We were lucky to catch up with POPO CHANELLE recently and have shared our conversation below.

POPO, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

This idea was originally a joke, back when I doodled on my sidebars of homework in school. Something I always did. The original idea sparked from an Erykah Badu quote that said something like find whatever comes easiest to you, then master it. While working at restaurants when living in Chicago for several years, I would sketch out the moments on menus, an outlet for my sarcastic, tired, working brain, something that came really easy for me. With this idea in mind, I put time into the actual work, more and more as I traveled until it expanded from the sidebar to the canvas with paint. Anything that I could find from windows to old unwanted frames became my canvas. I mainly started with painting eyes, letting the painting come to life on its own, and from the eyes the other features would come to life. When painting a face, I add as much color as possible in the vaguest manner. At times I’m working on multiple paintings at once while others dry. From the base of color I decide what I see among the shades. Once I’ve found the eyes the rest of the attitude is discovered through shadows and following my mistakes. If there is a section I find to look like a mistake or a better idea, I’ll highlight it. I will zero in on the section and let the “mistake” be the star of the piece. I’ll highlight it with a bright color and give it reason. The mistake could also be known as the “popo” the runt, the shit, the butt-end of the piece overall, this is a word known in my family from my grandma using it when we were kids. Once I see the “popo” in the piece I give it some “chanel” or CHANELLE, some style, make it FASHION, through bright colors and make it the star of the piece. The idea of repurposing materials to make a brand-new product that has a long lasting life ahead of it, has become my goal. We make so many items brand new these days and there are fabulous thrown-out items that could be detailed and have another life. I have yet to finish all the paintings I’ve started and I have made it my life’s goal to finalize every piece with POPOCHANELLE.
While I have been artistic for most of my life, the actual business began to gain momentum a couple of years ago. I was training as a breakfast server at Single Thread Healdsburg California in 2020 to make some money to support my growing business. This job blossomed into meeting some really great allies in the art world who were creatives and business owners working for themselves and supporting each other. I’ve had the honor of having the art displayed in local coffee shops like Quail and Condor in Healdsburg which has expanded my community of POPOCHANELLE art lovers alongside food. I leveled up in the restaurant through the years working and stayed consistent with painting. After each shift I would drive through the night to the studio and paint characters, faces, figures and colors that would transfer all my energy from the day into something beautiful and mind/mood changing. Working parallel to the service industry has really given me a reliable structure to use with my artistic practice. It also led to me painting as a competitor in Art Battle Oakland and San Francisco. Twelve of us artists would compete to make a finished painting in twenty minutes. This was right up my alley and gave me this new dedication to spontaneity in my immediate work of painting.

Once I took the time to create a body of work based on this idea of repurposing I was able to expand the ways I shared the art, through apparel and accessories with POPOCHANELLE printed on them. I do see POPOCHANELLE leveling up and being on billboards. POPOCHANELLE, make that “shit” beautiful. I see POPOCHANELLE as two-piece sets with art printed all over them in silk. I imagine a time when POPOCHANELLE art fashion will be worn by everyone of all different classes, with two on the couch at home or one out with heels at the club or a private dinner. The foundation of POPOCHANELLE is ever growing into murals and galleries in Northern California at this very moment. I hope to give a media voice to the art in the future and even a film series that dives into the same idea of POPOCHANELLE.

POPO, 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 am a 27 year old artist who comes from a very large family in the northern region of California. I work for myself full-time painting and designing merch out of the paintings. I’m currently running my business alongside my business partner up in Northern California at Mendo Merch in Ukiah. Mendo Merch is a gallery with exclusively POPOCHANELLE art all over the walls. These pieces run frame to frame covering all four walls. We sell the art and POPOCHANELLE merch with art printed on them as well as sets with matching print on top and bottom. We’ve expanded to selling other types, stickers and painted backpacks, Mendo hats and pants.

POPOCHANELLE has always been a pillar I’ve worked off of when working through school, preparation for shows and letting off steam from on the clock jobs. I’ve clung to the hospitality industry having worked from a very young age for my aunt’s catering business where I learned a lot about how to work hard for long hours. These recipes were delish organic meals with quality ingredients. With the experience catering and working with guests I continued on in the hospitality industry ever since. When I landed some really important informational jobs I found myself doing my own thing outside of work. I would paint in the late nights after working a ten hour shift at Single Thread and then wake up and do it all over again. Rack the hours up on both, painting was my other gig. People at work started to call me “popo”, not knowing the meaning behind it, and I let the art keep representing itself although I’ve pranked myself by having everyone call me “butt”. I worked my painting as hard as I worked my day job in service. The service industry gave me the discipline I needed to give my craft, find a focus that can continue to grow. There have also been fabulous repurposing that I’ve used from the items no longer needed at the restaurant, like menus and broken trays. Marrying the two worlds. I’ve expanded into making portraits, custom paintings. A client of mine brought in an old backpack that she was just not loving anymore because she wanted that “popoliciousness.” She spent a moment telling me some stories about her rare night out in San Francisco and then went along her way. I painted two POPOCHANELLE characters on the back of the backpack inspired by her story and now it’s her favorite backpack she owns. I’m most proud of this process; making something out of nothing, rich with story and rich with history. I am carrying on a style that my Grandpa introduced to me as a young child. All 6 or 7 kids, cousins and siblings, would gather around my Grandpa when we were little and watch as he’d make our scribbles into cartoons. We’d take a sharpie one turn at a time and scribble a nothing-ness and Grandpa would look at it for a moment, and then slowly connect lines and add in shadow to create a perfect picture. I was so fascinated at the time and it’s something that I practiced at work today. Oftentimes I’ll bring him into my art by starting a painting with a scribble and then find a face within the lines and bring it into something that is recognized and beautiful with colors.

I am also proud of remembering the lessons of the greats that my Grandma Beba used to teach us as kids. My mom would send my siblings and I over to Beba’s house and look through her funky library of books on art history. We’d all sit on the couch by the vined-windows and listen to all the stories about the artists’ lives and the history in each piece.

Owning this style of POPOCHANELLE as a new era in art, highlighting mistakes and being bright about the taboos in life are all part of my style. I have my family in mind when I’m making these paintings. I have a story that these paintings tell through the eyes and the expressions. My brand is me. It’s my family. It’s all the light that you see flicker in the shadows. With these characters slowly coming to life through the paintings, I see a movie. I see this full story being told and known from the source of the art. Not only is POPOCHANELLE art, it will reuse your bad and make it something productive. See the beauty in pain and the color in sorrow. Give reason and purpose to things and feelings that aren’t serving you. Find personal service by giving your faults, trash and shadows an outlet and a spotlight through another lens. Change the energy of your life in a painting.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

When expanding into the apparel market within my business I found the best outcomes came from designing clothes that I found I would wear myself. Pulling from my personal style to inspire the clothes. Essentially we are the style, we bring the style to the clothes. I am a firm believer of working and making art through blocks/funks, which brings a discovery in every painting and in every piece of clothing. Being punctual and taking every single interest in your work seriously has built a great reputation for me, being ready for whatever comes your way and staying sharp in your craft. You never know who you’re gonna run into. That is seen in the work and felt when you experience the clothing, consistently style through any mood and at any time. There is a strength in the variety of styles. You can depend on POPOCHANELLE to provide an unapologetic approach to expressing through colors and materials. Anything can become style if you put yourself in it.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

While I was working as an actor on shows like Empire and Easy in Chicago as an extra, with the goal to work on set as a P.A. or become a stand-in for one of the leads, I started making POPOCHANELLE. I was really starting to get more opportunities as I was juggling working at a few restaurants, making short independent films and modeling, when I found myself needing to consolidate my energy. I wanted to find out what I could offer in the long run for myself. I always kept a bulky notebook full of sketches and sharpie drawings throughout these busy times. It seemed to ground me and was something I would come back to frequently. I took a risk and put all my focus on my art and making my journal drawings into full blown paintings. I couldn’t stop painting, call it therapy, call it an obsession or call it putting in the work, I just know it felt right. So I followed that. I took that leap, putting myself on the line and came out on the other side having learned more about business and being an dedicated artist in this world through an avenue I never thought I’d explore. I’m addicted to it.

Contact Info:

• Website: popochanelle.com
• Instagram: @_popochanelle
• Other: Where you can see POPOCHANELLE in person:
• Art Gallery Mendo Merch Ukiah CA
• Quail and Condor Bakery Healdsburg CA
• Troubadour Bistro Healdsburg CA
• Molti Amici Healdsburg
• ElZay AirBnb Redwood Valley CA
• Redwood Valley Clinic South Sebastopol CA
• PopoChanelle Studios Sebastopol CA
• Livery Co-Work Space Sebastopol CA
• Dana’s Dry Cleaners Sebastopol CA
• Casa Bamboo Costa Rica