Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelle Schwab.
Hi Kelle, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
As a lot of moms do, my mom put a pencil in my hand before I could walk & I loved drawing from National Geographic & comic books. From that, I grew a love of culture, travel, & nature which eventually inspired me to follow a career in art & design. I grew up in Pennsylvania & then my formative years on the west coast, mostly San Francisco. I get a lot of my creative inspiration from travel & love places like Bali, Spain, Iceland, & our national parks. Two of my favorite trips were riding road bikes across Cuba w a bunch of friends & then riding motorcycles around British Columbia with my dog on the back (haha, I can’t believe I did that!).
For my design background, I have 2 degrees: one in Sociology/Pop Culture from Penn State University, attaining my upper credits from the University of California at Berkeley, & a second degree in Design. I moved to the rust belt wilds of Cleveland to work for American Greetings as an art director, designer, & illustrator for 13 years. While there I developed social expression products specializing in branding, trends, innovation & was lucky to gain some awards & patents along the way. In 2020, I started my own business & have been mostly designing for restaurants & bars, with a focus on murals, accent/Instagram walls (greenery/moss walls, metallic walls, chalkboard walls), logos, interior design, & creative direction. Currently, in collaboration w Anise Nakhel of Global Custom Furniture, I am working on interior design for a restaurant, Sunrise Social (near Akron), set to open soon. Outside of client work, some friends & I founded an art collective “Artzilla”. It’s a project focused on utilizing art to improve public spaces & express neighborhood pride by focusing on heritage, community, culture, & inclusion. I really love collaborating with people who want to develop creative projects that have a positive impact on the world.
As for the fine art end of things, I’ve been oil painting since my grandmother gave me my first lesson at age 3 which was a family tradition. I think my first painting was of a pink poodle! This year I’m working on a collection of fine art portraits, “High Chroma Society”, highlighting women/nonbinary & empowerment. Also, I’m creating an illustration print collection about historical warrior women. The more I read into this, the more I can’t believe all the incredibly badass women in history that most people don’t know existed – like the women Samurai. I think it’s important & inspiring for people to have visuals of women as strong, powerful shapers of society – esp for girls & boys. I’m looking forward to flushing these concepts out & exploring them in gallery shows.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My parents were supportive of me following a creative career, encouraged me to be myself in a lot of ways, & I’m endlessly grateful for that. At the same time, my family struggles with a lot of mental health challenges; I’ve had two close people in my life take their lives – one being my sweet nephew. His passing, along w my parents passing away when I was relatively young, made me realize, as cheesy as it sounds, how lucky we are to have any form of life. It taught me how important wellness, & things like yoga & spending time in nature, are to me. It sounds so cliche but F it (lol), those things are a big source of inspiration for my art. After the grind of corporate America & this pandemic – I’ve been trying to slow down & see the small moments of beauty like having a solid laugh w a good friend. On the other hand – I try not to take things too seriously. I mean – life really is a dark comedy. Between all the tough stuff, I try to find the humor in it wherever I can & am always looking for ways to incorporate more humor into my art & design too. One of my back-burner projects is a collection of porcelain vases of women’s bodies in yoga pants that are way too tight. The vase forms are all about body positivity & in hilarious ways.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
In my client-based work, I’m currently working on large-scale, bold, colorful murals inspired by the surrounding community or client objectives. I tend to be big-picture in my thinking & I like to infuse story into art/design wherever I can.
In my personal artwork, I’m currently focusing on developing a collection of portraits. I work w oil paint, colored pencils, gold leaf & have been using neons lately. I’m interested in human imperfections & want to explore that in a way that encourages people to see their messiness in a positive light.
Some of my proudest moments as an artist are when a painting or piece of art connects with someone. I had an art show while living in Olympia Washington, & I painted creepy, glowing faces coming out of the darkness. A sailor told me that he had been lost at sea & right before he was saved he saw the “man of the sea” & that my painting reminded him of that. More recently, I drew a person, based on a samurai woman, with pieces of cut paper around her face. A woman told me that it reminded her of a woman breaking thru barriers. It gives me goosebumps to think about how a tiny piece of art can affect someone even in the smallest of ways.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
How the pandemic & the social movements affect culture & art is going to continue to be interesting. As we are working more from home, public art is a space to bring people together to share a common experience. It can be a positive tool in a world that’s so divided. Also, art can enhance your home space to feel more like you, support you, & your mood. We’re affected by our surrounding space more than we realize sometimes & there are so many amazing artists to support!
Contact Info:
- Email: kelle.schwab@gmail.com
- Website: www.kelleschwab.com/
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/kelle.schwab/
