We were lucky to catch up with Kelly Schrader recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kelly thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I’m not sure if I have one project that’s been the most meaningful, but I do find a lot of fulfillment from public murals. You spend days, weeks, out in the elements creating something larger than yourself. The physicality of it, the problem-solving of having to paint outdoors and on a variety of surfaces, to be working so visibly in public – it is demanding, vulnerable, and extremely rewarding to make public art. All that sweat and then when you’re done, you leave your freshly painted baby to fend for itself, to become a part of a place.

Kelly, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a visual artist who experiments with all sorts of media. My main grift is as a muralist, but I also do digital illustration, and I’m a screen printer and a novice ceramicist. And I make assemblages…mostly fiber sculptures, using found and salvaged materials.

My most popular series is probably the Boobface: a character I created nearly 10 years back but didn’t really start to focus on until around 2019. It’s about as clever as it sounds – a face that is a boob – but through this silly little guy I try to point to very serious and very useless bits of opinions-presented-as-facts rolling around in my head. Some examples would be Angel Boobface, wherein the character has wings, a halo, and spouts the phrase “only poor people go to heaven”; Propaganda Boobface sits in front of a wall of eyes that says “boobface is watching”; Patriot Boobface is dressed in a powdered wig, face powder, blush, beauty mark, and bourgeoisie cravat with the line “the founding fathers were drag queens” encircling him… So as you can see, I’m a quite serious Artist and harbinger of the zeitgeist.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Put your hands where I can see them and slowly open the register. But seriously, create opportunities for you to enjoy art. Go to events with vendors, actually browse their wares, and if you see something you like, pay the price they’re charging for it. Pay cash whenever possible, never haggle, and be sure to offer lots of praise – many artists cannot survive without at least one serving of praise per week. Try to look for opportunities to support artists in other ways too, like commissioning a portrait of your dad beating Rowdy Roddy Piper in arm wrestling for his birthday, paying a local musician to record a not terrible song for your anniversary, or hiring a muralist to paint your fence instead of staining it the same brown as everyone else in your neighborhood!

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are so many resources out there I still don’t know what they all are. One big thing isn’t really a specific source, but just understanding how to gain access to knowledge and experience. It took me a while to realize that if I looked up to a more experienced artist, I didn’t have to secretly compare myself to them, stalk their social profiles, or put them on a pedestal…I just had to try to talk to them. So that’s my advice to creatives of all stages – if someone is doing something you like, working in the field that you want to work in, or have mastered the medium you’ve just picked up, find their email online and write them a letter. Ask if they’d be willing to grab tea, chat on the phone, or just write you back, and be sure to talk about their career and how you admire their work (Art Elders may be wise, but they still know how to chow down on some praise), and you’d be surprised how often your offer will be accepted. They may be intimidating but they’re just people, and at one point they had no idea what they were doing either. They figured it out and I’m sure they’d love to pour that wealth of experience and knowledge into someone else’s brain. Then, one day, a tiny Art Baby will reach up and tug on your sleeve to ask how you Did The Thing, and won’t that be cool?    

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kelly-schrader.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_schraderart_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/schraderart
• Other: https://linktr.ee/schraderart

Image Credits
Personal photo/headshot: Sass Photography, https://www.instagram.com/sasss.world/ Fiber sculpture photos: Copper Key Photo, https://www.instagram.com/copperkeyphotonc/