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 conceptual photographer Kaleigh Middelkoop and graphic designer Jeff Anderson.

It's all next on Arts IN Focus.

Welcome to Arts IN Focus.

I'm Emilie Henry.

Kaleigh Middelkoop is a conceptual photographer who primarily uses self-portraiture along with different costumes and props, as a means to tell stories.

After spending her formative years in Newfoundland, Canada, she studied photography in Ontario at Algonquin College.

She has gone on to create immersive gallery shows featuring her photography, costumes and props.

Now Kaleigh operates a studio in downtown Wabash, where we visited her to learn all about the process behind creating her work Kaleigh, thank you so much for inviting me to your studio today.

We came out to Wabash, which is so cute.

This area is perfect.

You are from Canada, now in Indiana.

But take me back to Canada for a moment and tell me about you as a child.

Were you always creative?

Did you always sort of know that you were an artist?

Well, I think every kid has this little part of them that there's like something that they really want to be.

And I remember my sister grew up, she took piano lessons and she was so good at piano, and she ended up going on studying it in school.

And my brother was always really good.

He had just this raw talent for pretty much anything he would start, but especially drawing and then on to guitar as well.

So both very musical.

And I remember going to my mom and just being like, What's my thing, mom?

What's the thing that I'm going to like really be good at?

And so I got into creative writing and I wrote like a little started a novel.

I was going to get published and had all these big dreams, and I wanted to be a fashion designer at one point.

Like, I always had this kind of creative pull.

And I love the way that finding photography has allowed me to incorporate all of those childhood desires.

Like I'll make costumes for my photos, I'll have stories even about, you know, some of the characters and images.

So it's really nice to be able to use photography as a medium to just cater to all of these other mediums that I love to incorporate, but maybe I'm not as strong in or they come to support the greater picture you know what I mean Okay, so when did you come upon photography and did you know right away, Oh, okay, this is going to sort of encompass all of these things that I love.

Yeah.

So it's very cliche, but my mom had a film camera and I went out and I just like, brought it up to my face and having that viewfinder bring things into focus.

I started to really hone in on things around me and realize all these little beautiful pockets that were everywhere.

Like we were fixing up this old, dilapidated house and there's just this whole little trail of dandelions that are coming along where there is supposed to be a path underneath and bringing the camera up That's so cool.

I take a picture and I go down on the beach, take these pictures, and we get the role developed.

And my parents are like, This is really kind of cool, you know?

And they end up getting me this little digital camera for Christmas, which was like my big Christmas present.

And I just took stupid pictures of my friends.

Like we would just do funny stuff.

But I ended up really coming to love it.

And so I worked my first job at Dairy Queen saved up money and got my first DSLR.

And then I actually have a friend that I met online when I was like a teenager and we just kept in contact and she got a camera at the same time and just happened to get into photography.

So we ended up doing this 365 day project together where we did self-portraits every day for a year, and we would post them and critique each other and we really taught each other so much about photography through that.

And for me, I started it as I was finishing high school and I was trying to figure out the direction that I wanted to go in, like, What am I going to do next?

What's my thing going to be right?

All my friends are going off and they're doing their general studies and they're going to become nurses and teachers and lawyers and all these things.

And there wasn't really a place for studying photography where I live.

So I was like, I'm going to take a year off.

I'm going to keep teaching myself photography.

If I stick with it for this long, like it's important to me, right?

Yeah.

And the passion just grew and grew.

The more I got into this project, and especially with self-portraits, I chose that as a way for me to have the space and time to experiment and make mistakes and not feel that pressure of like, I owe something to somebody else.

I can just go.

And it became very therapeutic for me, and it's something that I've really carried through to this day, you know, like 10, 12 years later as I'm photographing a lot of them are of me.

And I've I've gotten better at being able to photograph myself vulnerably in more spaces where there might be more people or there's more of that pressure or whatever.

That takes time, definitely.

But I do think that that my ability to express that vulnerability is so important for people.

Being honest and being vulnerable is really the heart of it all.

You know, Like that's that's why we create and I think that's why I lean a bit more towards these conceptual images, like, yeah, they're fun and flashy and interesting, but also it's like, this is, this is something that I'm working through that I can only work through by creating this.

I can only solve this problem by solving this other problem, I guess.

But okay, I want to dig in to that because it's just so fascinating to me.

So tell me when it comes to creating a piece.

My first thought is, well, is it Photoshop?

Is it so how?

Okay.

Yes.

So it's not to put too fine a point on it.

How?

Please.

No, I love I love spreading the magic too.

There's definitely a little varnish of Photoshop.

Some images are definitely composites, and I have tried to do as much in camera as I can, and there's a lot of hands on things.

It's it's kind of like that, FX makeup and CGI, right?

You want that balance where you have a really nice place for your feet, one foot to have grounded and the other one to just kind of float away.

So a little bit of Photoshop, a little bit of guts to just a little bit of like my dad always said that to model for me is an extreme sport and I should probably get waivers for some of the trees I make people climb and things.

But you get a great story, a great shot.

And I mean, like I said, I'm looking through your portfolio and it's just incredible.

So how do you describe your work?

that's always been something that I've rolled around in my brain and even I have a hard time pinning me down.

I would say conceptual, surreal portrait photographer.

I definitely dip in a lot of fantasy elements, but over the years my style can kind of come in and out of that.

So I like to just kind of say a conceptual photographer.

How important is it for you to tell a story through each of your photographs?

I think for a time I put a lot of emphasis on how much story can I pull from a picture.

And that got me to making really extraordinary images.

But as I've begun to pull back, I've been able to make more impactful images by just having something very maybe simple to say or think or feel almost like making shape to emotion.

You know what I mean?

Like being able to have an idea that encapsulates a feeling.

I'm a very deeply feeling person, and I think maybe that's how I process it is like, Man, this feels like, you know, I've got a little corset on my throat and I just like, I can't speak because it's still so tight.

And that becomes a picture, you know, And that literally.

Yes, that literally became a picture.

So it's it's a really fun balance of like having those really soft, tender moments of like almost like a little diary entry and then like, oh, here's here's a chick riding a bird with a moon behind her, you know, where is she going?

What is she doing?

Which, you know, I have written little stories about and things like that.

But I think that's one thing that has kept people really captivated over the years through following my work, has been getting to to feel what I feel and go on the little adventures that I go on.

Yes.

And I'm very grateful for all of the ones I've been able to take.

It's so interesting, as I was going through your website, I was seeing, you know, you have photographs of new families, parents with brand new babies, and it's like, Oh, that's so perfect.

It's a moment in time.

And and obviously they will cherish that and have it in their home.

That's the kind of stuff I have in my house.

But then I look at some of your other work and your self-portraits and that kind of thing, and I'm like, Yes, I want that picture of that woman.

I don't know, in my home because it just resonates with me.

So is there I mentioned that vulnerability.

Is there a piece of that, too, to know that you and your story and a piece of you is going to live in people's homes?

I think that has always been my biggest dream.

Like any time I sell art a little sporadically and when it happens, it's never any less magical.

I never forget just how important what's happening is happening.

So it's it is my pride and joy to make art that can speak to people in that way, for one and that they would want in their home is like, yes, because that's the connection that I want.

Im like am I crazy?

I don't know, maybe I am, but I'm just going to throw it out there.

And when you get that reciprocity, it is it's yeah, it's just true human connection.

So that's just been really great to be able to, to share and have it received well I think I've I've really been working on making what comes to mind and not trying to make what I think other people will like.

I was really caught in that for a time and I've seen just how much more meaning there is to it for people doing it that way.

So I think really just focusing on that and letting the tiles fall into place is kind of, yeah, its nice.

What has art taught you about yourself?

Oh, that is such a loaded question.

Art has taught me so much.

They talk a lot about trusting the process of art, but I think at the end of the day, a lot of it is trusting yourself and your own process with whatever it is that life throws at you.

I have definitely learned how similar we all are.

You know, like it's so funny because there's so many different types of art and I love that and I love that there's so many different types of people, but there's always this common thread.

There's always something that somebody can find in something else.

I've I've shown my work to many different types of people, and I love when you get that old fisherman who has lived in the same town his whole life and has a very interesting story of his own and can look at something of mine and be like, Oh yeah, I love those woods.

I've been there and that, you know, hope that reminds me of a story that my grandmother told me.

And there's like these common threads between us and yeah, just being honoring of that instead of alienating of it is where it's at.

I think we could, yeah.

We could all use a little bit more.

A little bit more.

We can get it right.

Kaleigh thank you so much.

This has been such a pleasure.

Your work is exquisite.

I hope you continue to create.

Please keep giving your art to the world because we need it.

Thank you so much.

And thank you for coming in and letting me talk about my art with you.

It's it's been a likewise pleasure and honor.

Thank you.

My pleasure.

For more information, visit Kaleigh M dot com I'm joined now by graphic designer Jeff Ando Anderson.

Ando thank you for being here.

Thanks for having me.

This was not on my agenda.

But I have to ask, are you the one who designed your tattoos?

No, not at all.

Actually, a couple of them, but none of them that you can see.

They're very cool.

Thank you.

Okay, now I'll get into the real meat and potatoes.

Tell me when you started to kind of, like, identify as an artist.

Not until.

I mean, really recently, I was.

I drew, You know, as a kid, you always draw.

Took all art classes through high school.

And then I started doing more graphic design and kind of left, like the drawing and the doodling behind.

And then, I don't know, I'd say I had my first solo art show ten years ago, and it kind of happened by accident.

And then that's kind of put me on this path that I'm on right now.

So ten years ago, you have this solo art show.

How how did that come to be?

Well, I had stopped doing drawing and painting and stuff like that.

And then I picked up a canvas from Wal-Mart and some of the cheap paints.

Yeah.

And I was just doodling around with it and my friend's husband was like, I'm going to buy that.

And I was like, Okay.

And then she's a curator for like, at the Dash-In and stuff like that.

So she was like, Hey, I have an opening in a month.

I need 50 paintings.

And I'm like, You know, I've never I haven't done this in years.

I've somehow spilled it out.

Yeah.

And did you feel like it was a success where you that show?

I felt like it was.

And I kind of, you know, encouraged me to keep going.

Yeah.

So when did the graphic art really start coming into play?

Because you've done so many really cool things.

I went to college for graphic design, and then I started out doing, like, typography, like for yellow page ads, and then I was a newspaper.

And then I started doing posters for bands because that's really what I wanted to do.

Was anything music related, CD covers or, you know, posters and stuff like that.

So that kind of kept you pretty good, pretty good posters.

You know, you got to keep the bar low.

So, so you get into kind of the music scene and then did you feel like that pigeonholed you or did it offer you other opportunities it offered It actually encouraged me again to keep trying more stuff.

So like every time I got a new CD cover or something to work on, I tried to make it different than the last.

So I try to hone my craft still.

Tell me about your process when you sit down to design cover art or a poster or whatever the case may be.

How much of it do you already have laid out in your head and how much of it is sort of organic?

What does that look like?

It's a lot of it's organic because unless like the client comes to me and says, I want it to look like this, I'm kind of just throwing stuff at the wall and like, do you like this?

No, no, let's try this.

You know, sometimes.

You know, sometimes what the the client wants versus what I think they want are two different paths.

So you have to kind of find out what they want.

And that's the trick.

Or sometimes the client thinks they know what they want but doesn't.

So or it's really hard when they don't know, they absolutely, positively have no idea.

So you go to them with like five or six different things and like, I don't like any of these because you don't know what you want.

Right.

What is that the most challenging part of the job or of the day job?

Yeah, the graphic design is trying to because the client has like this idea of what they think is going to work.

But, you know, I've been doing it for 20 years, so I know what's going to work.

So it's kind of hard to convince them.

Yeah.

Do you have an example of your work that is your favorite?

Is there like something that you've done that just really stands out to you?

The the Promenade mural that I just finished up for Teds, which is really nice because it was all digital and it's they just printed it on vinyl.

So I didn't actually have to go out and sit in the sun and paint it.

Yeah.

Would that have changed how you designed it and what you did, if you had it would have probably been a little bit simpler.

Yeah, not as.

Because, I mean, there's a lot of characters in that.

I'm not sure if you've seen it.

I have, yeah.

And there's probably 15 characters in there.

I probably would have narrowed it down to five or six.

Yeah.

When you look back at your early work compared to now, can you see your evolution?

Do you can you kind of, you know, you do have benchmarks?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Like when I when I went strictly digital, like my illustration just skyrocketed to me.

I mean, I mean, people might see it as the same, but I feel like it got cleaner and crisper and it looks a lot better than it did when I was trying to trace it.

And so logistically, how does that work when you said that it's sort of organic, the way that your pieces come together, but nuts and bolts, how do you how do you work?

Oh, it's usually just whatever comes to mind.

Like I'll have I'll be driving and that would be kind of funny if I drew that or that, if I mash these two up and then I usually text my girlfriend like these weird phrases and she'll text me back like, what?

Like, Sorry, I had an idea.

Yeah, and that's how you remember it.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

And then I usually sit down and I'll sketch it out on the on my iPad.

I was going to say, so is it an iPad and stylus iPad stylus and Procreate and just go from there.

Yeah.

And is it ever is it easier to scrap something that you feel isn't working when it's on your iPad?

Oh, yeah, for sure.

And is that always a good thing?

Well, you can basically I just go to another layer and I kind of I don't delete it.

Don't delete anything, you know, just kind of pull it off to the side.

And I might come back in a few weeks, a couple of days.

You know, if it's not flowing, it's not flowing.

Sure.

So how do you describe your esthetic?

Uh, I used once a mix of pop art meets folk art.

Hmm.

Just because of the colors and the characters.

But then, like, the technicality might not all be there for some people.

Yeah, that might be the best description.

What is the best part of creating beauty that didn't exist before?

I think everybody's reactions.

Like, I like seeing people go, Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah.

You know, or if it's like a food truck.

I like driving down the road and be like, I did.

Yes.

So I was actually going to ask about that because I saw some of your work for food trucks.

And I thought when you're when you have to think of the whole 3D, the the wrap.

Yeah.

Does that change the way you design?

No, because you're really kind of looking at it as like each side.

You just have to make sure that each side flows.

Yeah.

And then you also have to worry about the installer.

And you're not making his life pain, right?

You know, because you want him to be able to pull it up to make it look good.

So, you know, you get other factors when you're looking at the trucks and stuff like that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Knowing that you want people to go, Oh, that's cool.

Or you want to see the food truck and go, Yeah, that's cool.

Is there is there something that you hope people take away from your work?

Do you just want it to be joy or is there ever social commentary?

No, I don't.

I don't get into that kind of stuff.

I'm you know, I think if you're trying to make a statement with your art, it might come off as too pretentious.

Why?

Why?

Why do you need my opinion on that?

You have your own opinion.

I just want you to be like, I just want you to enjoy it.

And if you take it home and you hang it in your house and you see it every day and it brings you joy, then my job is done.

As technology continues to grow and evolve.

Do you have other mediums that you want to try or.

I'm kind of focusing on screen printing right now.

Oh, okay.

So I'll take like my digital drawing and then I'll make my screens.

So you're kind of going in reverse?

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

You know, there's something about the whole, like, process of, you know, each duck has to be in a row for screen printing.

Yeah.

So there's something about that that I like.

Are there unique challenges that you didn't anticipate with that?

Yeah, You know, just making sure everything lines up.

That gets a little tedious.

And, you know, sometimes it's you want to pull your hair out.

Is it always worth it or do you have times when you're like, nope, shouldn't have even.

Oh, yeah.

For sure.

I think everybody does.

You know, when when a project just isnt going your way and you're you're ready to give up, like, Yeah, I'll come back to it tomorrow.

On the other side of that coin, do you know when a piece is finished?

Do you have that definitive its done.

Yeah.

Yeah, because my, my, my final process when I'm painting is drawing the outline of the character that's on the canvas.

So as soon as that last black line goes down, I'm like, okay, where's the next one?

Fantastic.

Okay, so canvas, do you ever go back and actually paint canvas or are you doing everything digitally?

Right now I mean, I still do paint.

I still have a few commissions and stuff like that, but it just doesn't bring me as much joy as it used to.

So I'm kind of given I'm not giving up on it, but I'm just kind of stepping away from it.

So what's next?

Is there a high watermark for you?

Is there something that you haven't done yet?

I mean, you just did the mural is there you know, is there something else?

More murals?

Of course, I'm I'm always down to do another mural.

But I would really like to take one of my characters and see them become like a toy line.

Oh, cool.

Bredwig who's been on here.

He's a big I'm a big fan of his.

And he does toys and I'm just like, I wouldn't do that with those.

Yeah.

Okay, So speaking of Bredwig and your shirt, of course.

How do you feel?

Like Fort Wayne as an artist community has has helped or hurt you as as an individual artist?

Oh, I think, you know, there's a big community.

There's a lot of people, but there's also like pockets of the community.

But they're all everybody's real supportive.

I think it's I think it's when there's a big community like that, it challenges you to be better because you want to, you know, you see what he's doing, like, Oh, I can do that.

Yeah.

You know.

Do you think people would be surprised to know that it is a pretty rich art scene here?

I think if they're on the outside looking in, they probably would be.

But I think the people that are in the community are not surprised by it so.

What do you think art has taught you about yourself?

That I can always be better.

You know, like, that's I mean, that's pretty much my goal every day is to be better than I was yesterday, you know, in life and art.

Yeah.

So that's.

And is that do you feel like that's measurable?

You know, some days you're like, I'm trying.

Yeah.

I mean, some days you're just like, All right, I'm.

I'm.

I'm over today.

I'm, you know.

Well settle the status quo today.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, I wasnt worse than I was yesterday, you know?

I love that.

I think that might be my new mantra Im not worse than I was yesterday, but genuinely.

Ando you are a pleasure.

I love your work, and I hope to see much more of it all over the city.

Me too.

Thank you.

Thank you.

For more information, visit Pretty good posters dot com Our thanks to Kaleigh Middelkoop and Jeff Anderson.

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

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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