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 painter Lyndy Bazile, aka Afro Plump and the owner of Local Apple Cart, Rachel Nally.

It's all next on Arts IN Focus.

Welcome to Arts IN Focus I'm Emilie Henry.

Lyndy Brazile The artist behind Afro Plump is of Hiatian descent and prides herself on incorporating her ancestry into her work.

She began her painting career in 2018 and has now become a full time artist.

Being a multiracial woman of color with a larger body type, Lyndy's work focuses on women with larger bodies, emphasizing feminine strength, body positivity and pride in diversity.

Lyndy, thank you so much for sitting down with me today.

I think your work is so amazing.

It's so there's something like visceral about it.

We'll get into all that.

But I want to know when you started painting, when you started to kind of identify as an artist.

I started painting when I was really young.

I was always drawing as a kid, in high school I was an artist.

I was best artist of the year as a senior.

So I guess I identified as an artist at that point.

But with painting, it's been since about 2019.

I alluded to it in the beginning, but there's something it's like kind of transcendent.

I look at your work and I just I'm taken in.

It's it's beautiful, but it looks so strong.

People always say, what is Afro plump?

And I'm like, Those are the two things about myself that I felt like set me apart in a lot of situations like my African descent and my like being a larger person was often like things that were different about me in the groups that I was in and growing up and I wanted to use those as strengths.

So then the art also I think was like, okay, I'm going to be strong and do this because it was just so scary to like be putting these images on paper for me for whatever reason.

It's just really intimidating to like it always feels so final.

And I know as an artist you're supposed to be okay with like making sketches, messing up.

Just keep going.

But for me, it still is so final.

When I make an image, it's there's a lot of vulnerability there, but I do feel that it's getting less scary and that I don't feel like every image has to be so vulnerable and personal.

I can make images about other things more so now I can see that kind of opening up for me.

But it's still so early.

I've only been painting for like two and a half years, so I'm yeah, I'm excited to see kind of where it goes.

So what is your goal when you start a piece?

Do you set out with a statement in mind, something that you want to convey, or how do you how do you even begin?

It depends a lot what the project's for.

So if it's just something that I want to make in my studio, an idea I've had or a message that's come to me, which happened just yesterday, I woke up and the first thing that I heard in my head was look up and even the earth can hide.

And I was like, What?

And then it just I kept thinking about it all day and was like, Oh, you can really choose to see or not see anything.

And people do all day long.

Yeah.

And it's just made me resonate on that.

And so I could totally make an image from that.

I would love to, but if it's something that someone's hired me for or if it's public art, that's a whole different process where I have to consider my community.

What does my community need for me?

What do the people who I want to serve you know, what could they use right now?

And so then I make an image that's more like just for service.

Yeah.

Okay.

Tell me about what you hope people take away from your work.

Well, I hope that the emotion and like the sensitivity and the softness of it makes it approachable, even if you're not identifying with it directly.

I'm so glad you said softness, because that was definitely something I identified with.

I love the the curves that you incorporate into your work.

But I also try to like as I'm, you know, multiracial, I have white identity, I have black identity, I have mixed identity, I have Latina identity.

And it's confusing and it's a lot.

And I think that my identity might be kind of like a mirror of the greater identity because we're all multiracial as a group.

So I guess I see that as an opportunity for me to express that confusion or that when I feel confident in that, when I feel like I know something, when I have questions, I just hopefully that it's an exploration of all of those things.

So hopefully people can enter with the softness and then do the exploration while they're in there.

Yeah, your work is beautiful.

I also love that you are not afraid to paint the female form, so talk about that.

Did you arrive there easily or was it something that you kind of grappled with in terms of putting it on paper?

That's always what I was drawing.

Even as a kid.

I remember my parents were like, Mm, What are you doing?

And I would like hide my drawings.

Like, this is probably not appropriate.

Appropriate.

But yeah, I remember that was always a thing.

It's just what feels natural for me to draw and what I think.

You know what I see good, beautiful composition in and what I feel.

You know, I want to make.

And I think that that translates the beautiful composition of it.

I think as women, it's so sometimes it's hard to to look at ourselves and see beauty in its natural form.

And so to look at your work, I'm like, Oh wow, it makes me appreciate my body more.

Is that ever the goal or?

Definitely.

Yeah, I do hope that because I've always struggled with my image and feeling like I didn't like my body.

So it's definitely an effort in building confidence for me and for others who might have the same kind of struggle, to confront that thing that makes it feel a little uncomfortable and to be like, Well, what is that?

And what is yeah, what do I, you know, where can I go with that and what does that mean?

Yeah, it made me want to, you know, to know more, to understand more so that I can, break down those barriers.

So I'm not sure what exactly you are, what you want people to feel.

But whatever it was for me was very profound.

So it was cool.

I really loved researching your stuff.

So what is your favorite type of work to do?

Do you like the commission stuff?

Do you like the big mural stuff or your own personal work?

What is it?

I think I like all of them and I balance accordingly.

So like if I feel like I want to be making my own work, just that nobody might ever want just for myself, I'm able to do that as long as I have balanced enough murals for the year to be able to afford to do that, because that's really so far where I have found the most income opportunity.

And I love to do public art too, because it gives me the opportunity to, you know, try to speak for the public and like just make a meaningful message.

Yeah, yeah.

And then commissions, I do less commissions, but I have done some and I do them when I feel like, Oh, you know what?

I need some money right now and somebody wants a painting and there's somebody that I want to make a painting for.

And what they want is something that I want to make.

There's just a lot of balancing, but it's good to have all those different options.

And then now with the studio, another level is creating a space for other artists to make work.

So that's what I see as part of my work now too, because I have three artists coming in next month for residency and it's important for me to like create space for people to make art as well, because there isn't a lot of places in Fort Wayne for people to have a studio.

You've mentioned to some challenges that you come up against when you're working.

What do you think is the biggest challenge?

Is it getting your work to translate what's in your head or is it that that confidence piece?

What is what is the hardest part?

I guess the hardest part has been creating my visual language.

I think it's really important to have something about your work that when people look at it, they know it's yours.

And not just a naked woman.

Like it has to be more than that.

So I really like the way you put the paint on the paper and the way you design the composition.

I want to be consistent in those ways.

So even if I'm, you know, painting a car, which would be really hard, but to be able to still be recognizable as the artist that I am, yeah, people often say that they could spot my work anywhere, and I think that's a great compliment and I'm not sure if it's true, but I think I think it is.

I think like it's getting to the point where, yeah, it has a, a clear language and a clear perspective that I'm that I'm communicating the way I want to.

Yeah.

Tell me how you, when you start a piece, do you have the image in your head first and then get it on to paper or are you sort of letting it happen?

How does that work.

So I wish I could let it happen, but I definitely get the image in my head.

Do a sketch, do it again, get it all balanced correctly on the page, you know, change things, and then then I'll go and put it on to a canvas.

Yeah.

So in doing murals has made that even more of my way of doing it, because you have to really have a clear design before you go put anything on a wall, right?

And people use a grid to transfer and it's very calculated.

Yeah.

So that that's also happening in my studio work as well.

That's so funny that you are calculated because it does, I don't when I see your work again, it's so it's, it looks more natural than that.

Yeah.

I mean it just feels so organic that it's interesting that in your head it's, it's so much more calculated than that.

Yeah.

What's the best part of being a painter?

Well, actually, I think it's the part where I'm also a mother and my son is I'm seeing what a benefit it is to him to have a mom who's an artist.

Yeah.

And he gets to come into my studio after school and he runs to his sketchbook and like, starts to, you know, wants to use my paints and, you know, he likes it.

And I think about when he's older, like, what that will have meant for him to have had a mom who could be there into who was following her dreams as hard as they were to stick with and who, you know, was creating a path for herself.

So I hope that that's impactful to him, and that's would be the best part.

Yeah.

What has being an artist taught you about yourself?

Well, it's teaching me that I do have the freedom to choose what I want to do with my life and how I want to live.

So it's yeah, it's a hard lesson to learn, to think that, like, you have that freedom.

But because the society is so structured and expectations are of income and like, yeah, what you're supposed to be able to provide are very like, it's a lot of pressure, but I am learning that there's a way through and that you can be true to yourself and do what you want and still make it.

What a beautiful gift.

Your work is such a beautiful gift.

Thank you so much for all that you do and thanks for taking the time today.

Thank you so much.

For more information, visit afro plump dot com I'm joined now by Rachel Nally, owner and operator of the Local Apple Cart.

I'm so excited you're here.

You have an apple cart.

It's not an apple cart, but it was an apple cart.

But it now is ice cream, all the things.

Let's start at the beginning.

Oh, man, you're an artist.

But you didn't start in the artistic world of food.

So tell me about all of that.

So from the very beginning of my life, you start out in Cleveland.

I grew up in Cleveland and I grew up in the inner city of Cleveland, East Cleveland specifically.

So it was a very rough neighborhood.

And my childhood ice cream shop became my beacon of hope.

Honestly.

I pass it every day going to school, and it became my first job at 14.

It was something I could always rely on in a very unstable situation.

It's called Apple Cart.

And this place became so near and dear to me that I just knew right from the get go that I was going to get into the ice cream business.

I just always had that thought, like I've always was looking for a location, if that makes sense.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And life brought me to Fort Wayne.

I have to tell you, I love it here.

Oh, I'm so glad to hear that.

I've lived in enough states to know that this place is amazing.

Yeah, And the first people I met in town were very quick to tell me that you could not compete with the other local ice cream places, and it would just be a waste of money, basically.

And I have to tell you, you know, when you have enough people discouraging you that your passion, your dream does start to gray out.

Of course.

And I let it get to me.

I did for like a whole decade.

Wow.

But every now and then I would still see a spot like, Oh, I bet that would be a great spot for an ice cream shop.

Yes.

Yes.

A little quick history about the apple cart in Cleveland.

It did start as an apple stand during the Great Depression and moved over to burgers and malts in the fifties and specifically 1967, because I have a picture of the neighborhood protesting.

It moved over to just to take out like ice cream place like Zesto here in town and I love that photo I have it in the shop.

Yes.

So back to how the whole idea started.

Yeah, I wanted to buy an apple tree, but I have no idea how to take care of it.

And what I quickly found out is you need two apple trees to be able to produce apples.

And so the concern was is I would have too many apples and they'd be all over my yard and so I'm like, what should I do?

And one of my friends chimed in, sell them at the farmer's market.

That's a great idea.

Everybody does that.

And so that turned into sell them at the farmers market.

Well, they have to be delicious apples.

They should be caramel and candied and all these different kinds of apples.

And then finally another friend chimed in.

They're like, Well, what would you call it?

And I gave it no thought, of course.

Yeah.

Apple Cart.

Yeah.

And I called up my former employer and I'm like, Hey, is it okay if I can use the name?

At the time it was just apples.

Yeah.

And yeah, sure.

So I contacted the farmer's market.

They love the idea, you know, you just got to get the Board of Health approval by time.

I actually called the Board of Health.

I have a week off because COVID.

Oh, it was the beginning.

Yeah.

I mean, like, we're days into it.

Yes.

Oh, we all remember that week where it was just that week and like, oh, I have some free time.

Exactly how little did we know?

And she tells me something very disappointing.

She's like, you know, we're no longer doing in-home businesses for the farmer's market, even though they do do that.

And people who started it already are grandfathered in.

Right.

We are only taking food trucks or somebody who owns a restaurant.

And so my startup, you know, cost, went from $200 to like and I looked it up.

It was like $100,000 to start a food truck.

Yes.

And I'm like, well, you know, I think I'll give up for about 10 minutes.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So that was it.

You just gave yourself a little minute to freak out about it, and then you just forged ahead.

It was legitimately about 10 minutes.

Wow.

Like, if I had to gauge it, it might have even been nine.

And then you just thought, okay, we're going to make this happen.

When I started the food truck, at the time, it was still apples, Right?

But if I'm going to have a food truck, I need a part of Cleveland with me.

And so I literally got the smallest ice cream machine you can get on the market.

Yeah.

That's still commercial.

Yeah, sure.

But it couldn't handle, you know, too much of a demand if I wanted it to.

Yeah, because I didn't expect the ice cream to be.

I still had that gray area.

You can't do this here because we already have oversaturated, right?

It's oversaturated.

In my mind, I'm like, well, if I'm making these apples and I started selling chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate bananas and just all these fruit items.

A little side dish of ice cream, is not going to hurt anybody.

Of course, it would only help.

Right.

So I never expected that I needed as much ice cream as I did because the market was still asking for ice cream and specifically homemade ice cream once I started doing it.

Sure.

So I found the biggest, smallest truck I could find, which is actually a rare delivery truck.

It was a UPS truck.

Yeah.

And long story short, it was not enough space to provide for the demand.

Yeah.

So what do you do if the other soft serve ice cream trucks in town, which had recently just retired, so I was picking up all of his business.

Yeah.

Can fit 40 gallons of ice cream in his truck, which was one of the largest trucks out there.

If you've seen the food trucks, his was like, double the size.

Yeah, it was huge, because you need that for the power of a soft-serve machine.

And to be able to hold the ice cream.

Sure.

How can I fit 40 gallons into a truck that I can only fit ten gallons into?

That was my goal and I marinated on it for a very long time.

And the solution was, is I have to make it in the truck.

I have to be able to make the ice cream fresh on command.

And if I run out of ingredients, I can go to a store that's close by.

And so that's what I did.

I spent a very large amount of time coming up with this soft serve recipe, which was more difficult than people understand because soft serve is different than hard dip in the fat content.

If you put too much fat in there thinking, that's going to taste really good, right?

Which it would for a hard tip ice cream.

Right.

More fat the better, like oh this is delicious.

That's my motto.

Right?

But with soft serve, if you put too much fat in there in the industry, it's called buttering out.

And then you get these little tiny balls of butter that you think are grains of sugar.

Oh, yeah.

And it's like, why is this ice cream grainy?

It's little tiny balls of butter that have been frozen in the soft serve because they didn't get the butter content right.

And that's why most soft serve nowadays not even considered ice cream because they can't get it because you have to have a 10% butter fat for it to be considered ice cream.

I want to say it was probably a good four weeks before I had the recipe down to where I could have my dry ingredients and my cold ingredients, and I was able to fit 40 gallons into that tiny truck.

Rachel That is incredible.

It's so the way that you were able to get from A to B to C and so on, every time something a roadblock came up, it's so great.

Let's fast forward a little bit.

So Local Apple Cart, very successful.

Things are going great.

You learn how to infuse alcohol the same way I learned how to make soft serve trial and error and everybody tasting it.

And the whole time this is it really does speak to the fact that you have always known you're an artist because you are you're creating and you're making it work and you're making things beautiful that maybe weren't before.

So tell me what's happening now.

You go from food truck and it just keeps getting sweeter.

Pun intended.

No, I love that.

My slogan Make every moment sweet.

Oh, yeah.

So at this point I have my food truck.

I'm established.

I'm turning down more work than I'm accepting.

I'm the only soft serve ice cream truck in town, which I hear rumors that that might change.

But that's okay, because there's plenty of a market which I didn't think was the case.

And but there is and somebody at Ivy Tech mentions to me that they have this new entrepreneurship program.

And at the end of it, you could possibly win $40,000.

I'm like, oh, I could totally use $40,000.

Who couldn't?

I'm turning down more work than I'm accepting.

What are my needs?

I need another truck, obviously.

At least that's what I thought I needed.

Yeah.

Until I did the program and I realized what I actually needed was still a physical location.

And it goes back to home when I decided to do this.

So I went to Cleveland with my family and we went to the West Side market.

I don't know if you've ever heard of it.

This is a real old market.

I mean, this thing is like 200 plus years old.

You're looking at hundreds of vendors selling the same stuff.

So you're going to get the freshest, tastiest fruits.

And while I was there, I just look at my son who is on the shoulders of my husband, and I'm like.

Fort Wayne needs this.

Fort Wayne needs one of these markets.

And I say it out loud.

I set it in to universe, and within 24 hours, that's when I get this.

Union Street market is looking for vendors.

And my husband found it, actually.

Yeah.

I had just woke up from returning from Cleveland and they announced the first vendors and he was like, look, you just mention this and here they are.

And so I didn't even give it a thought.

I'm going to be in there.

And I knew what kind of success these kind of markets can bring, you know, And that's how that wasn't even my thought.

It was just more like, I need to be there.

Yeah, I just knew.

And so that's what I did.

I was one of the first vendors announced and it was a long year.

Don't get me wrong.

I'm sure.

Of planning and getting it all together.

Well, and I think if, if your history has taught you anything, it's that you can trust your gut.

Because even though you may have taken a winding road, I mean, my gosh, it's come, all of your dreams have come to fruition.

So we are so lucky as a city to have you here, to have your artistry.

And I am so lucky to have had your time today.

Thank you for coming.

Absolutely Thank you for having me.

For more information, visit local apple cart, dotcom.

Our thanks to Lyndy Bazile and Rachel Nally.

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 Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne