Arts IN Focus on PBS Fort Wayne is funded in part by the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne Coming up, we'll talk with fiber artist Sachiko Janek and painter Bonnie Joann.

It's all next on Arts IN Focus.

Welcome to Arts IN Focus.

I'm Emilie Henry.

Sachiko Janek is a fiber artist who creates her unique works of art by using a process called tufting, which is primarily used in the manufacturing of carpet.

Sachi produces one of a kind rugs with detailed images of landscapes, animals, plants, and she even creates three dimensional objects.

We recently visited Sachi at her home studio in Kendallville to learn all about the process of tufting and to see a demonstration of how her artwork is created.

Sachi, thank you so much for having me here today.

We're in Kendallville.

Yeah, thanks for coming out.

Making the drive.

It was a nice drive.

I am really excited to talk about your fiber art because I don't get it.

I don't get it at all.

I don't know how.

I don't get it sometimes either.

Okay, so where did you first learn how to create these beautiful works with with?

Is it even yarn?

What is it?

Yeah.

The biggest medium I use or the medium I use most frequently is wool yarn.

I, I don't know why I chose that.

It's the most expensive type of yarn.

And I started with it and then I fell in love with it and I was like, well, it can't go back now because it's just so beautiful and the texture is perfect for tufting.

And yeah, so I kind of screwed myself at the beginning, but.

Dang.

Okay, so talk me through when you discovered fiber art and what drew you to it, and then what made you decide that you wanted to dabble in it?

Yeah, it's fairly recent.

I feel like I found this medium at the beginning of the pandemic.

I was just, you know, scrolling through Instagram and there's a picture that an artist from Savannah, Trish Anderson, she's incredible.

She posted a photo of this stair runner that she made and it looked like melting, dripping paint going down the stairs.

And yeah, I was like, That is so cool.

I was like, I don't know what that is.

I want to learn everything about it.

I just fell in love with it.

Like just that picture alone just kind of sucked me in.

Yeah.

And I just kind of did a deep dive into it.

And I don't know if at the beginning of the pandemic, I feel like it's gotten a lot bigger now, tufting the process of tufting it's gotten more mainstream.

But at the beginning of the pandemic, what like four 4 ago, 3 years ago, there wasn't a lot out there.

Like I was trying to find the stuff to make the tufting guns and the the frame work and just how to even build a frame or set it up or how to to start it.

And there was the information out there was pretty minimal.

Yeah, I didn't know what it was called.

It took me a while to even find out what that process was called.

And then I found her and then she I don't know if she was working with them at the time, but she started to, when I was following her, started working with a site called Tuft the World.

And it's this small business based out of Philadelphia.

And they them and her kind of built the community, the tufting community, or helped us.

Yeah, they got the guns and they did tutorials on how to use them and they just made it easier to to access the information.

And then that's where I get all my yarn from is their site and they source responsibly.

They work with a lot of other small businesses.

They're very mindful on the products that they put out there, the information that they put out there, who they work with, and I don't know.

They're they're very inclusive.

So I, I feel very lucky to have found them at the beginning.

And they were just a wealth of information.

So it worked out.

It was like sort of kismet that you were able to find what you needed when you needed it.

Yeah.

Okay.

So you figure out that you that you are drawn to tufting and then you decide kind of to go all in.

What is that learning curve like when you when you get the materials and you where do you even begin?

I ordered the gun first and it sat in the box forever, I was so intimidated by it.

It's like a power tool.

Yeah, it's like this little, like, tiny machine gun that you're like, I watched videos of you using it.

I started it the first time.

It was like, Oh my God.

Theres yarn coming out of that Yeah.

And then I built this.

I the first frame I built was that one that's behind over there.

And it's like, fairly decent size.

I don't even know why I started with that big frame, but I'm really bad at woodworking.

But you have to do a lot of woodworking to, like, build your frames for the process.

I know that was another learning curve and yeah, I don't know, I just got I just I drew a really simple one.

At first it was like this checkerboard rug, and I just started it and kind of worked out the details as I went.

I feel like the first full frame was like all just blah.

Like it looked crazy.

Like there was like tufts coming out, the backing fabric wasn't stretched, right.

The like, tension with it was like I was shaking it so much.

So the gun was like popping out of the frame and like, kind of poking holes in it.

And so I don't know, I just had to keep doing it over and over again.

And yeah, it's fun.

I don't know.

I feel like the art forms that you can, I'm very tactile.

I think and the art forms that you can touch and or the art that you want to touch is like what I gravitate towards.

Yeah.

So it was just I love rugs.

I was like, I want rugs.

I want to make my own rugs.

Why not?

Why can't I make my own rugs?

So once you, I want to talk through kind of the logistics of actually you mentioned making the frame.

Then there's the backing fabric.

So that's you have to like stretch that just right?

The backing fabric that I use, there's lines on it.

So it helps you line up the weave of the fabric.

You want it as tight as possible and then you want it so the the weave is like it stays in line with itself, right?

Because really what you're doing is you're filling in that weave with the yarn.

So if it's like stretched too loosely, when you push the pressure from the gun into it, it doesn't work as well.

Tighter the fabric the better.

The frame is like boarded with these tack strips, you stretch it around the tack strips and the tack strips hold it in place.

Nice.

Then do you draw directly on the the backing or how does that work?

When I first started tufting, I was drawing just the designs on notebook paper.

I feel like that's the hardest part for me is the drawing.

I don't consider myself as a good drawer.

See, that's wild because I look at all your stuff and I'm like, You have to be so good to then be able to take that drawing and turn it into what you make.

But I feel like it's easier to, I don't know, transform it when it's on the when it's a different medium, like pencil and paper or pen and paper or not is not my medium.

Oh, interesting.

Like I never connected with that.

So that's I think that's the hardest part for me.

But once I get the design done, then I to get it to the size that I want, I project it onto the I scan it into my computer and then I project it onto the frame and then I trace out the design.

This might be a really stupid question, but I think that you tuft from the back.

Is that right?

So do you do the design like backward?

Yeah.

You have to do it in reverse.

Yeah.

So it's like kind of messes with your brain, I'm sure, when you're doing it because you have this image in your head that how you want it to look, and then the whole time you're tufting, it's flipped.

I think all the aspects I find fun, like I feel like the designing the piece and then laying it out and then the process of making it and just being able to touch it the whole time and and then the finishing steps and then being able to give it to the person that I'm making it for.

And I don't know, I feel like the enjoyment goes all the way through it and it's just so fun.

It's just so fun.

Isn't that what everybody wants to find?

Yeah, Yeah.

I often ask artists what art has taught them about themselves.

The biggest thing right now that I'm working on is lighten up a little bit because I feel like I've been so, you know, when you're creating something or when you're working on a project, you try to make it perfect or whatever.

That's so unobtainable.

Yeah.

And I feel like I've started to see that the things that I enjoy or the area of a picture that I'm fascinated with is the the flaw, is the area where you can see, like the human side instead of like, you know, like why is somebody can buy a rug for me when there's all these rugs out that are like perfect and like factory made, there's like, what?

I don't know.

Any machine can make that.

But the thing that I feel like makes artwork unique or people unique or whatever is the the humanity of it, the human side of it, and that we are just full of flaws and that the flaws are beautiful.

Im about to start crying.

Dont start.

Dont Start Cause I swear I will.

Yes.

Being human is so messy.

So to make No you didnt So to make beauty out of it is really special.

Is that your goal or are you just is it head down doing the work and then you can appreciate it for bringing some beauty into the world.

I think it's everything.

I think it's making it.

I think it's realizing in the making of it that it's okay if I don't understand something that that at the time.

But I will if I trust myself, I will understand it.

And knowing that I can clean something up at the end, or if I don't clean it up, then it it still can be fine.

You know, I think just giving myself a little bit more grace, which is so hard to do.

So Hard.

And I don't know, I think that art can teach us a lot.

Yeah.

And it's I think it's so sad that it's like the last thing that the school system's focus on.

Yeah, it's tough.

When people look at your work, what do you hope they take away from it?

If anything?

I hope they like looking at it.

I hope, you know, that's a big part of the world.

You want to look at stuff that you think is cool and like bring joy.

Yeah.

To take the messiness of life and make it somehow beautiful.

Yeah.

I feel like people are going to take things so many different things away from it.

Like I don't want to guide them in one direction or the other, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

I just want them to think it's cool and if I don't and that's cool too, you know?

Yeah, I don't know.

I feel like as long as I'm making it and I feel good about what I'm making and I am, if I'm making it for somebody else and I am able to communicate with them and reach the goal of what they want, then I am happy with it.

Sachi I told you I knew when I was getting ready this morning I was like, This is going to be a good one.

This is going to be fun.

I was like throwing up before you came.

You know, you know, sometimes you can just tell and I was correct.

This was the last.

I love your work.

I love your spirit.

Thanks.

So thank you so much for inviting me here today.

And please keep creating.

Thank you.

I'll try.

I'll try.

As long as I'm having fun, it'll keep going.

Perfect.

For more information, find Sachi.Sometimes on Instagram.

I'm joined now by artist Bonnie Joann, a.k.a.

BonJo.

BonJo.

Welcome.

Thank you, Emilie.

Thank you for having me here.

Thanks for being here.

Take me back to the beginning.

When did you start to really feel like an artist?

When did you identify as an artist?

Well, I had the crazy thought in high school.

You know, everyone's getting ready for college, choosing a career path, and what they want to do.

And everyone was asking me, like, So, Bonnie, what do you want to do?

And I'm like, I want to be an artist.

And theyre like a starving artist.

And I was like, Yeah, okay, we're going to do that.

Now, from being 18 to 24.

I never really thought how far I would have gone with it.

But so I just let Art do its thing and it just blessed me along the way.

Did you know, even as a child that you were artistically inclined, that you were good at it, that you were passionate about it?

Yes.

I used to doodle on my homework all the time.

I took a few art classes in high school.

I think it was 2-D art?

I took it junior year.

I didn't do anything senior year and then I took a semester of art class in college.

I took a few classes there, and those girls were eating me up in that class.

But they.

I knew that they were doing it before and I was new to it in painting.

But eventually I got good taking classes, taking the the, the professor was really good.

And he just taught me how to become a better artist.

So.

So tell me about your medium.

You are a painter.

Do you have a specific type, are you an acrylic painter?

Oil.

What?

What are you really into?

I really like acrylic.

I don't.

I haven't gotten too much into oil, but I really do like acrylic because it's flexible for me.

You could thin it out.

You can make it thick.

I think it's just it works really well with me right now.

So tell me about your process.

Do you sketch first?

Do you have a distinct idea in mind before you start a piece, or do you just get into it and see what happens?

I kind of just have this idea.

I'll look at different pieces on social media like other artists doing their thing.

So I get inspired by other artists, and also the music that I'm listening to really does inspire me.

So just those ideas just flowing.

I don't draw like, as surprising as that sounds.

I don't draw, so I just kind of like make a placement, like where I know where I want to go with the canvas.

So like, draw a little circle or a square or triangle or something, and I know what I'm doing there, and then I just add layers when I paint.

So that is really surprising to hear because especially when I think of the faces you draw, they're so intricate and layered and beautiful so to a non artist.

I'm like, How do you not have a really detailed sketch before you start?

That shocks me all the time.

They're like, Oh, so you draw.

I'm like, I don't draw.

I paint is really shocking to me.

Like I really can't sketch or draw.

It's just placement for me.

And then painting you just kind of ties it altogether, ties a painting altogether it just happens.

Yeah, that's wild.

Okay, so people may not know that they know you, but they know your work.

You have art at the Union Street market.

You had a piece on the side of a bus.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I had a few of those.

That was crazy.

What else?

Indiana Tech you did there are the drain murals.

Yes.

So your work is all over the city.

How did that come to be?

How did you become so prolific in the city?

It just happened.

Really supporters.

I'm just that good.

It's the supporters, honestly, like everyone who's seen me at like, shows, they kind of just fell in love with the art pieces or fell in love with me.

And then later on, they just kind of kept up with me and would send me opportunities.

Hey, do you want to do this?

Or Hey, I was thinking about you when this opportunity came across me.

Sometimes really, nine times out of ten, I don't see the opportunities.

So a lot of the people who I stayed connected with, they'll shoot me a message saying, I thought of you.

I thought of you.

I thought of you.

I thought of you.

Do you want to do this?

Do you wanna do this?

And I'm like, Yes.

So really is my supporters who believe in me and who love me.

And I love them because they're like, You fit here.

What is the best part of being a working artist?

I think it's the fact that I'm young still.

I think that's the most exciting part, is like, Oh, I'm 24 and I'm really doing it.

And I've been doing this since I was 18.

But really talking to all of the oldest, the older artists, the people who've been doing it for years, and just them giving me game and I can go talk to them about like my problems or anything like that.

But like you said, a lot of people know my work before they know me, and I think that's the most exciting part because that's what that's what I want.

I want them to know my work.

Yeah.

Oh, not so much that they know me, but they know my work.

Theyre like, Oh thats BonJo.

So when you when people see a BonJo piece, what do you hope that they are seeing?

What is that esthetic that you are really trying to convey honestly its different.

Everyone interprets art different.

So I could be painting just to paint something.

They're like, Oh, I really feel where you were coming from.

And I'm like, What were you feeling?

tell me how I was feeling to hear their stories and how they connected to the paintings.

It inspires me.

I'm like, Wow, like you got that from the painting?

Because sometimes I don't see what other people see in the painting.

I focused on what I wanted to, and some people may see a different detail that I didn't even I put that in there.

I'm like, Oh snap.

Like, you are kind of right.

I do see where you're seeing that from a different eye.

So I love that about my art pieces.

So you've been you've been at this for six years.

How do you feel like you have evolved and grown as an artist?

It came quick, really 2020 is where the year really took off.

I just started connecting.

My best friend really motivated me.

She's like, Start getting out there.

Like you've been talking about this you've been doing this you really need to get out there So really shoutout to her because she really has been like my backbone.

She's been with me at every show.

Like, I really get nervous without her.

So I'm just like, Are you coming?

But yeah, my best friend really motivated me to keep going.

I noticed that you don't just paint on canvas.

I saw you painting on someone's back.

Oh, yeah?

You paint on clothing.

Do you just.

Are you just willing to try?

Is that how it is, or is.

Does someone ask you for a commission piece?

Or how do you go about sort of expanding your horizons?

Is it self-motivated or do other people ask you?

Kind of both.

But again, other artists do it, too.

So it's nice to see other people.

Some people paint on wood, so I'm just like, Oh, I got a piece of wood.

I never really did it yet, but I'm just like, Maybe I will get to it eventually.

But I really wanted to set myself apart.

Like, what's going to set me apart from other artists?

So that's my challenge.

Every time I paint, I'm like, How are they going to know this banjo and not the next artist?

Yeah, So yeah, I remember going to an event and I think Miss Kelly, she was like, Hey, do you want to body paint?

And I was like, I never body painting before.

But yeah, and she thought I was going to do something simple, but I was like, no, knowing me, I'm going to go crazy.

So I did a beautiful job on Js back at our first show, and then I recently did one about a couple of weeks ago on another person's back, and I just keep doing my thing every time I paint.

I just keep like pushing myself.

Like, how is it going to be better?

How's it going to be better?

Has to be better.

You do live painting, too, which is wild to me because I would be so nervous.

Is there is there that sense of, Oh, I don't want to mess up?

Or is there even a mess up?

Is or can you work it into what you're creating?

I stay in my zone, so as an artist I work in layers, so I know what I'm doing, but I like the the thoughts that people are like thinking.

They're like, Oh, what is she doing?

How is she doing it?

So I see what I'm doing.

But they're like, Is that a meatball?

Is that a boat?

And what is that?

So it keeps them curious.

So I like the curiosity in the crowd.

And then once the piece is done together, they're like, Wow, I did not see that.

I didn't not see what you were doing.

I didn't expect that.

And so, yeah, just the curiosity keeps me like, yeah, just keep them curious.

Don't give them the whole detail yet.

Just work here, work here, work here because I could finish a piece right in this corner.

Yeah.

And they could probably get a hint, but I'm just like, I want them to see it at the end.

I want them to stay for the show so they can see the final product.

So start to finish.

How long does it typically take you to create a piece live painting or just like a piece in general?

Either way, I would imagine live painting is faster.

Yes.

Is it is a little pressure because it's timed.

So I think at the shows I would paint for about 3 hours, but I'm trying to push myself to paint within an hour and a half because I also want to enjoy everyone at the show.

And if they have any questions, I want to be able to talk to them because sometimes I never know who's in the crowd because I'm so focused on the painting.

And so once I was like, Oh, I was there, I seen you?

I'm like, I didn't get to see you.

Okay, But 3 hours, that's intense.

Do you does it fly by or do you feel like, Oh my God, I'm exhausted because this is a long time to be with no breaks?

No, it just flows.

I'm in my own zone.

Outside of painting live, I'll paint for the whole day and don't even know how long I've been on the canvas.

So sometimes I won't even eat.

I'll start from like 10:00 and next thing you know it's 6 p.m.

I'm like, I was just working on this in one area and time flew.

Yeah.

So it's that flow state.

Yeah.

What has art taught you about yourself?

Art has taught me a lot.

It taught me patience.

It taught me life lessons like so I work in layers, Right?

So you don't know what I'm painting the first layer.

You don't know what Im painting the second layer until everything starts.

Until you start adding layers and layers and layers.

It's just like life.

Life can be chaotic at one point and you don't know its chaotic for a reason.

Some things you have to let be chaotic and it's for a reason.

So you got to keep pushing.

You got to keep pushing.

You got to take the next step.

Eventually, everything will make sense.

Why things went the way it went.

And so as I tell my friends, I love being an artist because is really just art like life related at the same time, art and life, it just goes together.

It makes sense.

It's like just a lesson.

It helps me understand life.

You're so young and that is so profound.

So wow.

Best of luck in in everything moving forward.

And thank you so much for sitting down with me.

Well thank you for having me.

For more information, find BonJo 3 X on Instagram.

Our thanks to Sachiko, Janek and Bonnie Joann.

Be sure to join us next week for Arts IN Focus.

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Thank you for watching.

And in the meantime, enjoy something beautiful Arts IN Focus on PBS Fort Wayne is funded in part by the C ommunity Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne