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Phoebe Blake
178 Plays6 years ago
PHOEBE BLAKE
Phoebe Blake is a Tucson-based artist who was born in Eugene, Oregon.
She works in a lot of mediums - oils, ink, printmaking, marker on wood and colored pencils
Blake also creates hand-poked tattoos, makes zines, quilts and sews appliqué denim jackets. She is known to plan and execute elaborate themed costume parties with old school handbill-style invites as a personal remedy and response to the monotone frat culture on the University campus.
“I’m more of a maker of things and feelings than an artist with a distinct focus and style. I love to create communities and to create space.”
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing, creator and host Ken Vellante, editor and producer Peter Bauer. All right.
Meet Artist Phoebe Blake
00:00:18
Speaker
This is Ken Vellante with Something Rather Than Nothing podcast. And this week we have the opportunity to speak with Phoebe Blake from
00:00:27
Speaker
Down in Tucson, Arizona, she's a very talented artist and works in a lot of different mediums. She does zines, she does hand poke tattoos, she's a painter. And we'll get into more about the other applications of her artistic talent. But just wanted to welcome you, Phoebe, to the podcast. Yeah. Hi, Ken. Thanks for having me.
Phoebe's Creative Roots
00:00:55
Speaker
Um, the first question, uh, I asked is what you were like as a young child. Were you, you feel you were always an artist or what was your, how do you feel you were like when you were younger? Well, I'll start by saying I'm only 20 now, so it's not too distant. Um, and I didn't make a lot of art as a kid, but I was very creative. Uh, I lived in Eugene.
00:01:22
Speaker
until I was about seven or eight and our house backed up to some woods and I would always just go play alone in the woods and kind of build my own worlds and it spilled over into my dreams and so I was never really sure what I'd actually done or what I just imagined I'd done and on the
00:01:45
Speaker
On that same topic, I had really vivid dreams as a child, and I think a lot of the colors in my pieces now are still from my dream world. Very like jewel-toned, vibrant, almost psychedelic colors. And I did get into doing some art in middle school, maybe. I did a lot of clay, and I would make figures out of rocks and wire and glue.
00:02:15
Speaker
But I didn't really start making art in a serious way until high school when I began taking art classes. And it was more that I just hadn't been exposed to the process of making art. Neither of my parents drew or paint or anything. And so it wasn't until I had that context of an art class to realize that it was something I was good at and something that I like to do.
00:02:44
Speaker
And so it sounds like from an early age, you were kind of active in the sense of what was around in developing things or looking at things in a different way.
Inspiration from People and Portraits
00:02:56
Speaker
But particularly applied to color, you mentioned color a couple times. You have very vibrant use of color in your works. I can tell how important it is. Is that kind of how you think you saw things back then or largely within colors?
00:03:14
Speaker
My childhood memories are definitely very colorful. And I think anyone's are kind of tinted with nostalgia and memory. But what you said just made me think of another aspect of how I was as a child, which is that I was so extroverted. I talked to everyone. And in my neighborhood in Roseburg where I lived for a year,
00:03:40
Speaker
There were several different old ladies around the neighborhood that I would go and see at age seven or eight without my parents even knowing. And I would just talk to everyone in the grocery store and thought everyone was my friend. And now I do so many portraits and I'm still very extroverted and want to have people around all the time. And when I meet new people, I'm always thinking about how I would draw their face or where I would start.
00:04:10
Speaker
And I tend to think people look like other people all the time, because I'll recognize one little feature. I would draw your nose the same way as I would draw this person's nose who I drew years ago. And I tend to draw the same people over and over in my life. I'm looking around my room right now, which is just plastered with portraits of people from my life. And I think that that extraversion isn't always super common in artists.
00:04:41
Speaker
We need our time to make things alone. And that is kind of a factor in me being drawn to hand poked tattoos. It's like I can work on my art, but also have company and have a conversation as I work.
Handpoke Tattoo Process
00:04:58
Speaker
Yeah. Tell, tell me about the hand poked tattoos. I was going to ask you about that. Um, been trying to get a tattoo artists on this, uh, program and very happy to have you amongst the other things that you do.
00:05:11
Speaker
Um, that you, uh, do the handpoke tattoos. Can you, um, for those who aren't familiar, can you just mention or describe the general process of it and what your process is like, uh, for those tattoos? Yeah. So handpokes are something I started doing on my own and I got to a point tattooing myself where I realized that other people might want these. Um, and.
00:05:38
Speaker
I'm not talking about stick and pokes with like a sewing needle and a Bic pen that you've broken open. I use all the same supplies you would use for a machine tattoo. It's just my hand is the motor. So it's the same needles. You have liners and shaders and the same inks. And it's just a lot slower and more organic of a process. Like for a tattoo that's maybe four inches tall,
00:06:07
Speaker
and four inches wide. I'm looking at one on my leg. It might have taken me seven or eight hours for a fully shaded piece. And it's really a beautiful process doing them on other people because I think in a shop where you're getting a machine tattoo,
00:06:27
Speaker
The artist is trying to get as many tattoos done as they can in a day. And with the sound of the tattoo gun, it's really hard to have a conversation. But people who are looking to get a handpoke generally want a prolonged period of the intimacy that comes with tattooing. And they are choosing to get a hand poked rather than a machine tattoo because it's meaningful and they want to feel it being built up.
00:06:57
Speaker
I think that when the needle crosses the skin barrier, it really is like a breakdown of certain things. People are really candid with me while I'm tattooing them. And I've become friends with almost everyone I've tattooed. I really love to hear their stories and listen to each other's music. And it's my favorite thing to finish a tattoo and just have my client like hug me and be happy and have a new friend.
00:07:29
Speaker
Yeah, I like your description. I think a lot of times we're reticent as people to talk about that level of intimacy or when there's an art piece or that creative act to just be like, wow, this is really an intimate and an important thing that's shared in that component of art.
00:07:52
Speaker
I appreciate your answer because I believe there's like a real honesty in recognizing some of that powerful component of that connection. Phoebe, what other forms of art do you work in and enjoy as a viewer or as a consumer?
Exploring Various Art Forms
00:08:14
Speaker
Well, what I work in is only really confined to what I have on hand.
00:08:22
Speaker
But I do oil paintings. I do marker drawings on wood. I do like fiber arts, quilting, knitting, sewing. And I blend those together as well. I do some applique sewing projects that have an end result that's closer to a painting with figures and organic shapes. I have been making zines this past year and drawing comics for them.
00:08:53
Speaker
I have done a little bit of printmaking. I draw in pen and ink a lot. I host theme parties that are also another artistic outlet where I try to really like curate the space and the playlist and the costumes and the activities to make a sort of art piece. And I am not musical at all, but
00:09:20
Speaker
I love to listen to music. There's always music playing in my house while I'm working or cleaning or doing homework or anything. And I think I'm drawn to a really wide variety of art. I'm drawn both to artists who work in the same mediums I do that are exceptionally skilled. And I'm drawn to art outside of anything I could do, like in music or, um,
00:09:48
Speaker
really skillful acrylic paintings. I can't paint in acrylics myself. And so, I mean, and I think you described kind of your connection to that when you're younger, that's kind of, you've always kind of looked at like everything that was around and just kind of used what was available and to create art of it is probably, you know, just that drive to create.
Art's Role in Well-being
00:10:15
Speaker
Did you ever ask yourself why you create art?
00:10:20
Speaker
Well, I have recently because my freshman year in college, I was living in the dorms. It was really a nightmare of a place. And I wasn't really able to make any art. And I just wondered that whole year why I was so depressed and why my life felt so meaningless and so tedious.
00:10:41
Speaker
And then I started stealing the table from the dorm common room at night and rolling it down the hall to my room and quilting again and sewing. And so much light returned to my life. And so I think it's only in the times that haven't had access to making art that I've really felt its effect because I have no problem in my daily life motivating myself to do art.
00:11:10
Speaker
I probably work on something every day. But when it disappears, you really notice it's gone. And it's really hard to feel like a whole person when you're in a living situation that prevents you from creating. Yeah, I appreciate your answer there. And I know a couple of the interviews I've had in the past where
00:11:35
Speaker
kind of whatever the limitations were on the environment or the time that they were able to create or what form of art they could do, you know, writing, being more quiet than, say, practicing on the drums. So you make this adaptation and just kind of you go with that. And but you mentioned a few, you know, of your interests within art in as far as the forms in the styles you do.
00:12:05
Speaker
Do you have an answer for what is art or do you have a working definition for what art is? I mean, I don't think it has hard borders of what is and isn't art. I think it's more about the intention behind it. And I think it has to do with serious focus and care put into something that doesn't have
00:12:34
Speaker
and immediate functionality. All of my friends who are artists and myself seem to just get overwhelmed with this feeling that they need to make something. And I think that's the essential quality to making something art as opposed to just like a hobby or a functional object or something like that.
00:13:04
Speaker
It's the need to make it that makes it art. And thank you. I get a big question that rolls off of that is what do you see as the role of art in the pandemic?
Art During the Pandemic
00:13:22
Speaker
And I know with your answer and hearing about your extroverted aspects, your personality,
00:13:30
Speaker
And how important art is for you to create, you know, is, you know, for every day for you. I'm sure you grapple with the role of art, you know, now today in its role in the pandemic. Do you have any thoughts about that? Yeah, it's been really hard. The last week or so has not been my most productive. I was working on a zine last week.
00:13:59
Speaker
while I was self-isolating. And it was just, it felt wrong to draw silly little comics. I wanted to think, oh, this could bring light to some people right now, but it just felt like I was skating around what everyone was really thinking about, which was the coronavirus and its impact on the country and the world. And zines are also,
00:14:27
Speaker
away first and foremost for me to connect to my community. I started making them so that I could walk up and down.
00:14:34
Speaker
4,000 Congress downtown and meet people and hand them my art. I've never charged money for my zines. I just distribute them throughout the town and I go into all the coffee shops and record stores and I know the workers there and I leave my zines with them. And I, of course, can't distribute that. So I have that zine I just made sitting in my room and it won't be seeing the world for a while.
00:15:01
Speaker
And also I am inspired to make art by people and by seeing people's faces and wanting to work on portraits or capture something about them. And I'm pretty isolated here right now, not only like in self-isolation, but many of my friends have left the town, have gone back to stay with their parents because
00:15:30
Speaker
school is all online now. And I really wish I could say that making art in the midst of this pandemic could bring us all light and personal joy and that, you know, being away from school and work will give us more time to work on art. But the truth is that it just doesn't feel right right now. I wish it did.
00:16:05
Speaker
The we've started that discussion I think was on the last podcast and it's it's significant. It's significant and you know anticipating its impacts on you for myself you know and everybody thinking about their family and about how how things are changing so much but also you know
00:16:27
Speaker
the role of everything comes into question. And this is essentially a philosophy podcast about art. So I think the questions are changing from day to day. And I know we had a brief discussion about that in the past, just in the sense of things changing so rapidly. The question you ask today might not be the question you ask tomorrow. So I really appreciate
00:16:54
Speaker
kind of telling us about the changes in your experience as an artist. What do you, you described your creative process for, you know, for the him poke tattoos and a couple of the other pieces. Do you, is for you right now, is it so much the impact on your creative process and what you're able to do?
Impact of Online Classes on Art
00:17:23
Speaker
compared to what's going on externally. I mean, you've had trouble producing art very recently. Do you struggle each day to figure out how to do art again at this moment? Well, I think some of the factors that are limiting my production right now, I didn't mention, but the big one is that school has gone online and
00:17:51
Speaker
You know, I was joking with my friends that I think that our older professors may have overassigned homework to keep us all in self-isolation, to keep the young people at home studying, because the transition to online has been monumentally stressful. I honestly can't really believe that
00:18:16
Speaker
this semester could be useful and help us learn when it's all digital. I don't learn well digitally, personally. And also, it's a very strange thing to have your level one anxieties being my family could die, my
00:18:36
Speaker
country's economy could collapse and people could starve and we could be headed into a depression and people around the world are going to die. And then your level two anxieties being, I really need to apply to that discussion post by Friday, you know, um, it makes it difficult to find motivation for schoolwork and that just mounts. And then it's taken away a lot of my time. Um,
00:19:05
Speaker
because I'm at home but I still have to be on Zoom meeting at the times my classes would be. I still have to do all of the schoolwork I would have to do normally and more. And the other thing about it is that I'm used to taking studio classes where I am in class every day being expected to produce and I
00:19:33
Speaker
don't want to work on those pieces that are for school because I don't really feel like they are my artwork if they're strict assignment parameters. And now that I'm at home, I was working on a self-portrait for my oil painting class. And I've kind of just been thinking, what do I do with it now? Like, I started painting this self-portrait before the pandemic hit.
00:20:01
Speaker
And the assignment was to paint ourselves posed as the Mona Lisa. And I look so calm and serene. And I'm like, well, what now? Do I paint myself on fire? Do I put an empty downtown behind me? I'm in the process of it. And I'm tempted to hand it in half finished and say it was interrupted. Like, I don't think I can finish this piece. Just call it self-portrait.
00:20:30
Speaker
in a pandemic or something? Yes, to the point to the point to get to. Oh, tied up tied up in in this discussion is a question I have about the role of tangible art, tangible art that you create and kind of the collision with a digital age being that there's digital art and digital ways of storing art.
Tangible Art vs. Digital Age
00:20:55
Speaker
How do you feel that tension showing up?
00:20:58
Speaker
for you that the tangible in your hands arts versus digital. Well, I don't make any digital art and I'm hesitant to criticize it because there are fantastic digital artists and I've seen work I do really like. But I do think that digital art in general loses a lot of the things that are the most important to me.
00:21:28
Speaker
I think proportion and color and the ability to sketch a portrait or sketch a figure are all crucial to being an artist. And I'm wary of digital art in that you can drop photos in and trace the form exactly as it is, and you lose a lot of the skill with recreating something from life
00:21:56
Speaker
And I also feel that there's something to making things with your hands and feeling the texture and the viscosity and the transformation of physical materials. And I am an anthropology major, so there's definitely some tradition tied up in there. I think that we're essentially using most of the same
00:22:22
Speaker
skills when we make a painting that people have been making, have been using for hundreds of years and I'm sad to see those become less important. And I also think time is a big factor in why I'm not drawn to digital art. I think that throwing yourself into something is really important because you have to balance
00:22:47
Speaker
feeling so confident that you're going to make something that could be incredible while also being so self-deprecating at every step of the process and criticizing things that look wrong and being unforgiving to fix them to make it better and then getting a burst of light where you feel like so optimistic about the piece again. And that all takes time. And digital art is just so snappy. You can
00:23:15
Speaker
click and drop an entire background solid color fill in a second. And I would build that up over several days with many thin layers of oil paint. And so much of the digital world makes things snappier and makes people's attention span shorter that for myself, at least I'm going to preserve the time in art.
00:23:43
Speaker
It feels like there's more of a tangible relationship and connection. And I very much feel how it's tied a lot of times to how you learn and how you understand things. And also the role of where people have moved over to digital for adaptive reasons.
00:24:06
Speaker
or have gone back and forth because of dissatisfaction with doing it one way or not having their hands on it in another way. So I found in my discussions with artists that there tends to be even a great deal of fluidity or potential fluidity over time on that. So I found that pretty fascinating.
00:24:30
Speaker
And, um, so, so you've never done a digital piece in most of your pieces, you know, the things that you create have a very intimate aspect to it, as we've discussed before. And, uh, and that seems to be an important, uh, piece for you, I'd say. Right. Yeah. I think that humans are my favorite thing and talking to people and capturing people in art. And I think I'm in general, just, uh, wary of,
00:24:59
Speaker
the digital age and so art is something separate for me. I'm already too impacted by growing up with screens and social media and I just don't want to spend any more time staring at a screen than I have to. And I think I'll keep making tangible art for as long as I'm making art.
00:25:30
Speaker
Phoebe, I get the big question that I posed before to other guests, and it's the title of the podcast itself.
Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
00:25:42
Speaker
I was wondering if you had any thoughts about why there is something rather than nothing. Well, I did try to think of a good answer for this, and I didn't come up with one, but that's because there isn't really one.
00:26:01
Speaker
But I mean, I think that there is, we can't even ask that question if there was nothing. Sorry, I'm not. No, that's almost like touche. That's a way to answer and have it be a touche. And I think that's exactly what it was. Phoebe,
Phoebe's Online Presence
00:26:30
Speaker
Can you tell the listeners, tell me, just spend a bit of time here telling us about how to come in contact with the work that you do? Like I said, it's so varied and you work in so many different forms. I find it to be very vibrant and exciting. With whatever you want to share as far as how people can see it, interact with it, where to find it, can you let us know that?
00:26:58
Speaker
I post all of my different mediums together on one Instagram account. And the handle is at art by Phoebe Blake. Just all one word art by Phoebe Blake. And I would normally say, if you're in Tucson, look for my zines in your favorite coffee shops and record stores, but we're not going out much these days. So I don't have a website or anything yet.
00:27:29
Speaker
Maybe that's a project I should get working on soon. But for now, my Instagram has the tattoos. It has some sewing projects, paintings. So you can check that out. Phoebe, thanks so much. And I encourage everybody to take a look at Phoebe's work. Just for myself,
00:27:55
Speaker
and what I've seen with it. You excel in each of the forms that I've seen, you know, that you do work in. And the painting, I just love the color. So it's really fantastic to look at. And I just wanted to thank you, Phoebe, for spending some time in doing this podcast. I really appreciated chatting with you. And yeah, just wanted to thank you so much for doing it.
00:28:24
Speaker
Yeah, thanks for inviting me on. It was fun. Thanks, Phoebe. Have a great day. You too. You are listening to something rather than nothing.