We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tandy Kunkle a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tandy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I grew up loving stories more than anything and my little kid routine was to always ask people lots of questions about themselves to learn more about them. I also would look at tons and tons of pictures. Product packaging, newspapers, my dads comics and art books and my favorite hand me down picture books. Whatever it was, wherever it was, I would find myself captivated by an image and study it intensely; always wondering about the story behind it.
Before I learned to read (and to this day) I could spend what felt like hours looking at my favorite picture books over and over. Analyzing how the movement and expressions of the characters could tell me what what happening and how everyone was feeling about it. I was (and am) also just insanely curious about how images come together on a technical level. Richard Scarry’s attention to detail, Arnold Lobel’s moody colors, Quentin Blake’s spontaneous pen-work… it was all very exciting and I couldn’t (can’t) get enough.
All this is to say, there wasn’t any specific event that necessarily made me decide to do this work. I think it always felt like it was just understood that image making was part of my path. I enjoyed doing it and the response my pictures got from others was very motivating. On a more personal level, however, picture books always made me feel welcome, comfortable and free to go at my own pace wherever I was. So I knew that making work that could perhaps offer the same comfort to others was exactly what I wanted to do.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’d grown up always keeping a sketchbook, but I wasn’t doing much with it in any public sense. So my official path in working and earning money as an artist started many, many years ago in San Francisco California; when I was lucky enough to be observed sketching by a gallerist who offered to mentor me. Through his guidance, I was able to hone my creative voice significantly and I spent the next 2 years showing my work in small galleries around the Bay Area. As is typical, the exposure was great, the pay not so much and I kind of hit a wall creatively. Fine art is a tough business and I was running myself ragged. I eventually decided it was time to go to art school at the ripe old age of 29.
While studying commercial illustration at the Pacific NorthWest College of Art in Portland Oregon, I took up teaching art to children through the Smartworks arts program offered through PNCA. I immediately fell in love with teaching and throughout my time at college, I taught art through a few non-profits as well as the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts. I was also taking on freelance clientele and co-running an art collective called Sour Candy Illustration. It was a really busy time, but the growth I experienced in my creative practice was incredible. Art school was a blast! After graduation, I worked at one more youth arts non-profit, spent a few months working for my first “big” client doing medical illustrations, did some editorial work and fielded tons of spec work for various creators and children’s learning media companies. A few life changes later, though, I decided it was a good time to take a few years off to be at home with my new baby.
In the present day, since I am a mother first, I like to keep control of my schedule and being a working artist allows me to do that. Now that my kid is more independent, I am wearing a lot of hats to pull in a regular income through my art as a freelance artist/illustrator and as an arts educator. Making a little extra with odd jobs around town also helps a lot too! Without marketing or cold emailing art directors, I will usually pick up freelance opportunities here and there through my website or through my network of creative colleagues. (Increasing my reach by spiffing up my online presence and advertising my freelance business is a goal of mine for the upcoming year.) But my regular income is through teaching students of all ages here in Missoula Montana. What started as a few one-off mentorships here and there over the past two years has grown into me running a tiny art school called Art Class Missoula. So far, ACM has a small following of students and I’m still doing one-on-one mentorships as well as teaching small group classes and hosting workshops taught by myself and other local creatives. I’m really excited to see how ACM has been growing and I’m always looking forward to opportunities to add events, venues and services.
What I’ve really come to love the most about my creative path is collaborating with other emerging and working artists who are so driven and work so hard to improve their practice. It’s been so inspiring to see these folks work! I’m also highly enjoying the creative community here in Missoula. It’s been one of the most supportive environments I’ve ever come across and I feel very privileged to be a part of it’s growth.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Oh yes! The creative path is not an easy one. And it is not a charted one either. Throughout my time seriously pursuing this work, many chance opportunities have fallen into my lap or slipped through my fingers. I had a span of years where major life changes really stopped me dead in my tracks and forced me to evaluate my purpose an artist and as a person, really. But I found it was (and will forever be) necessary to update my identity and redefine myself often.
I had a major health episode when my daughter was very young where the prognosis did not look good. At this point, I was advised to begin preparing for the possibility that I would not get well and possibly not live very long. (Hence, the move to Missoula, where my partner had family that could step in and assist.) I was not thinking of myself as an artist at this time… I was only thinking of myself as a mother who might not be able to watch her child grow up. And the thought of it, even now, makes me so profoundly sad.
What I found, however, was that I was very lucky and I was able to heal and get well. It really feels like a second chance and I am not about to waste it. I am now more certain that ever of what I want to put the most love into: my family, my body, my home and my community. Getting back to myself and integrating all of my loves into my creative life has been my buoy in times of uncertainty.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I love this question!
The first thing people can do to support artists: Recognize that everything… EVERYTHING is made by artists! And everything has value and everything takes work and time and skill to create. It’s well past time to do away to the myth that art making is some kind of divine gift. It is not. Art is the product of invested time, money and energy.
The second thing people can do: is to buy, share and give credit to art made by human artists (not AI).
The last thing people can do: look deeper into the track records and agendas of elected representatives. You can find out very quickly who is using their position to support the arts and marginalized communities (many artists belong to marginalized communities.) Vote for representatives that support arts spending and disability, low income, LGBTQ & POC development initiatives. Your local art community thanks you and appreciates you so much!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://TandyKunkle.com
- Instagram: @TandyKunkle
- Linkedin: Tandy Kunkle
