I love Renee from Wolfie and the Sneak! She is super talented, super nice, super cool and I just love her work. I’m so happy that she agreed to be interviewed for this week’s Indie Artist Fixx.
Renee is one of those artists who never fail to captivate their audience. Her work, often botanically inspired, is like looking at a new world, but one that is totally familiar at the same time. I am so inspired by her work that I often find myself looking at things in a completely new way, which I think is just such a wonderful thing when art can make you do that.
One of my favorite treasures is my Wolfie and the Sneak coloring book. My goal is to color all the prints and hang them behind my desk. I have three completed so far. I just cannot wait to see what Renee will come up with next!
Visit her website, her etsy shop, her blog and her flickr page to read and see more of her work.
In the meantime, read more about Renee and her work in my interview with her below!
1. What’s the name of your business and what do create and sell?
I’m Wolfie and the Sneak (part of/most of?) and I draw, paint, and generally depict natural objects and abstract patterns based on organic objects.
2. When did you get started with your business and why did you decide to open your own indie biz?
Once I finished High School I went right into art school for college. At that point I realized the opportunities to be filled were few and far between, so I started making my own opportunities by curating group shows and seeking juried shows. Occasionally I’d sell a piece, but not very often. I finished school and managed a Caribou Coffee for a year, and that was enough to motivate me to know I needed to do something for myself. There were some other stumbles and misguided steps on the path, but I started about a year and a half ago.
3. What’s the creative process like for you?
Hard. (haha) In the past it’s been a lot easier, finding inspiration suddenly and often in hardships and broken hearts, so now I’m learning a whole new way to tap into my creativity. I haven’t fully figured it out, but I know I just have to keep practicing, studying and learning. It’s a lot of sitting down daily and just doing rather than planning and thinking.
4. If you could meet 5 famous or infamous people (dead or alive) who would they be?
Steve Albini
Steve Martin
Bill Murray
Willie Nelson
William ShatnerAll funny funny men. I think I would like to flirt with all of them, too.
5. Tell us one funny/goofy/silly thing about yourself.
Does that last statement count? I’m pretty goofy, very much in touch with my uber-geeky inner child. This afternoon I misread the ingredients in a recipe for apple pie and used apple cider vinegar instead of apple cider. Come to think of it, for Charlie’s birthday one time I made carrot cake cupcakes and forgot the carrots. I’m a really bad cook, in the silliest-we’ll-laugh-at-this-later ways.
6. What’s the best thing about what you do? And the worst?
I’m soooooo sensitive. And I love that about myself because I want to feel things, I think that’s an important part of life, but at the same time it’s a bad thing because I can take something way out of context and it gets all tangled up in my brain.
7. What blogs and mags do you read and what shops do you shop at?
I read Aesthetic Outburst, Dear Ada, Decor8, Design*Sponge, Door Sixteen, Heather Smith Jones: Art Space, Indiefixx, Lisa’s Musings, Marimello, Modish, Poppytalk, Treasuring, ScoutieGirl, Sweet Juniper, and the list goes on and on. That’s the blogs, magazines are Martha Stewart Living, Blueprint (well, I guess no more), Domino, and House and Garden (which I also guess no more) but the blogs are much more interesting than any of these magazines. I shop all over the web: etsy, Craigslist, eBay. . . I try to look for the best eco-option I can find for whatever I’m looking for.
8. Were you an artsy craftsy kid? If so, what kinds of things did you do?
Oh yes, my mom said right after I was diaper trained I took the leftover unused (phew!) diapers and made some sort of giant bird. I’ve always been a doodler, people asked me to draw on their notebooks in elementary school, In Jr High, I painted some white Chuck Taylors bright green. Whatever popped into my mind that I wanted, I’d try to make. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it required a great deal of imagination to see my vision. I made t-shirts and sold them all through Jr High and High School.
9. List 3 things you wish you had if you ever become stranded on a deserted island?
Can my Charlie be one of them? As well as a complete encyclopedia of botany and some sort of saw/knife contraption. Or just a Genie Lamp.
10. What does indie mean to you? You can give a literal definition, choose to be a little esoteric or a combination of both. 😉
Indie to me means “consuming with a conscience” It means knowing about fair wages, ethical manufacturing practices, environmental impact–it’s more of a philosophy of shopping with awareness than anything else. Conveniently, that often means directly supporting the person who made it, or challenging yourself to learn a new way to be self-sustaining. It’s definitely not the easiest way, but it sure does make everything so much more meaningful!
11. What are you reading, watching and listening to?
I just finished Eat Pray Love. I seriously miss reading it. I want more of it. so I’m looking for a book that will move me in the same way. I watched the movie Once last weekend, which has me listening to the Frames, I’m also fond of Bishop Allen. I can never get enough Will Oldham (of any variety: Bonnie Prince Billie, Palace, etc). Shellac. is. the. best.ever. and they make me giggle, I wonder if I’m laughing all alone?
12. What are your inspirations?
To keep doing what I’m doing, to maintain satisfaction while challenging myself to move forward, and to learn as much as I can along the way.
13. What’s new for 2008? Any new plans or products that you want to share?
Hopefully, I’ll have a bunch of new products to share in 2008, I’m restraining myself a little more this year than I did last. One thing that springs is a line of magnets called “Art is the Antidote.” Some will be in the Sampler for March (as well as a collaborative print with the ever-awesome-go-getter Alison Gordon!) It was a great year and I’m really happy with everything I made, but I think I need to learn some lessons rather than oversaturate my own market, if that makes sense. I guess 2008 is bringing more introspection, I’m pretty excited about that! So whatever happens, I’m pretty confident it will be good!
Yea, I have a thing for Bill Murray too.
Great interview!
And really, who could actually resist hitting on Bill Murray if the opportunity arose?
🙂