Fueled by the passion for learning, sharing, and creating.
This is the foundation of WeMake.
We are a local, non-profit 501C that helps to foster art and design in Portland, Oregon's creative community through hands-on experiences, creative dialogue, and design in action initiatives.
Our first sketchXchange with Josh Kenyon and Colby Nichols of Jolby was awesome! About 30 people gathered last Friday night to be inspired, sketch in a few books and mingle with other illustrators and designers from the community.
The night started with drinks and food at The Sting Ray Cafe on the first floor of The Left Bank Project. It was leisurely moved up stairs to the modern industrial setting of Sockeye where Josh & Colby’s illustrations and sketches adorned several walls from top to bottom.
A captivated audience sat comfortably around a table that was piled with a mountain of Jolby’s sketchbooks, and it didn’t take long for guest to reach for the bounty! You could tell by the smiling faces that what they discovered was worth being one of the few and lucky participants who helped launch the first night of sketchXchange. Some of them even grabbed their own pens and began sketching into the pages. I’m sure the guys will be pleasantly surprised the next time they open their books!
The characters of Josh and Colby not only shine through the work they create together, but also when they talk about the process of creating. It's collaborative from the onset and they are quick to move on if something doesn’t work. Colby usually draws the larger shapes, objects and characters, while Josh will later come in to create the patterns and textures. From then they both work together to finish a piece.
One of the highlights for me was their discussion on creating their first children’s book, “ The King’s 6th Finger”. The book was launched during a Kickstarter campaign and has since been published in hard back. It is a lovely collection of illustration and whimsy. During sketchXchange, the original sketches covered an entire wall, and participants had an opportunity to see the process unfolding in the various sketchbooks throughout the room.
The guys also talked about the balance of graphic design and being illustrators and how they are true to both. Just recently they had a show in San Diego at the Subtext Gallery titled Shapes and Smiles, an exploration in storytelling through drawings, paintings, wood-cut shapes, screen prints, plush, home goods and more. It was so great to see many of the ideas unfolding in the sketches they brought.
Thanks again Jolby for making WeMake’s first sketchXchange a night to remember!
PS: Their next show, Triforce Tribute (celebrating Zelda!) is a collaboration with Always With Honor and takes place at the Land Gallery March 9th-April 21st.
The 2013 sketchXchange roster has been packed with incredibly talented artists–and it’s only April. Well, we’re not letting up for a second! WeMake is happy to announce our May sketchXchange will be an evening with Jolby to discuss the process and creation of their newest children’s book, Monsters Under Bridges: Pacific NW Edition.
This month’s sketchXchange was very special for a couple of reasons.
Our awesome guests, Josh Kenyon and Colby Nichols of Jolby joined us for a second time since WeMake’s very first sketchXchange last year. We were so thrilled to have them back and hear what they’ve been up to.
The evening consisted of a behind-the-scenes look at their latest children’s book Monsters Under Bridges: Pacific NW Edition. They shared sketches, step-by-step process, anecdotes about how some of the creatures were born, and most of all about how much fun they had while putting the book together. Also, as a bonus treat the author Rachel Roellke Coddingon joined in the fun!
We were so pleased to see many familiar faces–and several new faces this month. We can’t wait to see you again next month for our special edition sketchXchange with Gary Baseman at the Hollywood Theatre. Thank you so much for continuing to make sketchXchange such an incredible time to be inspired, make new friends, and just have a jolly good time.
Thanks again, Jolby for sharing your work with us! Congratulations on another beautiful book release.
You can see more photos on our Facebook page, and be sure to watch the rad video by Robert Woodwardin this post!
Our June sketchXchange features local artist, Keegan Wenkman. Keegan is an illustrator, printer, and designer. He is also the co-founder of the letterpress studio, KeeganMeegan & Co. Join us on Friday, June 6th at Tillamook Station to chat with Keegan and learn more about his creative process, printmaking, and the art of letterpress.
When: Friday, June 6, 2014 Time: 7:00 – 9:00pm Check-in begins at 6:00pm. Doors close at 6:45pm. Place: Tillamook Station, 665 N Tillamook Street, PDX 97227 Cost: $5 suggested donation at signup Registration Begins: Friday, May 30th at 9am.
We had a chance to sit down with Keegan and talk shop a few weeks ago. He told us about his process, what inspires him, and gave us some insight into how he creates some of his fantastic linocut posters for bands including The Flaming Lips, Florence + the Machine, and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros.
Did you go to school for design?
I went to school for web design. I hated it. I went in the heyday of Flash and everybody was pushing the all-in-one web designer. I was a painter at the same time, doing oil paintings and showing in galleries. I was doing a bunch of sketching for all the oil paintings and then I started to push more into doing actual drawings and illustration.
I started getting small gigs doing illustration for bands. That led me into trying to reproduce my own drawings. So I learned how to do silkscreening and that basically launched me into printing. I got a job at a large-production screen printing house doing gig posters in Minneapolis. I met Katy at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, which is a letterpress mecca in Minneapolis, and she showed me the equipment and the techniques.
I got really hooked on the history. The two of us moved out to Portland about eight or nine years ago and shortly after we actually started our business.
What has it been like for you guys in the Portland creative community? Do you feed off of the creative vibe here?
It is really supportive. People like to support their neighbor, and kind of spread the work out. If you’re not the best fit for a job you know someone who is. The community is really encouraging about doing your own thing and doing your own style.
It seems like there are a lot of things like WeMake or Hand-Eye Supply that encourage your own niche and learning from others. Especially for what we do.
We’re apart of the creative community but we’re very much a service. The perk of it is, because we are so supported, at the end of the day we get to do whatever we want with the equipment and materials. We’re able to take those leaps and bounds to do big prints, and really experiment to find our own voice.
Can you tell us more about your shop, KeeganMeegan & Co.?
We are a full-service letterpress shop, but we also do design and illustration which sets us apart from a lot of other shops around the country. We can be a one-stop shop from logos and illustration, typesetting, and custom type for clients and then follow the process all the way through to printing.
Since we know how to do that really well, we also have clients come straight to us with their own designs and their own take on the letterpress process. We can use thicker papers that other printing processes can’t use, and we can really push the medium to see what can happen. We can push their designs so that it is exceptional in the end.
What kind of machines do you use?
We have piles of machines. Every machine has a different job that it excels at. We have everything from a large paper cutter that can handle whole parent sheets of 40" and we have poster presses that we can do large posters on.
Our largest press can take a whole 40" sheet, which is pretty rare. We also have automatic presses where we can pump out 10,000 prints in a day. That same machine we employ for dye-cutting, shapes, scoring, and perforating–like for raffle tickets and so on. We also have smaller presses that we can do short-run stuff on. Easy to set up and take down.
What’s the oldest machine you have?
It’s all subjective due to the documentation of the industry, which is dubious at best. But we believe our oldest machine is from 1910. We’ve had older presses in the past, but we’ve since dispersed those.
Can you describe your design process?
It’s always different for every job. A lot of it is assessing what the person wants on a visceral level and what they’re trying to say to their clients or acquaintances.
A lot of it starts out with thumbnails and doing sketches, and I do a lot of work on vellum. I’ll draw stuff out and then I’ll redraw it, and redraw it, and narrow it down to a final version. Most things start out on paper, end up on vellum, and go through several rounds.
Then it ends up on the computer at some point. Just to do a couple of corrections or layout colors. I try to do the majority of the work off the computer. If I work on the computer too much I start to spin my wheels. It looks too standardized.
Where do you get your best ideas? Where do you feel most creative?
It depends on the situation. For my personal work? It just happens. It’s the idea of just meditating on it. Rarely ever is the first idea what ends up being the end product. Half the time I’m not even thinking of [the idea], it’s just in the back of my mind and after awhile I’ll have an epiphany. I’ll be like, “Oh, I should use a tiger.” Or, “I should use that skull I’ve always wanted to use.”
Random acts of inspiration happen. It’s rarely a formula.
Tell us about your linocuts and how you got started with that?
The process of doing a linocut is a ridiculous way of doing printmaking these days–especially for bands. For art, it definitely makes sense, but for bands it’s too elaborate and painstaking. I’m going to start doing a lot more art prints over the next couple of years.
I do reduction linoleum cuts. So what happens is, I buy a 6'x3’ piece of linoleum. I take that and cut out the size of the poster that I want on it. I’ll do drawings and sketches and figure out the final rough format of the poster. Then I’ll scan that into the computer and fool around with it. I’ll take that entire image and flip it over backwards. Because everything in a printmaking method is backwards, it’s mirrored so when the press hits it, the image prints out readable.
I’ll print it back out tiled on 8.5"x11" paper that I have to tape back together. So now I have a big chunk of paper taped together with my design. Then I take that and tape it onto the linoleum with carbon paper behind it and I have to redraw the entire thing using the carbon paper to transfer it to the linoleum. That gives me a really rough guideline to where the type is, thickness, and stuff like that. Then, I just start carving.
The reduction part is that I’ll take the same linoleum block out of the press, carve more out of it, and that opens up spaces for the color to come through. Through the process I’m destroying the block. There’s no going back, there’s no correcting mistakes. If something’s backwards it’s now permanently backwards (unless you can figure out something very, very creative).
The reason why I started doing linocuts in the first place is because at our old studio we had a silkscreening setup which I donated to the IPRC. I had run my course with silkscreening and I was more enthusiastic about this.
I needed a way to keep doing posters for bands that I knew who were coming to town and wanted help. The first one I did was a huge poster for our studio mate. He’s the manager of The Flaming Lips and they needed a poster, so that was the first one where I just tried it and figured it out. I had no idea what I was doing and it went fairly well. That was almost three years ago now.
Is there an art of embracing imperfection with linocuts?
With our day-to-day in the shop, everything is perfect. We use really minute amounts of measurements. All of our colors are spot-on. There are no inconsistencies and that’s how we built our shop, and why I think we’ve stayed around. It’s a very Type-A job. Nothing slides through that isn’t up to our standards. It is a non-negotiable process.
But when I’m doing the art prints, I would never call it fine printing, I would never call it perfect. And that’s what I like about it. The ink I use is whatever ink is around, the colors–I’ll mix ink on the press–which you never do for a job. Basically everything that I’d never do on the day-to-day, I’ll do on the art prints. The beauty comes through in the process.
So do you see it more as experimenting? That’s how it all came to be in the first place. I think art is experimental no matter what. Design is not experimental in my opinion. Design is for function and art is for romanticism and beauty, and I think that is experimental.
What is your favorite part about letterpress printing?
The actual process. It’s not about a philosophy. You can’t run out and buy books that have diatribes about the printmaking method or printmaking in general. It’s always open to interpretation.
It’s been perfected to a degree in terms of the machines, but it’s always up to the operator no matter what. To me, it’s really the problem solving and getting into the minute details. Losing yourself in it. You become part of the machine, in a way. It’s being one with what you’re doing.
With drawing, everyone has a favorite pencil, everyone has a favorite pen or piece of paper. I have favorite presses that I’m really in tune with when I’m doing certain things. So it’s about finding that symbiotic nature with what you’re working with.
Did you have mentors when you started learning about printmaking who taught you the ropes?
Katy is how I know how to do this. If she wasn’t around, I wouldn’t know how to do this at all. She gave me the initial setup, gave me the loose bolts, and kind of let me go–which in hindsight was kind of brave on her behalf.
When we first started the business, we had Stumptown Printers who are good friends that we knew from before. We actually approached them and asked what would be a good niche for us. Ironically enough, they completely nailed it and told us exactly where we needed to be, which is what we do now–working with other designers and doing our own designs for small businesses up to larger operations. So they were really integral, and they still are, in our day-to-day.
There is a pretty thriving community of older printers who are now retiring that we’re kind of tapped into in Portland and the West Coast area. There are people that we know in Minneapolis that we still call on occasion.
The network is pretty strong, you just have to know where it is. It’s not based off the internet, or based off of meetings. It’s meeting one person, and then meeting their friends. You slowly find out that there is this huge population that is vastly knowledgable and are willing to help if you ask the right questions.
Do you have any advice for students or creatives who are thinking about getting into printmaking and letterpress?
Don’t do it. If you want to make money, don’t do it. If you want to be happy, maybe. Take classes. There are places like IPRC, PNCA, OCAC. Don’t just run out and buy something off the internet. Take your time, be patient. Seek out education. Learn the printing process.
Even as someone who has been doing this for quite awhile, it’s going to take me the rest of my life to keep growing, learning, and finessing the process.
What are your thoughts on creativity and finding inspiration?
I think I’m the odd one out in the design community. Instead of buying design books, I buy books that have design in them. Get outside of that box. When you walk into Powell’s, don’t just go to the design section where it’s been curated and picked through and everyone is buying the same books for inspiration. There is a plethora of stuff out there that is really interesting.
Dig through history and find the interesting parts. It’s not just a straight path. Take the winding path.
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Thanks for your time, Keegan. We look forward to hearing more from you at the June edition of sketchXchange. See you all there!
When: Friday, June 6, 2014 Time: 7:00 – 9:00pm Check-in begins at 6:00pm. Doors close at 6:45pm. Place: Tillamook Station, 665 N Tillamook Street, PDX 97227 Cost: $5 suggested donation at signup Registration Begins: Friday, May 30th at 9am.
We are super excited to have Mary Kate McDevitt as the next guest illustrator for sketchXchange. As always space is limited, so be sure to register early!
Tucked away in a NE neighborhood of Portland, Oregon sits the studio of the gifted type illustrator and designer Mary Kate McDevitt, and her equally talented partner Fred DiMeglio of Man vs. Ink. I spent the afternoon getting to know Mary Kate and learning about the impressive journey she’s taken so far that has put her work on and in publications like: Fast Company, Better Homes & Garden, Oh Comely, Women’s Day, Rachel Ray Magazine, The Portland Mercury and Willamette Week.
As a young designer Mary Kate began her career a few years ago, working for a small design firm in Lancaster, PA. It was her late night and personal work (creating sweet little chalkboards sold in her Etsy Shop) that caught the attention of Chronicle Books. This launched her solo career as an independent type illustrator and designer. She hasn’t looked back since!
Mary Kate’s workspace is as sweet and charming as she is. The bulk of her work is created in a spruced up closet that once housed a Murphy bed. To put the finishing touches on many of her pieces, she heads downstairs to build, silkscreen and ship. Both spaces are equally wonderful!
Do you work full time as an illustrator?
Yes. Occasionally I do some graphic design work but mostly I work creating hand-lettering and illustrations for several different clients.
What is one of your favorite pieces of client work?
I really like the Live Well, Eat Well, Be Well project I did with Women’s Day Magazine and my mom was pretty excited to see my work in a magazine she reads!
Where does your client work come from?
Word of mouth. I make stuff for my shop and then it get’s featured on blogs. The work with Chronicle Books got a lot of attention but I also post my stuff on dribbble and I think I’ve gotten some work there as well. Many of my projects are editorial driven, I really like doing that kind of work. The Art Directors I collaborate with are pretty easy going and nice to work with.
What other social media platforms do you use to reach potential clients?
Twitter, Pinterest, Etsy, and Dribbble. A lot of my Etsy sales are from Pinterest. When I first got on twitter mostly student’s and crafty people followed me, now I see more designers. They all are great.
This project was inspired by a discovery I made when I was 12 years old from a box of handwritten letters my mom and my aunt wrote to my grandmother when they were in college. The letters were kept neatly together with string in a shoebox and I recall admiring the beautiful penmanship. That memory was in my head when I made my “Write More Handwritten Letters” poster. Shorty after making the poster, I decided it would be most effective to receive an actual handwritten letter in the mail. So, I started the project with a commitment to writing a handwritten letter each day, not a traditional letter but a letter from the alphabet. Using twitter, I collected addresses for people interested in receiving a Handwritten Letter and I got an astounding response! The first day over 300 people responded. I have completed over 115 letters so far.
How do you create the letters?
Everyday I draw a letter, scan it in and post it to the Handwritten Letters blog, then send it out via post. It’s a great way to spark my creativity each day and I enjoy writing letters to total strangers.
Whose work are you inspired by?
I really like vintage type and get a lot of my inspiration from there. I also love the work of Tom Frost and Ray Fenwick.
Please join us for an intimate night of drawing and inspirationwith Mary Kate!
DATE OF THE EVENT: Friday Night, April 6th, 2012
TIME: 6:00-9:00 PM
PLACE: The Left Bank Project Bring Check-in begins at 6:00pm in The Sting Ray Cafe. Doors close at 6:45
COST: FREE
REGISTRATION BEGINS: Monday, April 2nd, at 9am
Check our website for more information on sketchXchange and follow us on twitter for up to date stuff!
“My happiness as a human being is wholly dependent on making things. It’s the best way to hold my fragile ego together. Also, I’m not good at much else.”
WeMake was excited to welcome illustrator and art director Nick Stokes for our second sketchXchange of 2018. His talk was moderated by friend, coworker and poet extraordinaire, Becca Wadlinger.
Nick’s playful work was a great indication of what the night would hold - there were plenty of stories and laughs, all with a clever, intentional edge. Topics included everything from his early doodling days to directing his first Super Bowl commercial for Wieden+Kennedy (and being pranked fantastically while doing so).
We also had the chance to ask Nick a few questions of our own, which resulted in the perfect combination of inspiration, process and Kanye poetry. Check out his answers below:
MB Your style is so playful and full of color. Was that a natural approach for you, or did it develop over time?
NS My disposition overall is pretty upbeat and positive. I think my work is naturally an extension of that. Bright and bold colors have always been something I’ve been attracted to, and it’s been a shorthand for communicating fun and playfulness. I’m sure a huge part of it comes from watching so many cartoons as a kid where everything is bold and colorful.
MB How has incorporating animated elements into your work changed your process?
NS I like to think of animation as another tool in the drawing toolbox. If an idea works better as an illustration I’ll keep it an illustration, but sometimes the story is better told through an animation. It’s been really great experience adding animation to my workflow thought. There is something I like about tediously drawing frame after frame in an animation that’s so mundane, tranquil and therapeutic.
Also, animation adds some cool production value and wow factor to the work.
MB You’ve worked with some amazing clients. Can you tell us a little bit about a favorite project that you’ve worked on? What made it special?
NS Yeah I have been very lucky so far. If I had to pick a favorite, I think it may be IGN, the video game and pop culture website. They found my work a couple of years ago through a personal project my good friend Eric Swanson and I created called ‘What Ye is it?’. It was a website that featured a new Kanye West looping animation for everyday of the week. They found that project and asked if I could create a similar series of animations for their social media channels. They gave me free reign to create whatever animations I wanted based on my favorite TV shows, movies, video games and pop culture moments. The nerd inside of me couldn’t have been more excited.
MB On the flip side of that - if you were given the opportunity to work for anyone on anything, what would it be and why?
NS Oh man. My bucket list is a long one. I think on the short term I would love to design a beer can or a series of cans. I have ideas I’ve been bouncing around in my head for the last few years that I’d love to get out. I would love to work with the publishing company Nobrow too. They put out such an amazing collection of work. It would be a blast to work with Nike or Adidas again. Both of those companies do such great work with illustrators. I would love to do an illustrated identity for a band, work in cartoons, design toys, direct music videos, design tattoos and do another another skateboard series. I mean the list is endless. I could sit here and add to this for days.
MB What or who do you find yourself drawing inspiration from recently?
NS Recently I’ve been really into French illustration. Folks like Moebius, Hergé, Jean Jullien, and Je Andre. There’s a really cool style the French use called ligne claire that uses fine black outlines and bold eye catching color palettes. I love how clean and crisp it is.
I’ve also been really into 1980s New York city. There was an awesome grime and grit to it that had so much character and charm. All the hand painted storefront signs, garbage, graffiti, steam from sewer grates, and traffic add so much life to the city. It’s been a big inspiration in several of my personal projects.
MB You seem to be constantly creating. Have you ever experienced burnout, and if so, how do you overcome it? What do you do to prevent it?
NS I get burnout from advertising work for sure. The industry is really intense with crazy timelines and that can be a total drag. It helps that I have my own personal work. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced burn out from that. Drawing is my favorite thing to do. It’s how I charge my batteries.
MB Can you please write us a short poem about Kanye?
Kanye West you are the best.
Aladdin had a purple vest.
Had I three wishes from a magical genie,
I’d use all three to see your weenie.
jk
MB Why do you make?
NS My happiness as a human being is wholly dependent on making things. It’s the best way to hold my fragile ego together. Also, I’m not good at much else.
It’s seams like forever ago that we were in full Design Week mode. We of course went a little over board again with two awesome events. Our first event was a collaboration with the Portland Art Museum. We hosted the bad ass designer and illustrator, Tuesday Bassen for a super sketchXchange, moderated by Lisa Congdon and had over 200 people in for the talk. Tuesday spoke about when she first realized she was not content on doing work in other styles for jobs she didn’t care much for, and how out of her frustration she drew up a little piece that basically said, Fuck it, and then posted it to Instagram. Turns out she was on to something and her audience loved it. From there she developed a rebel style that resonated with many people, and caught the attention of fashion giant Zara who plagiarized 15 pieces of her trademarked work and created replicas of her pins and patches to sell worldwide. When Tuesday became aware of the Zara fakes, she stood up for herself and fought them. She’s still in the battle, but Zara has since pulled the merchandise from their shelves.
What I respect about Tuesday is her tenacity, and her go-for-it attitude. She is a young woman that knows what she wants. From opening her own shop to developing a line of clothing. Her newest venture is creating jeans for women from a size 3-33, an undertaking that takes a lot of courage and moxie. At the age of age of 26, Tuesday is still finding out what she wants, but she’s doing so with style.
Two days later we paid tribute to the pin game game community with a gallery and fundraiser called, Pin That Shit! We knew that enamel pins were a craze, but we really had no idea that we would have over 60 artists participate and 600 pins for sale. The turnout across the board, from talent to the amount of people that showed up and bought pins was awesome! After lots of rain, the clouds parted and we even had some sun!
Pin That Shit! was a sweet event of small wonders. We raised over $3500 towards arts education and awarded our neighborhood school Boise Elliot $1500 to help fund their arts and music programs. We could not have done it without the help of the community, far and wide. All of the pin designs were amazing but we awarded a few stand outs for fun.
The Best in Show Award went to Figure 8 Creative for their collection of feminism pins. The concepts were cheeky, relevant, and fun. And they really took the time to design the packaging in an elegant way.
The Punch Pin Award went to Mike Aknin of the Good Hustle Company for his hip-hop urban style that sang proud and powerful all over.
The Fun Flair Award went to Indonesian artists Martcellia Liunic of Liunic On Things She submitted 20 handmade pins that were mind blowing, each one a small piece of art carefully designed and showcasing an array of style.
The Pinography Award went to local designer Danielle McCoy for her typographic driven pin that also sent a message of unity. It was clever and spot on.
Lastly, The Pintastic Award went to Bill Bubenik of Westpark Creative. His pins were cute as a button with a bite. They were also displayed on beautiful letterpress cards that simple balanced each pin design.
I want to also give a shout out to The Taco Peddlar for making some awesome street tacos, Design Week Portland for putting together a platform where we could participate once again, and our amazing WeMake Team for really rallying to make both events a huge success.
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN Space is limited. Be sure to register early!
Beginning her design path in 2006, and then heading out on her own in 2009, Jessica’s career propelled as she landed jobs with clients like Wes Anderson, Penguin Books, and Google.
She’s been named one of Print Magazine’s New Visual Artists, an ADC Young Gun, and one of Forbes 30 under 30 in Art and Design two years in a row.
Her style—warm, friendly, playful and sophisticated is all her own. It crosses many platforms from editorial design, advertising, product design, book design, identity, and even temporary tattoos!
One of the things I find inspiring about Jessica is her ability to share. Whether it’s a talk, as a judge in a portfolio review, offering a workshop, or thoughtful posts on her own site where she writes about getting paid, process, and other tangents. Some might say she’s an over sharer but I can respect the transparency.
”I think putting myself out there has helped clients feel like they know me before they make first contact, and maybe made them more likely to contact me over someone with similar work but less transparent of a personality. It’s also been wonderful to meet strangers that feel like they know me already. I can ask them questions about them and not have to go through the whole “so what do you do” robotic introduction that happens at design events. I feel like old friends with people instantly and strangers write me as if we’ve known each other our whole lives.”
We are really looking forward to having her share her thoughts on design and her process and hope you will join us too. Space will be limited so be sure to sign up early!
Date of the event: Friday, May, 2nd 2014
Time: 7:00 – 9:00pm Check-in begins at 6:00pm. Doors close at 6:45pm.
Our July guest was the one and only, BT Livermore. He brought us stories, inspiration, and so many of his wonderful sketchbooks—and we enjoyed every minute of it.
“I am happiest when I am busy, and when I am working.”
It was great to hear about his journey as an illustrator, sign maker and owner of a mustache wax company. One of the things that really stood out to me was the curiosity that surounds his process and how it comes across in his work.
Thanks to all of you for joining us and spending another evening full of great people and inspiring conversation.
Our next sketchXchange guest illustrator is the very talented Meg Hunt. She is a fascinating woman, a full-time illustrator, teacher, and explorer. Meg lives in Portland and has a very impressive client list including: Disneyland, Cartoon Network, Junior Scholastics, Vegetarian Times, Image Comics, Brand New School, Seattle Metropolitan, and the Washington Post to name a few.
“I like that about art. Any interests that you have, no matter how seemingly disparate, can come together in what you make.” – Katy Ann Gilmore
Katy Ann Gilmore is a multi-disciplinary artist that brings together the worlds of mathematics and art. She pushes the boundaries of what you can do with shapes and intricate line work and transports you into spaces where dimension takes on an entirely new meaning. I can confidently say she makes me think math is way more cool than I would have ever believed was possible. We are so excited to hear more about her life, work and love of non-Euclidean geometry at the Disrupt conference - in the meantime, we had the chance to ask her a few questions. Check it out.
MB: We are so dang excited for you to come to Portland! Is there anything you’re looking forward to doing while your here?
KG: I’m excited to be up there! In general, I’m looking forward to seeing murals around the city, meeting all others involved in WeMake, and maybe getting out for a short hike or walk around the city!
MB: Can you tell us a little bit about your creative journey up to this point?
KG: I grew up making things, but in the rural Midwest, I didn’t really have an idea of what it meant to make art professionally. I’ve been keeping journals since I was 8, so it’s fun to look back and see how many times I wrote that I just want to “make things” for my job. I feel so incredibly lucky that I get to wake up and do that each day!
I was always making things, and I studied both art and math in undergrad. After graduating, I still wasn’t sure about the feasibility of art as a career, but I moved out to LA 7 years ago for grad school. I didn’t have a car, money, or a large space to work. That really limited me in materials and flexibility. I found that I had to make my studio wherever I was, so drawing was a perfect medium to explore. I took projects with me and worked when I could. I was working full-time at the same time, so I’d also use my lunch break to draw. Then, as life began to stabilize, I started working in more 3D/installation terms.
The same cycle happened again when I quit my full-time job in late 2014. I started focusing on drawing again as I didn’t have a dedicated space to make art, and started to use Instagram as a tool to push small drawings for purchase. I really credit those times focusing on drawing for providing the foundation for my mural work today. My work and drawing eventually began to mature as I started bringing in ideas and interests from the past about perception and the ways we engage with the environments around us.
Now I’m balancing between working on murals and studio work for shows. It’s a really fun mix, and I love that murals and installation projects are a part of it!
MB: Your work is such a great combination of logic and creativity - how do you manage to bring the two together?
KG: Art and math have always been big parts of my life. I was always making something growing up, and also had a pretty heavy interest in buildings and architecture along with mathematics. The higher up in mathematics you go, the more abstract it becomes. You’re not so much dealing with numbers as concepts and problems. I really loved that, and particularly fell in love with non-Euclidean geometry. It’s been fun to see them naturally intertwine as I pursue ideas that seem interesting to me. I like that about art. Any interests that you have, no matter how seemingly disparate, can come together in what you make. Focusing on both has led to a natural expression of ideas through what I make.
MB: Is there a project that you’ve worked on that is particularly memorable? What made it special?
KG: I really loved working on my mural last summer at Facebook Los Angeles. I worked on it for a month, and it was fun to commute out to their office near the beach. I really enjoyed the vive of the offices, and had a great time making the mural. It was a marathon of a challenge, and I’m so happy with how it came together.
MB: You work in a lot of different mediums - drawing, murals, 3D installations - how does your planning and process vary between them? What stays the same?
KG: For all mediums, I usually start with pretty messy and initial ideas in my sketchbook. I take a sketchbook with me wherever I go, so when these ideas come (I tend to get a lot while driving, on a walk or hike, basically during any monotonous activity where my mind wanders), I draw them out. From there, I pick the winners to develop into nicer sketches. This is where they could deviate according to medium. At this point is when I figure out the details of how I’m actually going to make it. Once I figure that out, it’s the most satisfying and meditative part for me, seeing it all come together after so many steps.
It’s a big planning process, so I’m simultaneously in the stages of sketching on piece, working on a finished piece, or drawing in Illustrator to keep work flowing.
MB: If you could collaborate with one person on any project, who would it be and why?
KG: I would love to collaborate with Phillip K. Smith III. I think his work is so intelligent and interesting.
MB: We have to know - what happened with your Nissan Maxima!?
KG: That was such a fun project! The car wasn’t really in great running shape without some major intervention, so after documenting it well, I kept the hood and the spoiler, but got rid of the rest of the car.
MB: What are you drawing inspiration from lately?
KG: Lately, I’m finding inspiration from taking time to read, hike, and recharge. I’m taking time to slow down and think about what I’m making, which I think has been important for my work. Specifically, I’ve been going back and reading about the mathematical study of topology (the study of properties of spaces that are preserved through twisting or stretching of that object or space).
MB: What do you find yourself doing when you’re not working?
KG: When I’m not working, apart from spending time with friends, I’m usually hiking or boxing.
MB: And finally, the official WeMake question: Why do you make?
KG: I’ve always felt an internal compulsion to make. I can’t remember a time where I wasn’t drawing, painting, or tasking myself with some project. I find that I’m most myself when I get into the zone and work through ideas in this way.
