working on a cat line, too. But that's kind of an up-and-coming project. I didn't know catwalking to learn those cat personalities. I wonder if, like, the dog walking, you got to learn personalities that way. Oh, my gosh, yes. Dogs are so fun because, I mean, every animal is fun because they're just like us. I mean, they just don't speak English. But they all have their little personalities. And then, of course, from breed to breed, you know, you get different personality traits just from that. And then you get the little mutts where it's just like, you know, you're rolling the dice. You don't know what you're getting from this thing. But when I was dog walking, yes, I had some favorites who I loved. And I think about them often. Some of them have probably crossed the Rainbow Bridge by this point because that was over a decade ago. But, yeah, and you have some not-so-favorites. And then you start to realize, like, oh, they're just like us. There's some good ones, and there's some ones that might be a little bit of a jerk. But, hey, they're still fun. Yes, variety is the spice of life. And so... So what's on your drawing board now? What are you... So you said you're doing the portraits. But where else are you headed? Because I'm sure you've got a million ideas. Yes, that is a thing. And that was something I was thinking about leading up to this interview and whatever. It's like we're in such a strange time in the world in which there's so much going on that honestly is negative. You know, it's not great right now politically, socially. There's a lot of stuff going on, and I'm very into that. Social issues are very important to me, all of that stuff. I'm very outspoken about that stuff. I'm very active in those types of circles. And so it's hard when you know you make artwork that's fun and colorful and sparkly, and you just want everybody to enjoy things. Like, where do I fit in there? Where does my work fit in right now? Because I feel bad, you know, trying to make fun where it's time to be serious. But in a time of seriousness, fun is just as important. You know, people need a reprieve. People need... They need relief. Yes, they need the opportunity to see the beauty in life so that we all know what we're fighting for and what we're trying to keep going. So that's kind of where I'm at. I was kind of struggling for a little bit, honestly, especially during COVID lockdowns, because I didn't know if it made sense. Also, you know, it's a little bit of a recession right now. Like, do people want the luxury of a dog pillow? Do people want... You know, but I owe it to myself, and I owe it to the world to make it. And if people want it, it's there. You know, if they don't, if they can't do it, that's fine. You know, but it needs to be there. It should be there. So right now, I am in the process of working on some new stuff, yeah. How do you balance your illustration work with your doing one thing, like, pretty much full-time, and then how do you balance creating these things? I think working from home has been, like, instrumental in that. And if I could put a silver lining on the COVID situation, that would be it. The one little tiny little morsel of silver lining I could put on it is I was actually working... The company I work for is an international logistics company, so I work in the marketing department. I'm the creative director. And we had an office downtown, like, right downtown, right across from City Hall, like, 24th floor. Very, very corporate, very funny for me to be involved in. But they love me there, and I love them, so I say. But when COVID happened, we actually were one of the first companies to kind of bow out and go start working from home. And after we had done it for a while, the company came to us and said, hey, do you guys think you want to keep it like this, or do we want to, you know, figure out a hybrid thing, or do you guys want to go back to the office? And all of us looked at each other and said, absolutely not. So I think the beauty of it is I get to work from home, so I can kind of juggle and make my own schedules and figure out what I need to do for work. And, you know, all of my stuff is, you know, just in the... I have a dedicated art space now, so I can leave my work in another room and shut that door from work and then go into my little art studio and get to work on my personal stuff. So do you have a third form? So you've got your corporate life, and then you've got perpetually yours. And then do you have another discipline that just sort of relaxes you from both of those realms? I would say the way that I relax from my creative realm is, oddly enough, I am a big gym person. That's my balance. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't do any drugs. That's how I stay balanced. My mom always says she can tell if I've gone to the gym or not because I'm, like, up here and not back down. So I actually, my partner and I just moved in together a few months ago. We're building a gym space in our apartment now so I can just work out whenever I want now. So I actually am super into power lifting, so I love to lift very heavy weights. They make you strong like bull, right? They do. They do, and it's such a zen moment. I know it's a strange thing to say, but it's just you and the bar. It's very zen. I don't know if it's for everybody, but it's definitely for me. So it kind of helps me, gives me a total relaxation moment and some clarity with my creative work. So that is my out, I would say. To add to Esther's question, is there anything artistically that you want to expand with? Maybe you're doing pillows, but maybe is that going to go to some other thing? And, of course, you touched on having cats because there's a whole new line there. But, you know, what other things are you going to do or outside of pillows? I know, poodle skirts or something. My plan was always, because I'm obviously really big into fashion, I want to expand it into a whole home decor line. So pillows are big. People love the pillows. But I have plans for other home decor items, stuff for the kitchen. Obviously I do a lot of prints as well, print prints and stuff like that. And then eventually I would love to get into some fashion items, doing some leggings or some T-shirts or something because I feel like you have to. There needs to be more color in the world. I joke that I should be able to write off my fashion purchases as a charitable thing because I am just like around the world, sprinkling a little color and sparkle. I know. And that is the beautiful part because your sparkly personality matches the fun and humor of your work. And it's like such a good blending, I think. Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm glad it's noticed. I appreciate that. Thank you. We have about two minutes left. Tell us a little bit, first, how people can find you, but also, like, is any of your work in stores anywhere or anything like that? Or is that something down the road? Well, you can find me at pypets.com. That is my website. You can also find me on Instagram. I'm kind of, that's like my main active place that I post my works in progress. Right now I actually have a piece that I'm in progress on, a portrait for a little golden retriever that has passed very recently. So I'm super excited about that. That's going really well if you want to see that. And then I have had stuff in stores in the past. It's been a little bit of a lull in that, but that's something I would love to take back up. So that is what's in store for me probably in 2024, as well as checks and local craft shows and stuff. You'll probably see me there. I'm hoping to get back into that in 2024. Well, Rachel, we appreciate you coming on Out of the Air, sharing your journey. That's Rachel S. Ingram. She is Perpetually Yours Pets. You can find that on all the sites, pypets.com, and you find out all about her wonderful art journey there, and especially her great pillows and all the things. And, of course, all you cat people out there, just keep letting them know that you want some cats there. Rachel, thank you so much for coming on Out of the Air. Thank you. It was so much fun. We'd like to thank our guests this week on Out of the Air, our weekly program covering the arts and arts events throughout Northwest Indiana and beyond. Out of the Air is heard Sunday at 7 p.m. on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, also streaming live at lakeshorepublicmedia.org, and is available on Lakeshore Public Media's website as a podcast. Out of the Air is also heard Friday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 5 p.m. on WVLP, 103.1 FM, streaming live at wvlp.org. Our spotlight interviews are heard every Wednesday on Lakeshore Public Media. Thanks to Tom Maloney, Vice President of Radio Operation for Lakeshore Public Media, and Greg Kovach, WVLP's Station Manager. Our theme music is by Billy Foster with a vocal by Renee Foster. Art on the Air is supported by the Indiana Arts Commission Arts Project Grant, South Shore Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. We'd like to thank our current underwriters for Lakeshore Public Media, Macaulay Real Estate and Valparaiso, O.L. Patrician, Senior Broker, and for WVLP, Walt Reidinger of Paragon Investments. So we may continue to bring you Art on the Air. We rely on you, our listeners and underwriters, for ongoing financial support. If you're looking to support Art on the Air, we have information on our website at barack.com.aota where you can find out how to become a supporter or underwriter of our program in whatever amount you are able. And like I say every week, don't give till it hurts. Give till it feels good, and you'll feel so good about supporting Art on the Air. If you're interested in being a guest or send us information about your arts, arts-related event or exhibit, please email us at aota at breck.com. That's aota at breck, b-r-e-c-h dot com, or contact us through our Facebook page. Your hosts were Larry Breckner and Esther Golden, and we invite you back next week for another episode of Art on the Air. Aloha, everyone. Have a splendid week. Express yourself through art And show the world your heart Express yourself through art And show the world your heart You're in the know with Esther and Larry Art on the Air today They're in the know with Larry and Esther Art on the Air our way Express yourself through art And show the world your heart Express yourself through art And show the world your heart Express yourself through art