Jennicakes' Interview with Renee of Wolfie and the Sneak!

You've seen her penpal kits in The October Sampler. You've seen her card kits in Sampler Select: Sleep. Renee of Wolfie and the Sneak is a Sampler Superstar!

After spending a considerable amount of time admiring Renee's luscious paper products, we exchanged our top-secret gmail IDs (mine's Hamcakes; remember that for later) and talked about art, school, and life in general. Enjoy!

Hi Renee!

Hi!

How are you today?

I'm good! My Mr. just bought me an Epson 1400 and i'm playing with it. It's rockin' my world so hard!

Oh, cool! What are you gonna make with it?

My prints from here on out. I had a Canon s9000 before, but Canon and Epson inks are drastically different.

That's exciting! So, for anybody who doesn't know, are you Wolfie, The Sneak, both, or neither?

I am one of them (sort of). Wolfie is my oldest dog (not too old, he's 3) and the Sneak is my oldest cat. But me and my Mr. make up W&tS and it depends on how I feel about him on any given day which one of us is which!

Oh, that's so cute! How do you and the Mr. divide up all of your various art/business duties?

It's a very blurred line. I mean, in all actuality, I do the drawing and concept but together we talk through it all. He makes suggestions, critiques and, if I ask, he'll do some photography. He's also the tour bus driver when we have shows, the manager, and currently the main income, all of which are so important to where I am in my art career right now that he has to be included in W&tS.

He's also the head cheerleader. He looks super cute in a cheerleading uniform.

Every crafty girl needs a roadie partner, in my humble opinion :)

Yes ma'am!

One of the things I really love about your work is that a lot of it is interactive. For example, the penpal kits in the October Sampler are, in my judgement, works of art, but they're meant to be used. And in Sampler Select: Sleep, there are cards you can color yourself. What made you decide to sort of let your customers collaborate with you?

I always like to have a sense of humor in my work, and in some cases that humor is found through the fun of interaction. Does that make sense?

Of course!

When I was in art school I was strongly enamored with Duchamp - his interest in accessibility and art in the everyday object. But there are so many people in the world intimidated by art. Any simple interaction with making something brings joy, but it also raises self confidence. I love how that can happen.

It seems like, even in this crafty community, I don't run into a lot of people who went to art school! What was that like?

Hahaha. It was long. I was in college from age 17 to age 26. The focus and the schedule and the rules never quite suited me, so i'd go for a while and then not go. But all the while, I had a working studio outside of school, curated shows and carved out a path of direction on my own.

That must have been a lot of work!

Well, sort of, and sort of not. I made it harder on myself by taking that approach, but college is something we were expected to do. So i did it, but I usually figured out a way to make my own work and interests fit the projects due.

People either seem to love or hate showing at galleries. How have you found it, over the years?

Well, there are different types of shows. My work 5 years ago is vastly different from my work now, much more conceptual. When I had my senior show it was threatened to be shut down by the school. . . which is too funny to me.

Wow, was it controversial?

Yeah. It was controversial. "Controversial."

Here's a link for my art set if you want to look at it later.

It was about sexuality, but give me a break. I was in an art school in a university. Sexuality was smathered all over the campus in the guise of short shorts with "Playboy" written across the butt.

(I love chatting online, because I can friend you on flickr right now without even being inconsiderate, haha!)

Haha, that's awesome!

I see you're designing a calendar now! That's so cool!

Yes! Last year's calendar is actually what really got me back into drawing. It's a great way to meditate on the beauty in the world. Wow! That sounds really hippie of me, when several sentences ago I was talking about the school shutting down my senior show! Haha!

Haha!

Dan! Busted!

Doh! that was supposed to say dang, I didn't call you Dan.

I like that you have an appreciation for both the "controversial" and the quotidian. And yeah, that would have been weird if you'd called me Dan!

Yeah. Dan Hamcakes! Ha.

But maybe that appreciation is also representative of my ummm. . . scattered approach to the world! A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll. Nice use of the word quotidian, btw.

Ha! I was a career student, too, but in creative writing and English. I thought it was interesting that you mentioned coming back to drawing, when so much of your work right now are those gorgeous prints and cards and things. I always think of you as a kind of papery pro! What else are you into?

It just depends on the materials present. These things I do now are so much like what I was doing in high school. I wonder if it's the desire to get back to how naive I was in high school. Which I know is impossible, but it's that desire to see the beauty in the world. In college I was a fibers major, though. I loved weaving, sewing. . . always the more sculptural aspects of fibers based materials. But paper is a fibers based material, so it's a pretty natural transition to make. I like to think the lines I draw are very much like sewn lines, though.

I never thought of it that way, but you're right! What's up with your other Etsy site, wolfiedigs.etsy.com?

It's my purging ground. I'm a sucker for vintage stuff, but I keep my world too cluttered. Bit by bit I'd like to simplify. . . if you can tell by the last update I've done to the site, though, you'll see what a hard process it is for me!

Well, thanks for sharing your vintage goodness with the world! And thanks for talking to The Sampler!

Thank you!