Garment Builder/ Annie Bisone

Join co-hosts Douglas Sigwarth https://www.sigwarthglass.com/ and Will Armstrong http://www.willarmstrongart.com/, professional working artists who talk with guests about ART & SELLING.  This week's topics include getting COVID on the road, studio equipment adversity, and physical challenges.

This week’s guest is Annie Bisone https://www.laloworkshop.com/, a fiber artist from Milwaukee, WI. Annie recounts the story as a child when she enthusiastically joined a parade and never looked back which serves as a metaphor for her creative life. Schooled in various mediums, fiber is her current passion; a practice is rooted in sustainability and connection . Annie shares the balance of integrating all aspects of her personal and professional life through the lens of an independent artist.

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Music  "Walking" by Oliver Lear
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Transcript

0:00
foreign
0:11
welcome to the independent artist podcast sponsored by the National Association of Independent Artists also
0:19
sponsored by zapplication I'm will Armstrong and I'm a mixed media artist I'm Douglas sigworth glassblower join
0:26
our conversations with professional working artists
0:32
hey everybody welcome back to the show will how's it going man that's fine
0:37
okay that's all we got thanks good talk see you next week everyone we've used
0:43
that stick a few times but it never gets old no not with me I mean it's it's
0:48
honest it's hottest all right well you're squeezing in your uh record this
0:53
week with Annie just a few minutes ago and now we are doing the Preamble so now this week I'm not listening to the
0:59
recording before we talk yeah you can just gush and gush about how great it is and we just spent the last hour just uh
1:06
I don't know talking about Netflix okay well you know not really well I will say this is your best talk ever and um
1:14
yeah so uh yeah it's it's good to be back here it's been a challenging past few weeks uh unexpectedly so and um yeah
1:23
well I'm not gonna catch any of your uh covet cooties over the internet here I'm well done with my coveted cooties sir
1:31
the garden hose up to my nostrils and washed the whole carcass clean uh I'm
1:36
sorry you had to go through that what what's going on with that what happened um it was honestly the biggest bummer of
1:42
my artistic career I really all the way back to the east coast to go do
1:48
Artisphere after a lot of like cross-country traveling you had yeah they were in there going back and forth
1:55
you can't just take the center out of a train track you have to actually ride through the entire thing so by the time
2:01
I was actually on the train I I couldn't stop it's like I had plane
2:06
tickets and I had to take my truck all the way back to the east coast not just for artist fear but for my wife and for
2:13
ACC Baltimore that's coming up for her I had her booth in the back of my truck and so it was the whole convoluted thing
2:20
like I got all the way back to Commerce Georgia there's like a little cheaper
2:26
Fairfield Inn right there and I was like I'll just spend the night here travel in for Thursday for my setup went to the
2:33
bar had myself a little burger and a beer got about halfway through my burger didn't want anymore got about halfway
2:39
through my beer and was like gosh feel like drinking this beer either so I just got my tab and I left got back to
2:46
the room and started feeling worse and worse and by the time I was um ready for bed I pulled out one of
2:52
those covet tests and took it positive uh damn I hung it up you know couldn't
2:58
go to artist fear had to let them know didn't get to see my folks they were coming down from Richmond to see I
3:03
haven't seen them in over a year I made it to cancel everything so literally setup was the next day and you were just
3:08
like stopping your tracks yeah this was Wednesday night Wednesday night and then Thursday I felt awful like there was no
3:16
you know somebody I was was talking to some people and they were like why didn't you tell us we could have set up the booth for you and I'm like God the
3:23
way I broke down Fort Worth and the way the back of my truck is we had 50 mile per hour winds coming around the corners
3:29
I just threw all the [ __ ] in the back of the truck I don't know where anything is yeah there comes a time when there's
3:34
only like you know like you feel like only you can do the booth it's true though it really is true I mean for us
3:40
anyway yeah apparently I can do it sometimes right and it's like well I put the
3:46
d-rings for my craft Hut inside the thing with the pro panel bits and then like there's just a bunch of [ __ ] it's
3:52
like putting together Legos without a a map or yeah so did you go down hard was it a did you
4:00
get pretty sick from it yeah after like two or three days we had fever about 103 and you know the scary thing about that
4:06
whole thing Doug is that typically if you get sick you get sick and then
4:12
you're done you know and and you get very quickly as sick as you're actually gonna get
4:17
with this I was like well I feel yeah I kind of know you know I don't feel like eating my burger you know and then from
4:23
that and then you go into the hotel room you're like I feel pretty bad then you wake up and it's like fever and then it's like it kind of sneaks up I can't
4:30
actually breathe super awesome like oh like the next day but it's like a dawn
4:36
on you right yeah and I'm like is this gonna keep getting worse like so yeah by
4:42
day by day three I guess my fever broke and like overnight and I'm I'm laying it
4:48
but it's one of those you know wake up and the you're drenched and the bed sheets are drenched and you're just like
4:54
that's gross but anyway it was over as quickly as it started well I did see what you posted on social just being so
5:00
grateful that you had had the booster and you know the vaccines and it's like it it had an end it was able to stop at
5:08
a certain point turn around and get you out of the the hole so exactly I'm glad
5:13
that exists I'm glad we were able to get on with our lives and we're all gonna get it at some point and just hopefully
5:19
just get over it quick you know I mean that's the thing it's it's a realization to me now I mean like you definitely are
5:26
gonna get it and uh we're gonna get it one of these art shows so here's my here's my advice for you okay I've never
5:33
been so happy to have opened up my suitcase and realized I packed my sweatpants I was
5:39
like ah my sweat I'm sick hotel room so pack your sweatpants you're gonna say
5:45
you're cold get yourself a covet test to carry with you and uh brace yourself Molly it's coming man
5:53
yeah I saw the heckers had written that very same advice say and I hadn't thought about it I got the free covid
6:00
test from the government that they once they said we could get them and have they're sitting in the cupboard down downstairs but they won't do me any good
6:06
if I'm on the road and I start happening what happened to you so yeah throw it in your toolbox toolbox bathroom bag
6:13
something yeah whatever you know I've got weird [ __ ] in my toolbox though okay
6:18
I gotcha yeah that'll be on the next episode of The Independent artist podcast what's in your toolbox I've got
6:25
a sack of chia seeds and I get dehydrated none tabs okay yeah I actually have both
6:32
yeah awesome well I did get our we did get our second booster right as soon as
6:38
we could you know back before Fort Worth and I was sitting at Fort Worth and I'm sitting at jazz fest where it's just
6:44
like people shoulder to shoulder thinking there's somebody in this crowd with
6:49
covid gonna breathe on me I'm sure I'm glad I got the second booster so anyway
6:55
it's out there it's out there well I'm typhoid Willie I spread it Coast to Coast it was positive and I was looking
7:03
it up and I'm like okay if you're feeling bad you've been positive for two days ahead of that oh and so I'm like oh
7:10
um so sold out concert at Red Rocks for Jason Isbell uh okay uh Denver Airport
7:18
got it check uh okay check Atlanta airport check uh the bar at Applebee's
7:24
talking Atlanta Braves baseball to a couple of hillbillies [ __ ] sorry Hillbillies hope you're vaxxed
7:31
um yeah so uh sorry everyone uh if you see a spike from coast to coast that's your boy but any one of those spots is
7:38
where you got it I mean quite frankly so right it's how do you know that's so
7:44
that's that that's that topic so that happened yay so no show for you so you
7:49
uh you are getting ready for another one here yeah no show for me um I do have to give a quick shout out to uh the good
7:56
people at artistsphere they were incredibly understanding and quick to refund my booth really yeah canceling
8:04
just like right up to the the end like that they were able to to do that that's really great you know I mean I think
8:09
with with that show in the short wait list just hopefully they were able to fill that Booth I had like honestly the
8:15
plum Plum spot you know you go in to check in you take a right I'm the first booth on the left I had a big double
8:21
Booth I was so excited for the show but um yeah instead I just hemorrhaged money
8:27
and stayed in a hotel for an entire what week 10 days super sucked oh I'm done no
8:34
more bitching no more no more covet talk well you've got you're complaining that
8:39
I had I have a little complaining to do I've told enough stories on the Pod about uh Studio troubles I have while
8:46
this one Takes the Cake so every few weeks we have to throw our raw materials
8:52
into a 2 300 degree Fahrenheit furnace to melt our raw materials to get a pot
8:58
of glass with 300 pounds of glass which can usually get us through about eight to ten solid days of blowing glass
9:04
anyway I've been doing this for 30 years and the scoop that I throw the glass in slipped out of my hand into the pot and
9:11
that kind of melted right to the bottom wow do you have a good divorce attorney
9:16
oh man I was I I couldn't even speak
9:23
he's trying to you know determine from my like complete and utter shock she's like did the furnace crash I'm like I'm
9:29
just shaking my head no she's then she's going through the laundry list of things that could go around come on tell her
9:35
Doug come on and then she says did you throw the scoop in the pot and then I'm just like up and down with the head yes
9:41
they did and she's like oh [ __ ] and it's not just like okay to a non-class blower
9:48
it's like well it's a big deal so you throw the scoop in it ruins everything that's that's kind of like well um you
9:55
still have all of your paint but we squeezed them all into one bucket you got it yeah that's exactly right and
10:00
then not only it's not like you can just throw that bucket out and buy all new paint you now have to buy all new paper
10:07
all new brushes all new because the furnace now yeah it was potentially [ __ ]
10:15
yeah which would have meant that we'd have to shut it down we've got all these orders to make we just had all we took
10:21
all these orders we've got all these shows lined up for the summer I've got this surgery going and I'm thinking I have to shut the furnace off do an
10:28
entire rebuild of the furnace to fix this problem before we can even start making any more glass which would be
10:34
months anyway long story short is that month yep because we would have to shut it
10:40
down which would take a week we have to order the parts whichever thing is completely back ordered we get the parts
10:45
we have to tear the whole the furnace it has is 15 years old so when we rebuild
10:51
it it has to be completely rebuilt so you have to rebuild the furnace now if we would have had to shut it down yes
10:58
but it didn't end up being as bad as it could have been oh so
11:04
thank you yes welcome to the podcast everyone so you're just you're just speculating
11:10
so so what did you actually have to do so what I ended up having to do is I spent a couple hours on the phone after
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the thing is just like the Titanic and they're melting to the bottom of our pot getting expert opinions from other glass
11:22
blowers thank you Mike Hayes for your uh bit of wisdom by the way basically the consensus was get all that glass out of
11:28
there and hopefully save your pot so I'm going in there with Garden shovels with wooden handles wrapped in tin foil
11:35
trying to scoop all the glass out as fast as I can and it was almost like this aluminum scoop was like somebody
11:41
broke open a thermometer and every time I'd get some of the metal it would all just congeal and slide off the end of
11:48
the shovel so I had to keep Gathering and Gathering and gathering for hours I had to get every ounce of glass out of
11:55
that pot and scrape out any of the molten metal too so after we did that I still thought I
12:02
was going to have to to replace the pot The Crucible that holds the glass
12:07
so but I said before I do that I'm going to just give it one more shot I'm going to fill it up with glass which is
12:14
possibly wasting 300 more pounds of glass to see what the problem was
12:20
and some more metal floated to the top scooped that out we were still able to
12:25
make glass last week so we're not in the woods yet all right but it's better than
12:30
it was looking about a week and a half ago so is this it's a new technique with uh glass and and shovel you know you get
12:39
a little scoop in yours you get a little a bit of aluminum added to yours it's an extra little Cracker Jack treat at the
12:47
bottom of your glass piece delicious is it toxic too when that thing goes in totally sick we're lucky we didn't I
12:55
mean you inhaling aluminum fumes is not good for you so um no not at all not at
13:01
all that was my exciting drama week and then getting off to the show so but that
13:06
wasn't fine we were able to get some work made and get off to the show but that was a tough a tough situation
13:13
to recover from like I feel like I've I just saw you like 10 days ago but you've already crammed in like three shows and
13:19
uh you ruined your furnace and all this other stuff so but you also went back to Jazz Fest huh Jazz Fest was good it was
13:26
a little bit of a head trip for us because also well we're not the stars of
13:32
the show I mean I I've never done a show like that where it's interesting take care yeah 250 000 people walking around
13:39
well we're used to doing an art show where we're the artists I mean we're the reason people are coming and they'll
13:45
have a band on the side but the bands are why people are there that makes
13:50
sense you know I have done that show a number of times with my wife like we talked about but the it's almost like
13:55
you have to wait for somebody to not be into Lionel Richie in order to make a
14:00
sale so um yeah I've always found it to be a good show but yeah you are definitely secondary yeah so it started to feel
14:08
like we weren't having that same kind of enthusiasm and like it might not really happen like like we're glad we're here
14:15
and we're we're glad we get to experience this but I don't know if we're gonna come out of this with the kind of sales we want but then
14:23
we sold a couple of pieces that were like at the top of our um top of the food chain top of the food chain yeah
14:30
it's one of our big pieces we're driving it out to New York to this this lady it's for her personally but she also
14:36
owns um business with five or six locations a wonderful person she could turn into
14:42
being a really great collector for us that's what I found with some of those shows like the the big fish kind of
14:48
shows uh if it depends somebody was asking about I'm trying to remember oh well I Crested
14:53
Butte and what I've heard about Crested Butte is something along the lines where it's like well not a huge turnout but
14:58
Deep Pockets that among the people that do so if your business model is volume of people maybe not the show for you as
15:06
far as Crested Butte whereas opposed to Jazz Fest it's a mountain of people but they're not all coming to see you yeah
15:13
you almost have to wait until Van Morrison sucks and then to the in-between point or something right so
15:21
hey what do you got coming up here uh you said you're heading out to uh I'm
15:26
gonna go be an artist assistant or like Sharon Spiller always says and I hate this but she always calls it the booth
15:32
[ __ ] you know what I I love selling Jewels
15:39
there's nothing like selling somebody else's artwork to me I love doing it so yeah I'm gonna go to Baltimore eat some
15:45
crab cakes uh sell some Jewels flirt with the ladies and make them feel good about all the the pretty jewels that
15:50
they have on then I'm going up to Minnesota I'm coming back to your neck of the woods oh
15:55
cool and so I'll actually drive past see my folks uh in Richmond and then Old Town got that Chicago show I'll be an
16:03
old Tom too right on turn the tables you'll be the one on the scooter this time they'll be scooting around uh those
16:08
wobbly streets in Old Town hey did you get that surgery scheduled or do you want to talk about that when's that
16:14
coming up the surgery is I don't know it's at the end of every breakdown you know Renee and I look at each other and
16:20
we're like ah maybe I'm not gonna make it to September maybe it's gonna end up
16:25
happening sooner but it's like like today I'm feeling like how to use an expression that you like to use I feel
16:31
like chewed food I really have that Monday morning hangover where I'm like good for nothing right now but I'm
16:38
really trying to take this whole year one show at a time one step at a time
16:44
and not try and blump it all into one big basket so yeah do you feel like the
16:49
universe is talking to you with the like the the personally like inside your brain was like my feet are killing me
16:55
throw the scoop in throw this throw the scoop in and wreck this goddamn furnace it felt like it it kind of felt like I
17:01
was like somehow yeah subconsciously doing a little sabotage so I could shut the operation down but um but anyway so
17:07
all right yeah one step at a time you know I had a great talk with Annie coming up and I'm looking forward for you hearing that for the first time
17:14
she's super open uh she's just wide open and tells absolutely everything it's
17:19
just a really cool talk so it's about time we got some Fiber into the uh podcast apologies to to the rest of the
17:27
fiber artists out there that we have not had one of you or one of your own people
17:32
yet yeah exactly so well I'm looking forward to hearing it so let's turn on the interview here with Annie bessoni
17:39
from Milwaukee Wisconsin this episode of The Independent artist podcast is brought to you by zap the
17:46
digital application service where artists and art festivals connect well sometimes I'm in a real hurry and I just
17:53
love that I have things that are saved in Zapped to streamline my process saving shows as favorites is my personal
17:59
way of using zap uh that's my favorite I know a lot of people use the calendar they use the events but for me if I'm
18:06
saving the favorites of anything I've ever looked at or thought about doing then I can check out those deadlines on
18:13
a regular basis but then there's other times when I have a little more time on my hands and I'm looking into other
18:19
shows all the information is right there in the prospectus with links to the website I can see who the artists are
18:26
that have participated in the past that's a great idea Douglas because one of the ways that I was finding shows at
18:32
the very beginning was to go online and see who I felt my work looked good with it's just great that all that
18:38
information is organized and easy to look over when planning our next show
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season okay your t-shirt's awesome oh thanks it's Nick Cape my daughters call this
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he's just like oh that penis man that you because he's his penis is hanging out so I love it so I wear big Nick Cave
18:57
fans two so it
19:04
for real quick and pronounce your last name for everybody because I've butchered it I believe uh Douglas just
19:09
told me
19:19
yeah it's like some people are automatically know that and then others it's just bison right
19:26
bad but my name is so short anyways and so I'm just like I need all the vowels
19:31
and all the pictures you do well just to make you feel better I'll go with a hard g at the end of my name Armstrong
19:38
no have you notice that it's actually that it's it's like Italians are like the
19:44
last Bastion of okay racism [Laughter]
19:53
we can all chuckle about that it's like that's uh that's actually that's that's still racist I know sometimes I get it's
20:01
a question of like oh is that are you in French and I'm like oh are you Canadians
20:07
are you a [ __ ] because that's uh that's not how that goes so uh man I have been
20:14
wanting to get you on this show for a long time a because I just I love you
20:19
and you're amazing and B because we haven't had any fiber yet we're gonna get run out of this business here if we
20:26
don't have some it's like a major part of our shows yeah and for a second I thought you said
20:33
fire I'm like I'll bring all the fire bring the fire say yeah I mean it's it's
20:39
you do bring the fire and you bring a positive um you know we had uh Lynn Whipple on last week and it's it's like
20:46
the positive energy segment of the podcast I guess here in in uh so I've always felt that way about you who's
20:52
your crew as far as your art show crew we all have our crews like who do you who do you hang with
20:58
um you yeah right me yeah well this this does not make my point but
21:05
a little special somebody named Matthew NASCAR yeah I know a lot like I feel like I I
21:13
can just like jump in and out of a lot like I just I don't have one solid kind
21:19
of like crew that I can only feel like I get yeah I guess what I was getting at
21:25
is like I was you know I kind of feel like there's this crew out on the art show world like you're Rob and Leslie
21:33
and Anthony Hansen and you and it's it's kind of like you get around these folks
21:38
and it's just like this positive energy kind of feel about you guys and it's uh it feels good to to talk to you so it's
21:46
I feel like we find each other we do it's amazing um how easy that is and I I find that
21:55
that's been as an adult and not in like an environment where you're kind of put
22:01
in like a school environment or a social something whatever that is but as a as
22:06
now an adult and not having those easily accessible kinds of places right I feel
22:13
like doing um like finding family with other because I'm a mom so finding other
22:19
like like-minded families and Sons my son's friends and all of that and then
22:25
you know it does and it will get into like
22:31
juggling the family life and and I want to talk to you about that because you and I have a pretty similar experiences
22:37
with that with being in fairly new relationships that you're passionate
22:43
about the fact of juggling family life and then art life and then basically being in a
22:51
new kind of love life too you've got a new ish relationship that you're passionate about and it's how do you do
22:57
it I have to say just like a side note of like how much support it takes to
23:03
make this all work and my son Xander uh his dad and I are no longer obviously
23:10
together but we have such a great co-parenting relationship we've always
23:15
had a great relationship um that way like how we support each other that's amazing so when we yeah I
23:22
feel so fortunate because it could so not be that and when I'm on the road Alexander is with him and when I'm home
23:29
depending on how long that is Alexander's with me and so we just
23:36
communicate our schedules with each other so that I can easily like not be
23:41
here so if I didn't have that like I have no family close by or anything so it's like I would not be able to be
23:49
doing art festivals that's huge yeah I mean I mean that's that's what I juggle
23:54
with too because everybody I mean I don't know uh my ex is an art show artist so juggling my schedule with hers
24:02
I'm I'm like you know she and I are sitting there like we I feel like we root for each other as
24:08
far as our successes go and and what shows but I'm I'm sure there's an element of both of us that's like ghetto
24:15
if she doesn't get Cherry Creek because I really want to go Somebody's gotta watch the kids but you know but we're
24:21
fortunate enough to to like to have uh her folks and and uh they they are
24:26
watching the kids and they're getting a little bit older too but juggling those
24:31
schedules is I don't know it's insane and it it might my wife Susan is not a
24:38
fan of the schedule she hates it's like okay uh she's like why are you uh
24:44
pouring me a whiskey I'm like we gotta talk about the schedule it's coming
24:49
it's coming down and it's just a [ __ ] nightmare I mean it really is just sitting there like okay and another
24:56
reason I wanted to talk here's it's I'm I'm using you it's like Annie bisoni in therapy session for will like that's
25:03
right all right I'm ready so like another part
25:09
of the the juggling is being in a relationship and and having your kids where it's like I have a tendency when I
25:18
don't have the kids that's my production mode and when I'm on and I have the kids
25:23
and I we split them 50 50 and when it's my turn with my girls then I'm I'm dad
25:29
and I'm an artist when they're at school but I'm you know full dad mode and so
25:35
it's like okay here's here's dad mode I'm not really making much artwork I'm not doing much other stuff but then when
25:41
they leave then I've gotta be okay now in full artist mode but then you gotta be all right now I'm full partner mode
25:47
too and I have a tendency to drop the ball on being a decent husband when I do
25:54
have the kids or when I'm you know in art mode so you got to make sure that all of that stuff stays up there and everything gets its proper attention or
26:00
you're not I don't know how do you do it I I don't do it well I don't think and I
26:06
feel I mean I don't know I think I'm also really hard on myself and there is the
26:11
whole like baggage that that carries like as a as a mom right like we have
26:18
this idea of like what moms are supposed to be capable and all the things that you know whatever so my schedule right
26:27
now up until actually which is why we can finally have this lovely conversation is that I am not home for
26:34
10 days running off on the road for and then being gone for a week and then home for 10 days yeah so what it's been like
26:40
for me from the start of this year I'll just speak to um is that the minute I get home I get
26:48
Xander and I have like 10 days to make as much work as I possibly can and each
26:54
piece I make is like about 16 to 20 hours so right I don't even know how I
27:00
even I don't even understand how this this all works out and then it's full
27:05
like I just am working all the time and so I don't take off like so I'm the mom
27:12
now and it's I'm juggling making meals I have a 14 year old son who seems like
27:18
he's always hungry oh my God yeah who knows yeah like I talk about it so much
27:23
like oh okay say I'm great by the time
27:29
of meat and I'm all not and so it's like I'm making all the meals for like I'm
27:34
making six meals or five meals a day or more or whatever it's just like Bonkers
27:40
so I I don't do the balance well and I get stressed out and I
27:46
don't always handle it yeah I I feel like there's a lot of guilt I feel like
27:52
I carry around a lot of guilt a lot of like looking back like oh my gosh am I I it's
27:59
I mean I think it goes to the point of like I I've always been a lover of kids but I
28:05
never actually intended to have any of my own yeah so I always wanted to be the
28:11
best auntie or the best like you know friend of the you know like girlfriends
28:17
whatever right you have kids and just like I wanted all in on that I was like
28:22
so into caring for my two younger sisters because there's six of us total in my family wow so I've always been
28:29
like it's never been like an I'm an anti-kid I just know like how much I
28:36
need for myself as an artist like I just I could never quite Square how I could
28:42
make all that work and I continually keep proving that to myself even though I keep running up that mountain I still
28:48
am just like what I'm not I can't do it all well or whatever but you are doing
28:53
it you're you're doing it you're trying to stay focused but it's like I do the exact same thing to myself where I feel
28:59
like if I'm giving 60 to my kids and uh 30 to
29:07
my wife and that leaves ten percent for my art then I'm like oh I'm a shitty artist it's like I'm only giving 10 to
29:14
my art and I'm only giving 30 of myself to my wife and I'm only giving 60 to my kids and I'm only doing this and I'm
29:20
it's it's or you know my kids suffer and it's like oh my God I have to finish this painting this afternoon and they're
29:26
they've been in their room on their screens no I I get the guilt but it's like you have to you have to give
29:32
yourself a break you have to I mean we're doing the best we can it's true
29:38
and I mean to speak to like the newish really it's funny because it's like
29:43
getting together during like pretty much just the beginning of the pandemic so we're all pretty isolated
29:50
um for a while and not being out on the road with each other but yeah did you get weird no it
29:56
no yes I got weird it was a time at least
30:02
distracted by shows and needing to work all the time and I had no like inspiration and I survived basically on
30:09
making like almost 2 000 masks oh my God because nobody was wearing anything but
30:15
like you know whatever yoga pants and stuff so I'm glad I could I'm glad I
30:21
could go there but right now I'm not going to pan down with this camera
30:32
that's amazing so how many how many masks 2 000 masks at least I think
30:46
out all the materials it's sourcing elastic got really challenging though but the prototypes and like I had these
30:55
high quality like inserts so they were like 95 effective like I feel like I
31:01
just went full-on science and like made a whole bunch tried different ones and
31:06
Matthew supplied the titanium wire for the nose so they wouldn't get rusty and they're lightweight like it was like
31:12
good group effort with like sourcing the right kinds of things yeah that's very cool the fabric I had and the skills
31:19
yeah you got the skills let's talk about uh let's talk about how you got them skills let's um let's rewind the clock
31:26
and until the Annie besoni story yeah that's a that's kind of a fun story and
31:33
I feel like as I've gotten a little bit older and more introspective about stuff is like um I feel bad that my paternal
31:40
grandmother hasn't seen where I've come with what she saw me so when I was
31:46
a eight years old is when my like I'm sure like a lot of us listen to Ted
31:52
Talks or you know at least know what that is and there's so much science out there that that um talks about that recall that happens
31:59
in our brains where we can look back to whatever we learned at around that age
32:04
and we can we can already have this like Foundation to work from so it's like when people learn uh an instrument or a
32:13
language that's why all those things are so important at that age too so for me I
32:18
didn't have all of that except I had sewing so every weekend my grandma I was
32:25
the only one who like took to it wow so like what age are we talking about
32:30
I was eight when we started okay she never gave me like any immediate satisfaction and at that time like what
32:37
I really wanted was like some amazing jams which is funny because I've never got a short wearer yeah but I was like I
32:45
had in my mind like like the super 80s print like I just knew like the look I was doing you were gonna be so cool I
32:52
was if she would take me to like show me how to read a book what
32:58
the content was I had to do all the laundry for it I had to wash it and she like made me iron it all and like cut
33:05
out the powder like I had so much like ground level Foundation skills that I
33:11
kept building on so all through high school and college I've always made my own clothes like it was so cool I just
33:18
did yeah she's got a great personality and she makes her own clothes
33:23
I drink my own clothes yeah Douglas I think we've got a title
33:29
so okay so you're you're eight years old did she watch you guys like did she watch the kids after school you were
33:36
you're the youngest of six so let's get into that you were the only one that took the sewing okay I'm like the third
33:42
oldest okay gotcha and I have one brother and it's all they're all girls otherwise you were the Jan
33:50
all right yeah and then my two youngest and my
33:55
sister and then I have an Irish twin because I'm also like I'm half Irish
34:00
um so my sister is like 11 months younger than me so I wasn't even the
34:06
baby I didn't get nursed for very long like it was just like bam like I there's already a new baby and I don't even know
34:13
like how my mom's body was able even with me I was like wait what yeah so
34:19
wait how far apart were you guys she's 11 11 months okay yeah yeah
34:24
straight Irish twins wow I know is that racist I
34:30
I don't know it's okay okay so we've we've determined it's okay to be racist against Italians and Irish now is that
34:36
where we're we're good okay we're breaking new ground maybe it's Catholicism
34:44
the problem I mean sure I mean yeah or you know wherever
34:50
you stand the benefit if that's what you like
34:59
you barely even got you know nurse before your sister comes along then
35:04
you're the next baby you're expected to babysit her you know learn to walk Annie it's time to get up and get to work I know I kind
35:12
of yeah
35:18
yeah like she'd always tell stories like late at night sitting around and be like oh tell me a story once in a while she
35:25
would say the story of like I think I I was young and it was like one of those parades like Fourth of July parades but
35:32
not a big one not like the big downtown kind of style it's more like a small town one and I just I just left my whole
35:39
family I think I was like four or five and I just got right into the parade and I just kept going she's like and you
35:44
never looked back oh my gosh the story of my life like see ya
35:51
that's incredible in the circus well you're in the circus
35:57
now lady you're in the circus now I'm got your monkeys and you're oh my God I'm
36:03
throwing some peanuts all right so you're the middle child when are you learning sewing with your grandmother is
36:08
this after school or is this on weekends only on weekends close by so it was like
36:14
an arranged kind of like had the schedule rides and stuff but yeah so I would I would hang out with her all day
36:21
and the other thing about her is like she had such and I didn't have the words for it then and it kind of took me a
36:26
while to come to it but she she was so entrepreneurial and she lived through the depression oh wow like women's hair
36:34
for like side she had all these side hustles and she did Ceramics and would sell like she would like do the sort of
36:41
tchotchke molds and sell with plants at the you know when hospitals had like
36:47
their whole gift shops I feel like Hospitals now don't have that but there was such a culture of like the hospital
36:54
gift shop and that's where you brought your sympathy flowers or your whatever to the rooms I don't know it just feels
36:59
like that was different I remember helping her with that and she'd tell me what to glaze and like she had a kiln in
37:06
her basement and she was always just making stuff yeah in the garden I mean
37:11
in so many ways like the things that she's into is like the things that I I'm into so yeah
37:19
I wish that she could like oh my gosh I like look at me now like I'm doing this
37:24
thing right yeah I don't know it's pretty it's pretty great that is really great that's incredible and you um so
37:32
you learned how to sew and you learn how to make your own clothes and did you go to school for that too or did you just take on your own designs in Milwaukee
37:40
which is where I live who doesn't you know just let that out there but yeah yeah there's a um Mount Mary College is
37:46
here and I actually went there for two years and it Donna Karen I think went there
37:52
for a little bit she endows the program so it has like a really great fashion design fashion merchandising program but
37:59
that is not why I went there I mean I'm not a fashion person like that word is like it's getting easier for me to say
38:05
but I don't come from making like I call myself a garment Builder like I don't think of myself in that way
38:12
like that's just another topic that I I don't and I don't think that that's the same way that a lot of artists like like
38:19
I have a hard time like well I'm a like I'm an artist I mean that is what I do for a living I am an artist I'm a
38:25
painter um it used to be a drawer but um that was awkward to say with a Southern
38:31
accent so I no I went into painting on mixed media but you know it's like uh is
38:38
that uh an insecurity on your part or do you just like the utilitarian title of being a builder I feel like the Builder
38:46
part makes sense as to like actually the making process for me like that feels more true
38:52
um I I feel like there's a part that that is just like the basket of fashion
38:57
that is very like self-centered or like like that's not
39:05
even the right word I I think I just don't I identify with it and I feel like
39:11
I feel like fashion is and can be like um activism like there's there's a whole
39:18
I mean I know that like it exists in this other place that's not just like what's the latest trends I've just never
39:24
been a trend person like that's just not I never wanted to look like anyone else
39:30
like I always wanted to go the other way peer pressure was not a problem for me like I didn't suffer from like you know
39:36
crippling like oh my gosh I don't fit in I thankfully like I didn't have that and that's real and horrible for people but
39:44
um I yeah I didn't have that but when I went to mount Mary it's funny like I
39:49
just wanted to get out of the house at that point well that's I mean that's a huge part of school sometimes just just
39:55
it's like a little jump you know and whether you go to learn your trade or whether you go to learn to have sex and
40:00
drink beer it's you know it kind of up to you I mean that's that but it is good
40:06
to get out of the house I mean both of those those things have um yeah
40:13
at that point Mount Mary is an all-girls school okay and so at the time when I
40:20
was there and the reason why I went there is I love school so it led to start with that like I was totally into
40:25
school and all of it like I definitely wanted higher education I just didn't I
40:30
just knew my immediate need was like I need to get out of this toxic environment yeah I mean what was I mean
40:36
I don't know if you want to get into that or not but what was going on with you in your home life at that point my
40:42
parents finally separated thankfully thank God divorce is a wonderful thing
40:47
my my dad's a horrible human um and was my whole life we never got
40:53
along so it just took my mom so long to finally get there and
40:59
uh he's he's still alive I don't know where he is um my mom passed away like right like
41:06
March 1st of 2020 so right before that was hard oh my gosh because we
41:12
finally like fell back in love with each other real recent in like the last couple of years so that I'm glad for
41:18
that but yeah you and I you were there the night that I got that phone call right down in Gasparilla yeah that was
41:27
I had to turn around yeah I didn't do so this the last year not like yeah 2021
41:33
was the first time I I got to fulfill that like show right was that last year I get
41:39
confused on dates or is that this year so that was yeah whatever right so you actually got to go to that show yeah
41:45
yeah and that was like kind of I felt really emotional about that but anyways so we had just come down there and set
41:52
up the show in Gasparilla and I I feel like we'd set it up and then we were we met and had a bite to eat and I met you
42:00
and Matthew and then did you go and pack it all up and turn tail
42:05
yeah it was actually before we actually met it was like we were walking to meet
42:10
you at the restaurant and my brother called and was like you know it's now like this mom's not getting better and I
42:18
and he's like it's she's not one it's not long and so he's like if you want to come and thankfully Matthew just like
42:24
contacted the show directors and did all the things and we loaded out super early
42:30
in the morning on Saturday with the help of like anyone else that was around which was awesome I I don't that was
42:36
like a dream state I don't even know like I don't remember any of that and then I drove like I I drove and Matthew
42:44
met me halfway I dropped him off at the airport in Nashville and I got about five hours from home because it was
42:52
about 18 hour drive and my brother called and said she had passed so I didn't I was so close and he he he just
43:00
constantly keeps saying like just count your blessings on this one go with your
43:06
last time you saw her which was like Xander and I hanging out with her having dinner before I left and she was in such
43:11
a great place you know it's like awesome and so he was like I wish that I didn't
43:16
have to see what I saw like her like decline so rapidly so oh yeah yeah that's so hard I'm sorry to
43:25
make you relive that it's just no it's getting easy and easily talk about
43:33
there and like not a lot of Tears you know like it's okay and I you know with with how it's all now looking back at
43:41
the last like two years I I mean I don't know what kind of life
43:46
it could have been like she would have been in isolation because she would have been seriously like
43:51
so prone to getting cold you know it's just like right this is all like you
43:56
didn't have to have all of that she missed all of that and we didn't have to and you didn't have to be so alone
44:02
because she would have been alone yeah so so when you got back together with your mom was there you had some kind of
44:08
resentment there as far as like well her you know letting you deal with all of
44:14
that [ __ ] for so long yeah and she
44:22
and she did not it's Bruce Lee and so everything that was like super heightened about how different her and I
44:29
were like on every level of all the fundamental like values that I stand for
44:34
she was opposite so you could fill in the blank all about that like she was pro-life a Trumper like oh
44:42
all the stuff that goes along with that and righteous about it so it was really challenging and she lived about an hour
44:49
away so it was just far enough that I didn't see her often which was great but she also never had a relationship with
44:56
my son which is always a sadness and yet there are times where I was like I just wanted to like send her with like this
45:03
card like don't take this the wrong way but I just never want to see you again
45:09
and I was like and as a mom I'm like can I like how devastating that would be no
45:15
matter what where we were in our lives if Xander wrote me that card I just would have been like and I never did and
45:22
we came through it but it honestly took me and it was it felt like it was just
45:27
like one day her her husband passed away and it was just like this day I just
45:35
decided like I'm just gonna lead with love I'm just not I just this is so much
45:40
to carry around all this like oh contempt and resentment yeah I hate hate
45:47
hate and like I just like to keep that constant like fire of hate or whatever and like I was just like no longer are
45:56
you gonna have this power over me with that like I'm just gonna I'm just gonna love you no matter what and I don't know
46:02
how I got there but I did and she followed suit just like we never talked
46:08
ever again for the last three years about politics about Trump about anything it just was all like amazing it
46:17
was beautiful actually it was great and so she never acknowledged it I never acknowledged it I just
46:24
something just like just the windows opened up and I'm like okay I'm just gonna let in all the light and I'm just
46:29
gonna I don't know how long I have with you and I just thank God like I didn't like we didn't like she didn't pass away
46:37
in that place where like I was all like uh you're horrible blah blah blah
46:42
whatever yeah she didn't pass away and hate or the you know she passed away while you were hating hate you know get
46:48
rid of the hateful he was in a place where she was like
46:54
looking forward to the future and she was gonna live with my brother and he was super happy and excited about that
46:59
and wow that's something like yeah I was it was at least on an upward Trend it's it's loving people that I mean it used
47:07
to be that you could have different political beliefs and still get along my parents are both Republicans they are uh
47:13
luckily for me they're anti-trumpers they they're they're a couple of the you know anyone but Trump uh hate what it
47:20
has done to the party kind of kind of folks but they at least raised me to be understanding and able to talk to
47:28
anybody that has different beliefs I love some Republican people I mean I've got nieces and nephews that are super
47:35
conservative that you know I just I adore them and their family and we just we we talk about Texas
47:41
singer-songwriters and not politics ever at all it's like you know I might get my
47:47
little my little Jabs in it's like you know I probably do too maybe yeah
47:53
they're you know I tend to be maybe a little more um yes
47:59
confident in my uh my mouth my gab my gift to gab so
48:05
you know it is what it is but it's it's tough my you know talking about like when the the racist statues came down in
48:14
Richmond Virginia which had been my hometown for 99 of my life up until we
48:19
moved two years ago and seeing those Confederate statues come down and and learning what they meant in and uh while
48:28
my parents are kind of like you know you took down our beautiful Monument Avenue and they were upset
48:34
about it until they even came around so I don't know it's interesting to live with that kind of kind of people
48:40
yeah and see him see him grow see him uh change a little bit
48:46
in that but I just wanted to say one thing about like my first two years of college part is I actually went to
48:54
school I went to college with my mom and my oldest sister there's three of us and
49:00
I think that's why I pretty much got a free ride because they're like well buy two get one free
49:07
that's amazing I remember and like I remember like passing and at that time
49:12
my mom and I were in a good space um because I was out of the house or whatever like that was out so wait all
49:18
three of you went to school were you living in that town or and you stayed at home and went or did you no I lived in
49:24
the dorms my sister had her own place and my mom was living um in a like in a apartment kind of
49:31
situation yeah it was really fun and it was cool
49:36
they like like they just called my mom mom and like we were all smokers then so they
49:44
would bum cigarettes from her that's amazing she you know give me a 20 or
49:50
something pass around the hallway wow yeah we had a class we had photography class together she made amazing
49:55
photography that's so cool did she ever show it her dark room yeah yeah you know
50:01
my mom used to do art fair yeah that's like uh so your second
50:07
generation art show is that how you learned how to do this no well actually once I got done
50:13
Mary and I realized where I wanted to be I went to Maya which is the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design here okay
50:19
yeah and so I went there for four years and I had gotten done with so many prerequisites of I focused a lot on
50:27
philosophy while I was there which I was really into and some of like the other things that I would have needed to have
50:33
done once I went to Mayan and so I pretty much had like four years of um
50:38
Studio that's amazing with painting degree and a double minor and I was
50:45
into it yeah a double minor in what uh philosophy and I'm sorry say that
50:51
again I said I was a drummer it's the worst word
50:57
drawing and print making excellent okay so that you you already had the sewing skills and then you you went in
51:03
withdrawing and print making and then you study philosophy kind of just on the side for your own benefit
51:11
ah not as much okay reading right now is is tricky yeah I would always be reading
51:19
all kinds of stuff and I all those stacks of books I keep acquiring and I
51:25
just I can't I'm having a hard time like I am too I'm not reading especially with like I delete I go through these phases
51:32
where I delete social media off on my phone and then I I'll kind of come back to it and then just spiral and uh it
51:39
really ruins reading for me so yeah yeah okay so you you've got the painting and
51:45
print making uh you've you already have the skills for sewing your how old are
51:50
are we right now like 22 23 like typical kind of post College
51:56
20. yeah sweet so you're you're about 20. do you at what point do you like at
52:03
that point do you work uh well this is what
52:08
is my main focus I had a really great Professor who was an um like a master
52:13
and caustic like that was his main medium and it was just one day it was my
52:19
junior year and he was like and he probably brought in like his his boxes like these amazing just like wooden
52:25
boxes like okay guys and he was like you know came of age in the 60s and stuff he
52:31
was in Vietnam he was tortured in a lot of ways uh psychologically and so he'd
52:36
make these amazing like Geisha painting yeah he's no longer living he passed away it's been over five years
52:43
now but so he just like brought all these like two and a fish cans filled with like all these colors of things and
52:50
he's just set up and slowly like all my classmates started wandering away they're like okay
52:56
Ron you know he's like okay fine it's like okay like
53:01
what and I just like the floodgates opened up and I an eye pupil like he did
53:10
all my own resins I did like all the Alchemy was like no pre-made stuff I got
53:18
so into it and so Inca was my thing yeah I had jobs to like to pay the rent kind
53:25
of stuff like working in greenhouses and I was like you know I Barista all this oh you're you know yeah all the all the
53:32
stuff that you have to do well you know
53:41
I sold all the work I ever made I have one piece that I kept yeah and so I was
53:47
like on this whole trajectory like I was I I I was struggling with like how uh at
53:54
that time I mean that's like been a while now but like like 15 18 years ago is how much uh as as an independent
54:02
artist you didn't have agency it was more of the curators right right like
54:07
they were the rock stars they were the ones calling shots and and building or breaking careers you know which takes me
54:14
into why I love doing art festivals because we are like our own Independent
54:20
Artists doing the thing right like absolutely yeah yeah I mean I think
54:31
um interview yet so I hope to do that this week but um I've listened to all of them so far and loved all of it it's
54:38
it's so great that that this is happening and that you're like doing this thanks we just you know shining a
54:44
light on the all these people all these weirdos and then we're all you know it's like we all do the same thing we all completely do it differently and it's so
54:51
cool to see how we get together it's it's it feels good and if I'm in my
54:57
studio and I'm having that like oh especially during the winter when no shows are happening and then I just like
55:02
listen back I'm like I'm like I feel so good thanks
55:08
jumping through the Hoops it's the hustle everyone on and like but they're like you know what they're
55:15
bringing all right so let me jump right back in if that's cool with you because you're you're learning and caustic and
55:20
you're it's part of the hustle and you're like you're doing Gallery stuff and you're doing some showings you're
55:27
um you have this kind of Mentor with the the encaustic and you're you're showing your paintings but how do you transition
55:33
like at that point are you still making your own clothes yeah and doing a lot but Lynn doing some weird stuff and like
55:40
that it was kind of like the rise of like the Indie craft movement yeah so I
55:47
was doing I was doing all of my other like professional artists work but then
55:52
I also had friends that were like creating these like great Artist Run
55:58
spaces so kind of coral race which I had some shows there too but also like
56:05
independent sellable like just people making interesting weird objects it
56:12
whether it's zines whether it's like deconstructed clothing whether it's like
56:17
Little Prince like whatever like so those kinds of things started to pop up
56:23
a lot around in the community that I was living in right um and we're all supporting each other in that way and
56:30
this is Milwaukee and this is Milwaukee yeah and so then there's this really
56:35
amazing place that no longer exists um so shout out to the Polish Falcon which
56:40
was like a meeting house and had this amazing bowling alley in the basement wow it was like one of those polish like
56:47
oh what is the word where it was like this activity center for like the Polish
56:52
Community so it was like where they would it's like a recall yeah yeah and
56:58
so it it was a part of the neighborhood I lived in which is called River West and so I was there with a bunch of
57:05
girlfriends sitting around drinking beer and I was like guys do you ever get this like sort of weird cramp in your side
57:12
kind of like around your pelvis and they're like no and I'm like well it's probably time I I need to get an annual
57:19
exam I've been kind of putting it off and so and I was in a relationship at that time and so I was like okay so I
57:24
made an appointment with Planned Parenthood like right that week and they're like well is there a chance that you're pregnant and I was like well
57:31
I I have had unprotected things yeah that's how it works right we're like
57:37
What yeah everything that they tell you it's true so then she's like well I just do a pregnancy test and we can go from
57:43
there and then it came back positive oh my gosh I thought I was doing all the right things but well yeah a little bit
57:51
I mean you did it right clearly that's how it works first and only time I ever
57:56
got pregnant and so I was faced with that decision and my whole life changed
58:02
like literally that I had to quit drinking quit smoking and quit my art practice everything that I was doing in
58:09
all the ways that I was making uh encaustic was super toxic oh my God yeah
58:15
as far as like and I I sought out all the lead paints I sought out all the heating up of all the things I mean I
58:21
took care of course and I wasn't um stupid about it but not when you're
58:26
pregnant like you can't be doing that business so all of a sudden like my whole world was upside down on so many
58:33
yeah so it was just like that and so yeah I struggled so that whole like
58:39
little like Andy craft movement kind of kept me making they kept you and you were you know you had that in your blood
58:45
to make I needed yeah and I needed a creative Outlet it was I that was the
58:50
first time ever in my life that I wasn't doing something right and so once I had my son the whole world of of uh kids
58:58
clothing was just so not on my radar until I actually had to purchase it and I was like why is like why is kids
59:05
clothes like why is it so gender specific and super like pink and blue and like Army and
59:11
tough and like princesses whatever so I started making Xander's clothes and I
59:17
like had so much fun with it and I was just like learning how to like take the
59:23
things and skills that I had and like shrink it down yeah and he was and it
59:29
was a good another friend of mine just like just planting seeds like how many people in our lives just like plant
59:34
seeds for us right like of course it just like kind of and she was like hey let's do a um let's do this farmer's
59:41
market I she was doing herbs and like garden stuff and and she was like and I
59:47
was giving these pain I mainly focused on on kids pants like super colorful
59:52
gender neutral you could wear a cloth diaper not they're easy to put on once
59:57
they're learning like potty training stuff so um yeah I did this local farmer's market
1:00:03
and like I would sell out and I would be like okay I got it I had this like tiny little space in the living room where I
1:00:09
would sew and try to be you know up on like all my momming that I had to do
1:00:15
right oh my God yeah and I had this like I had a Young Red
1:00:23
Prius act like going to show
1:00:34
yeah no Indiana it's a virus that's like the little art show thing you know where
1:00:41
can I go and Sandra would come with
1:00:48
pumping out my booth and yeah that's amazing yeah I've talked to some other folks about like whether or not
1:00:55
they bring kids whether they not they want to I mean my kids early on I didn't feel like it was super easy at all it
1:01:03
just never really seemed to work out as far as bringing the whole fam family but
1:01:08
um yeah yeah and it only did because of what I was selling it made sense early
1:01:13
on yeah that I mean that's all part of the picture yeah yeah yeah it was part
1:01:19
of my brand yeah I mean well that's true right
1:01:24
let's be fun fun and you know it was it was not until Xander was three and I
1:01:32
I this is like a proud mama moment for me is like um he had just started to get into Legos
1:01:39
which was such a fun like many years of Lego building stuff but he was like Momo
1:01:44
uh who makes Legos because at that point everything that he had around him like I
1:01:50
made his dad made friends made we bought locally like not not to get all weird
1:01:56
but like that was his reality yeah um China
1:02:02
all right Mr Lego okay prepare yourself of course he's
1:02:07
like what's China um wow yeah that's incredible that's really really cool like so okay
1:02:15
yeah I mean I mean that is part of your world view and that's that's part of in and that's an amazing worldview does he
1:02:21
create too no Xander not so much he's he's more of a gamer now with friends
1:02:27
and stuff
1:02:32
are gross we will never get gross I feel like the way that he and his friends kind of I've
1:02:38
worked through definitely because he was home for like two years home because of like Milwaukee had like the schools were
1:02:45
closed for a long time New Mexico too he's been really yeah okay oh yeah I
1:02:52
mean it was hard but I felt like because of his accessibility of being able to be
1:02:59
with his friends and I would hear him you know my studio is on the same floor as his and like they're laughing and
1:03:06
talking like his mental health stayed solid like he has been I feel like it
1:03:12
was the social part for him that kept up I didn't really care about schooling honestly yeah so we had kind of opposite
1:03:19
experience because it was we moved and they didn't know and you know the girls didn't know anyone they couldn't make
1:03:24
any friends and were trying to get out and you just can't you know no one you know in school is a screen and so they
1:03:31
they definitely suffered but they're finally kind of coming my youngest she could walk into a room and walk out with
1:03:37
five friends she's just super extrovert whereas Ada the older is she's much more
1:03:45
introverted but she has found like the best group of friends like finally like like if you could concoct the best group
1:03:53
of friends for a 13 year old girl you're like well she's very smart she's very nerdy she's
1:03:59
very brookish but they're all like they're all pretty and social within their own can we cut pretty that's why
1:04:06
the [ __ ] did I say pretty it doesn't matter she is pretty but that's not you know is that important why did I say you
1:04:11
know that's like that's I just brought my toxic masculinity into the into the party come on in she's pretty
1:04:18
uh but she's you know it's it's just like she's got this crew of people that's like
1:04:24
you know when they split up the rest of the class and they're like you guys got to move apart you're not getting anything done like her table never
1:04:30
really moves she gets to sit there with her crew and and just you know yay yeah
1:04:35
yeah so finally but it's covet just crushes all of that stuff and it just it's been so goddamn hard it's been so
1:04:43
hard on the kids for sure incredible so you are uh I want to talk about your
1:04:48
artwork what you're making now and um kind of your design sense and and you you don't like the word design you want
1:04:54
to be more of a builder and I see that but what I see is more the word design
1:05:00
is okay all right yeah but fashion um okay uh because like part of what I
1:05:07
wanted to talk to you about was it was about fashion um because I do see all right it's like
1:05:13
it's built in I gotta just accept it I gotta just get over it or I have to have my own like I have to just have I have
1:05:21
to have my own Reckoning with it or something yeah but I mean okay there's I wanted to talk to you because like I do
1:05:26
see you as as a kind of top in in the the fiber field um you're out there you're creating
1:05:32
you're making things that you're not seeing other people doing there's a an early
1:05:39
um how do I say this without being a dick uh I'm just gonna say it because that's
1:05:44
who I am um okay there's this certain kind of style that you see in in clothing that
1:05:50
it fits a lot more people how about that oh how how nice yeah yeah you can you
1:05:56
can throw exactly what you're talking about and and I the pieces that make are
1:06:03
there for one they're all one of a kind I mean I really back myself up against well so I make one-of-a-kind pieces I do
1:06:12
make for sizes and like extra small to extra large is my range and I also make
1:06:19
them semi-fitted yeah so I really it's really limited like yeah I'm not like
1:06:26
I'm not it doesn't fit everybody it's hard oh I'm doing okay
1:06:35
no kisses working so I just keep going because it's really like what I want to be doing is I Really Wanna
1:06:42
keep on this path and like keep building my designs I keep wanting to make a men's line but I haven't been able to
1:06:48
get that quite done yet but um I do understand
1:06:53
uh the draw to make things that are more one size fits most kind of thing you
1:07:01
know I'm making tunic kind of pieces you're it's not loose it's fitted they're they're like and you're creating
1:07:07
things that are um like take my wife's work her her jewelry she's she's not
1:07:13
doing Mass volumes of sales but she's creating very personal things for people
1:07:20
that become part of their own signature style and I feel like that is a similar
1:07:25
direction that you maybe live in I think that you've said that really well
1:07:32
and I I feel like just this year I finally with the help
1:07:37
of Matthew finally have a label in my work that puts my name on it
1:07:44
I understand that that's important for people to have that authenticity thing
1:07:49
but it was never about me like I want I want to create something that makes you
1:07:55
feel good and strong and powerful and I want you to own that it doesn't need to
1:08:01
have my name on it per se and so I've really battled with like doing that for
1:08:08
so long I was like ah this just doesn't feel like the right approach but I mean
1:08:15
now I'm like it's you know it's nice I I I so I do have a label in my work now
1:08:21
but like a physical label is that you're saying like a physical like a this is
1:08:26
did you come up with a business name or is it just your name or well it's actually the business that I had when I
1:08:32
was doing the kids clothes the wallow Workshop is that was my son's first color word it's how I pronounce yellow
1:08:39
so that's where the name comes from because it's so hard I heard like Y
1:08:44
sound yeah and so it had to be personal right and so it just it's it's wallow
1:08:51
workshop and I kept it through the whole like I had a transitional period where I
1:08:56
realized that I really wanted to like keep designing and I there's there I
1:09:01
reached a point of Xander's age and like I was maxed out on like what I could do
1:09:08
with kids stuff I was just like I want to do I want to go next level and so I started that and so there was this
1:09:15
little like time period maybe not quite a year where I had both things for women and the kids stuff
1:09:22
the kids stuff and it's funny the first time I was trying to remember this not too long ago the first time that I did a
1:09:30
show that was just the kids that were like a bigger Art Festival because I was trying
1:09:36
to remember it was such a natural ever all this was such a natural progression that I I just kept doing the next thing
1:09:43
was that a friend of mine had told me about the ACC Saint Paul show yeah and
1:09:49
that he was gonna do it and that was back when they had that Hip Hop Pop whatever it was like yeah it was the
1:09:55
emerging artist program yeah
1:10:01
and he was telling me about it and I was like cool I'll apply to that that sounds fun and I had that like little fire in
1:10:08
my belly of like nerves and excitement like yeah you know I want to go to the next level and I and I accidentally just
1:10:16
applied as like the regular like I didn't do it at the marketing yeah
1:10:21
[Music] forget hip-hop you know full board
1:10:29
oh hip-hop could have saved you some money that was great and I had great neighbors
1:10:34
I immediately like I was like oh yeah I don't know you know like my friend is
1:10:39
like hey let's do this farmer's market and then you know exactly baby steps same baby steps is a lot nicer way to
1:10:48
that to say it than what I said earlier which was it's like a virus that just keeps getting stronger it really you
1:10:54
know it kind of you build on one thing is that where you met our good friend Betty Yeager yeah yes nice yes no yeah
1:11:03
well yes yeah yeah yeah but then we we got really close and connected because you know I was in my booth the whole
1:11:08
time and I didn't get out much but she she I may have this wrong Betty but I
1:11:16
feel like maybe her first show was the Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan Wisconsin which I did that show but I also would
1:11:22
go to the show I scooped up a bunch of her earrings and totally fell in love
1:11:28
with her because you know God and yeah we just we were we've been friends ever
1:11:33
since that's super cool and I feel like it was later on that she had said like that was my first time doing the show
1:11:39
but yeah yeah well it's she's getting ready to do her first uh gotta give her a shout out because the last time I
1:11:45
talked to her she had not done a big art show yet she's getting ready to do her uh first big art show back uh she's
1:11:53
doing Arda World which is a huge Minneapolis open Studio Tour that's
1:11:58
coming up this coming weekend it will have just passed when this this airs but um wishing her huge luck there I love
1:12:06
artwork it's so much fun gosh that makes me tempted to just drive there you should go
1:12:14
yeah it's not too far I mean
1:12:19
it's such a like all the breweries have like they have art shows within it it's like it takes over the whole city and
1:12:26
it's such a cool event it's like very Minneapolis very Minnesota Centric yeah
1:12:33
yeah and I also just want to go back just one second just to also like what
1:12:38
you're doing with emerging artists or how you've talked with other artists in this podcast about how we share at shows
1:12:46
how we give to those coming underneath us that maybe want to know like come into your booth be like hey I want to do
1:12:52
this thing like how do I get started or whatever those little seeds that you plant I mean
1:12:58
it happens so much teachers do it every day with kids in schools and like it
1:13:03
means a lot it may seem like it the timing can be you know a little
1:13:08
inconvenient or not or whatever but we have a lot of like ability to grow we do
1:13:14
people's lives and help you know it's fun it is fun and my big advice on
1:13:19
people that have a hard time like when when younger folks come in and start asking questions and and they're like
1:13:25
I don't know I've heard artists be like oh I hate it when people come in and be like who are these kids they're not buying they're not whatever but you can
1:13:33
use those conversations if you engage a a young you know a teenage person who
1:13:39
comes into your booth or somebody young that has real questions about your work you can you know you can use those
1:13:45
conversations with them other people start to hear you talk and you can talk
1:13:50
about the work around other people so it becomes part of the dynamic of your
1:13:55
booth where you're just you know and being positive and being encouraging and
1:14:00
not being an [ __ ] it shows is how we sell you know
1:14:06
right and I feel like well talk speaking to just my my skill set of sewing it's
1:14:14
like a lost art a lost skill like it is their schools have popped up for like
1:14:20
you could take sewing classes but not a lot and parents grandparents aren't there isn't the tradition that I came
1:14:27
from where my grandma taught me right kind of thing and I hear stories about that so I get young people in my booth
1:14:33
with their parents and saying like oh you know so-and-so really wants to learn how to sew and what or like even like
1:14:41
simple like how do I do how do I do this thing and like going through like the pattern making process or whatever and I
1:14:48
I think it's great because I mean I went I went through the art school thing I
1:14:56
carry a lot of that like at that time my head was really like a foundational
1:15:01
program like the Baja school now it's changed a lot and it's it's more interdisciplinary but like conversations
1:15:09
with Dylan that you've had like all of that all those those like the art school
1:15:14
stuff like I have all of that I miss a lot of the making I'm trying to build a
1:15:20
studio now so I can get back to some other things too and all right see that next phase of for me like I'm just like
1:15:27
oh but anyway side note I just feel like it's it's specifically to me I feel like
1:15:33
being able to to encourage young people to keep sewing like absolutely there's
1:15:40
so much you can do with it you know functional doesn't need to be an Artful making thing it can just literally be
1:15:46
like repair your own clothes like change momentum of fast fashion and throwaway
1:15:53
culture that we live in and make your own voice with it like do yeah
1:16:04
I'm really attracted to it too because my mom is a huge sewer she has um she's
1:16:10
always sewn clothes and she's a big quilter and she's actually gotten if
1:16:15
she'd gone to school for it she got involved with um restoration of artifacts and she got to
1:16:23
I mean she's sewn on uh some clothing that Betsy Ross originally made that's
1:16:30
down in Williamsburg she has learned that that skill and and sewing was always around me craft was always around
1:16:37
us they used to take us to our shows I didn't know that yeah it's it's uh it's
1:16:43
really like she if had if she had been encouraged she was like a you know she
1:16:48
was a classic housewife you know conservative um upbringing stayed in the house and
1:16:54
didn't really work uh but if she'd been maybe a little bit you know she'd had maybe the outlet she would have gone a
1:17:00
different direction I could definitely have seen it going that way she loves craft she loves sewing I'm sure are you
1:17:07
you're not doing Baltimore ACC are you I'm not this year there's no way in hell
1:17:13
you'd be talking to me because it's this weekend you'd be like if I know for a fact you wouldn't you're not doing it
1:17:23
it's interesting them moving it to the the spring um um it'll be interesting to be in the
1:17:29
harbor and be able to sit outside and and eat our crab cakes excuse me doing it yeah yeah I'm going with her I'm the
1:17:35
plus one on that one oh have a great time I'm a little bit bummed it's been
1:17:41
it's been what not three years I haven't filmed that show it's a it's a big part of her season so I'm excited to go and
1:17:48
and sell some Jewels it'll be fun there's a couple other things I want to talk about um that were just in my head
1:17:55
and talk about your uh your honey uh talk about Matthew NASCAR um he's one of my favorite humans so uh
1:18:03
the love of my life yeah he's such a good dude uh he's he's a growing uh dude
1:18:09
and it's nice to see him with you and see him uh turn it into who he is well
1:18:15
that means so much definitely yeah we had one of those like love at first moments shout out to Reston no longer
1:18:23
Reston called but yeah yeah where we both were like whoa oh that was the first time I met him awesome yeah it's
1:18:30
and it's tough too because I mean like you and I both have exes that are like he has an X that's still on the scene
1:18:36
and um it's like it becomes part of the whole personality of the culture and it
1:18:41
seems like your life becomes intertwined with everybody else's and people have their own opinions and it it's hard but
1:18:49
it seems like you guys have come out on the other side of it yeah I yeah well I think like having a
1:18:55
breathing period of no shows for a while helped at the time for sure seemed to be
1:19:00
like more conflicty but um this is I've done shows putting on my
1:19:06
tent lugging all my stuff around by myself for years now like five years so
1:19:11
I think I don't know something like it got a little blurry when I was like kind of mixing doing the kids you know that
1:19:17
little bit of transitional time but so to go on the road travel with him and be
1:19:23
like Booth neighbors and have this whole experience it's been so much fun it's
1:19:28
really great we travel together well that's great I'm learning to be a good passenger I'm very much The Controller
1:19:34
driver always in every relationship I've ever had yeah and and it's like it's a
1:19:40
good like I yeah I feel like we complement each other in a lot of a lot of ways do you cram it all into one van
1:19:47
now is it one one vehicle and yeah I have fantasies about like the camper and
1:19:54
like what's that gonna be like and as you know he's a man of Wheels he loves
1:19:59
his wheels he has those good ideas and like yeah he still lives in a 24-hour
1:20:05
day like we all do unfortunately because I think yeah there's never enough time
1:20:10
to do all the things absolutely there's never enough time to deal with each
1:20:15
other kind of on the road and that's what's so sad right now is because we our schedules are just like all like in
1:20:23
the studio when we're home and we don't live together he has his own house I was going to ask you about that too I think that's really smart and I know the fact
1:20:31
that you gave yourselves an opportunity to date like you're still dating yeah yeah it's fun to miss him I love missing
1:20:38
him it's important yeah I feel like it's a successful like way of being in
1:20:44
relationship for me that I haven't had I've always been a jump in let's move in together kind of like really like
1:20:51
excited like oh I'm definitely a new relationship like kind of energy person
1:20:57
like yeah so yeah in order to keep that fresh and that's how you that's how you
1:21:02
can kind of do it and not get sick of each other I mean we I'm a perspectful of Xander too and I I feel like I I
1:21:11
um take his well-being in mind for pretty much everything I guess like
1:21:16
everywhere that we cross over I guess is in our relationship as as family but
1:21:22
yeah and they're slowly building their relationship nice I was going to ask
1:21:28
what is they they know each other now it's part of the part of the Inner Circle yeah and same with his dad too so
1:21:34
yeah that's all yeah it's been nothing but lovely yeah that's great I admire
1:21:41
that he's such a good person he is he really is no Matthew is the love Matthew
1:21:49
it's true and uh we we just saw the Northman and uh there's a psychotic side
1:21:56
of Matthew with uh the Willem Dafoe creature when he's got his his long beard and he's like looking I was like
1:22:02
we're both watching we're like are you picking up navster elements here like is this oh
1:22:09
such the best beard yeah absolutely absolutely it's it's uh it's it's a good
1:22:15
idea they're kind of pretty short during covid times and it was like you still
1:22:20
cutie face but it was like wow that's so different definitely that's awesome well we've covered a lot
1:22:28
I this has been a really great energizing talk for me and I appreciate you so much
1:22:38
and uh I feel like we've covered a lot but is there anything else you want to
1:22:44
talk about anything we didn't cover hmm I'd say I mean a couple of things
1:22:50
later like oh I really
1:22:57
being a person who's like a wearable fiber maker and there are what are the assumptions about about fiber like
1:23:04
what's what what's hard about what's different about your line of work that that people don't know like I I liked it
1:23:09
like I know jewelry really well because of my partner but what what's what what do people not know about fiber
1:23:16
said it's art I mean I I hear it I hear just the
1:23:21
conversations that that seem like they're really Hush Hush going by the booth like oh
1:23:27
is this art you know and I well I it's adornment is a part of while our
1:23:35
expression as human beings from the very beginning of time you know same with
1:23:41
jewelry same with every way that we present ourselves and then when we can't
1:23:46
do that then we put it out there on any kind of surface right so we're always
1:23:52
expressing ourselves our experiences the
1:23:57
world around us and I feel like wearables making cloth
1:24:03
which is what I feel like I do the other thing oh that might be important that if people don't know this already but um I
1:24:11
use all design house and fabrics so every piece of fabric I get is deemed
1:24:18
unusable because it's left over so it's like a production run has has happened and then this is like doomed for
1:24:25
landfill or it's considered garbage and so that's the only kind of fabric that I
1:24:31
use and I don't buy anything online like I have to see it and touch it and know how it
1:24:37
drapes and know the quality and all of that stuff so that's a huge part of what I'm doing too is is a sustainability of
1:24:46
practice and of also like sourcing material and that's a huge and I love
1:24:52
designing in that restraint so that's the other part of the building is like I'm literally like building the Fabrics
1:24:58
so some people say oh you must be a quilter or you could be whatever and I'm like you know I've never made a quilt
1:25:04
but that would be really fun I think that would be the next level place that I could go with something like that but
1:25:10
um yeah that's yeah that's really interesting you know another thing that you have in common with jewelry not just
1:25:16
the um I'll say design and not fashion even though it's very fashionable
1:25:21
um is that uh it's so super Hands-On not just in the creation of it because
1:25:27
obviously it's the creation but the the getting people to buy it is so Hands-On
1:25:32
you cannot leave your booth and sell yeah and it's really it and besides like
1:25:38
some I think it's the only it's very intimate and there's so much built up so the second a woman crosses the threshold
1:25:46
of my booth and is faced with like what size am I is this gonna fit me can I am
1:25:54
I vulnerable enough to try it on there is so much that like and I can see it
1:26:00
some people jump in they're like dress me up right like oh and that those are
1:26:07
the ones where I'm just like I mean I have to create a safe space an inviting space but also a safe space because
1:26:14
there's so much baggage with women in their bodies and like all the things
1:26:19
yeah so that's huge that's a huge part that doesn't exist in any other
1:26:26
uh that I can think of for on for um like categories in the art festivals
1:26:32
that is like such an intimate thing that way jewelry for sure and you're close you're close contact
1:26:38
but right and you know what if it's hot your fingers might swell a little bit but when it's hot like it at that
1:26:45
that can kill your entire weekend like if it's going to be 90 plus I mean I can imagine you in Des Moines
1:26:52
um or some of these shows where I don't know why I don't want to pick on Des Moines but it's like I just feel like that's the hottest I've ever been in my
1:26:58
entire life three or four years ago I I wanted to die
1:27:04
right here I was like I think I'm actually dying like I'm I'm dying I feel
1:27:09
like I smell like ground beef at this point yeah but yeah oh and then like or
1:27:15
you know your Ann Arbor's like I've said it before but like it's hotter than the surface of the Sun if it's like 109
1:27:22
nobody's trying on jackets yeah nobody want they're like I'm too sweaty I'm not in my country or oh
1:27:30
it's not scarves you know at least it's not scarves and hats and knitted stuff but it's still it's it's just an added
1:27:36
element where it's like well yeah it'll kill you if it's raining but if it's raining in 100 degrees or if it's 100
1:27:42
degrees and sunny if it's whatever it's there's so many little variables and you have to be on all the time are you are
1:27:49
you an extrovert all the time or are you extra intro yeah I am um I I definitely
1:27:56
love the Solitude of the studio but then that's just the other place right like
1:28:01
that I'm just totally focused on what I'm doing so after a big show like a Charged Up Show
1:28:07
and you've had a killer day um you're ready to go you're like you feel amped yeah yeah I'm pretty much
1:28:15
across the boards extrovert that's amazing it's pretty solid yeah my poor
1:28:20
baby she's such an introvert as far as like it's so depleting like the humans are so
1:28:28
depleting so it's interesting though but you I don't think you'd be into it if you you know you have to have that yeah
1:28:34
I feel for her and it's been so long since I've seen her so give her some squeezes for me but I will
1:28:39
yeah I I I I feel for those folks yeah yeah the ones that are just like oh God
1:28:45
it's a different personality type we all get by we all get we figured out to know the the some of the differences
1:28:53
that happen with the within each of our mediums and like the things that you don't know or like never took the time
1:29:00
to know like I feel like when you talk to Deb about like what it means to just
1:29:06
like card around your whole like thousands of dollars worth of like oh
1:29:13
you know it's like so much like yeah I that was I mean I kind of knew that but
1:29:20
then I did it like I was I just didn't take it far enough to realize like what that really is like 100 000 backpack in
1:29:26
the bar yeah you know yeah that's I'm gonna start wearing my
1:29:33
my six shooters real low good wild west on it I'm not everyone calm down
1:29:39
[Laughter] oh man thank you so much for talking to
1:29:45
me this has been a blast I I love you you're amazing go kiss that man of yours full on the mouth and say it's for me
1:29:51
and make him feel super awkward wait make him feel super awkward just
1:29:56
make it weird that's all I'm asking just make it weird
1:30:03
oh will said this is for you and then look at him real long in the eyes and then just kiss him fall in the mouth
1:30:09
I have something off like just pass him a penny I don't know
1:30:15
something yeah yeah better
1:30:22
little Lego man something all right Annie we'll talk to you soon I
1:30:29
can't wait to see you all right take care oh you too
1:30:35
thanks again man I just love Annie pasoni I will love it even more when I get to hear it but
1:30:42
uh thanks for sitting down until I can do it well yeah you will love it trust me uh you know you can you can say it
1:30:48
after the fact you could say you love her I do too she's an incredible human yeah uh just one of the one of those
1:30:54
people I I was joking with her when we were talking about this being our like
1:30:59
if you look at our season as one this is like the kindness section of the show where we talked to Whipple right into
1:31:05
Annie it is inspirational to me just to be able to talk to good people like that totally well good people coming up next
1:31:12
time too we've got a good friend of mine uh Tom Warden Mr Muscle Man himself and
1:31:18
his big strong man sculptures that's who we're talking to next time here on the Pod yeah I'm looking forward to hearing you talk with Tom I actually don't know
1:31:24
him that well so it'll be a nice introduction for all of us hey folks be safe out there on the road I hope you
1:31:29
make a million dollars and uh cancel all the rest of your your summer shows and remember to pack your covid test package
1:31:36
covet test and your sweatpants and we'll see you on the road all right take care everyone
1:31:42
podcast is brought to you by the National Association of Independent Artists the website is
1:31:49
naiaartists.org also sponsored by zapplication that's zapplication.org and while you're at it
1:31:55
check out Will's website at willarmstrongart.com and my website at
1:32:01
cigarithglass.com be sure to subscribe to this podcast to be notified when we release new episodes
1:32:08
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