INCONNU by sartorialmag

INCONNU A ZINE OF UNKNOWN LOCAL CREATIVES

Springfield Missouri lies within the heart of the midwest. We are not defined by our location, but from the art we create. We are not confined by the boundaries of being land-locked. In this zine, you will be presented with lesser known artists who are dedicated to creating visuals, textiles, and crafts. Sartorial Magazine aims to provide a platform for these artists who have made a name for Springfield.

HUMBLE PLEASURES

Interview with Kennedy Girard and Brendan Wright, Co-Founders of Humble Pleasures, photos by Kennedy and Brendan Wright

What inspired you to start the brand humble pleasures? Brendan and I always had a mutual appreciation of fashion and photography – it’s pretty much the cornerstone behind our friendship. We both found ourselves at the position in our lives to pursue a creative opportunity without too much holding us back. Before it was a situation where one of us had different projects happening that we were committed to, or we’d be living in different cities. Being back in St. Louis and being able to realize that this window of opportunity could be short-lived is a big driver for us. What opportunities has starting Humble Pleasures provided for you? We’re still very much so in our infancy as a brand, we’re still discovering what kind of opportunities are out there for us. However, since our soft launch in October, it’s been inspiring to have conversations of collaboration with artists in the midwest – finding mutual appreciation in a creative project is always an exciting opportunity. What makes independent art so important in the current social and economic climate? Nothing. A lot of modern independent art is someone being pretentious or trying to turn nonsense into “something.” Art doesn’t have to be independent for it to have cultural relevance.

The importance of any art is that is moves its audience and/or makes them think or feel something. Right now the importance of independent art is just that in 2019 there are still people pursuing creative endeavors, regardless of financial backing. Where do you see the brand in 5 years? We’d love to be running more independently with what products we put out in a sustainability standpoint. We know that by that time we’d want to move in the direction of having more cut & sew crafted products in our line. Being able to shift towards recycled materials and revamping old articles of clothing is a huge goal for us. Humble Pleasures was created to represent the cultural values of the midwest, could you expand on that? We find a lot of inspiration in the subtleties of the midwest lifestyle. Being from the midwestern isn’t flashy. Both Brendan and I grew up in St. Louis and I have a lot of family scattered around in Kansas. Being from the midwest is a lot of things – It’s driving across Missouri with your family and only seeing wheat and oil pumps and maybe a few run-down gas stations. It’s the seemingly pointless conversations you have between mile markers that mean more as you get older. It’s being able to pick up right where you left off with a friend you haven’t seen in years. It’s not being able to rely on any season for consistent weather. I think midwesterners prioritize their relationships – people and their stories are invaluable to us. The only consistency we have here sometimes is our relationships with the people we care about.

JAKE SKINNER Photos submitted by Jake Skinner

As Skinner began writing his own music he has leaned towards a style of Hip Hop and R&B. He began on the indie side of the spectrum but has shifted to a style that is more likely to make it on the radio and that has a deeper meaning behind the song. Although, he likes to experiment to find his own special mix that speaks to him. He likes to blend the singing style of Drake with the production “method” of artists like Chance the Rapper and Gold Link. At the end of his junior year of high school, he released a song, “Breakfast with My Friend Molly Giessing,” that he still considers to be one of his best or the song he resonates with most. “Breakfast with My Friend Molly Giessing” talks about how he has dealt with the traumatic experiences he has been through and how they have manifested with his struggles while growing older. Perhaps something all listeners could connect with. Skinner has hopes that in the future he will be playing sold-out shows and producing music that will influence and inspire. Until then he will be focusing on his degree by moving to Miami and attending FIU, hopefully making new music connections on the way.

Jake Skinner is a local musician who is also studying Supply Chain Analytics and International Business at Missouri State University. While that major is interesting to some, we were more intrigued to hear about his musician side.

JOSEPH PYATT Photographed by Barbara Neely

Ruffles, regal, and floral are 3 words that local creative Joseph Pyatt would describe his style. As a junior in high School, Pyatt made his sister a dress and that’s where he found his passion for design. Learning the basics of design from his grandma, Pyatt is self-taught local in Springfield Missouri. Having his own work influenced by “Great classical formal silhouettes,” Pyatt has been working to become the best artist that he can be. “Being on the board for the Art and Bloom for the Springfield museum has been my greatest achievement,” an annual fundraiser that expands Springfield art. Looking forward to the new decade, Pyatt wants to expand his craft with handwork such as beading, embroidery and embellishments.

COLE SIMMONS

What initially sparked photography as an interest for you? Photography has always been intriguing for me. I got my first digital camera a few years ago and just took pictures of my friends for fun. Wasn’t long before I felt comfortable enough to start charging folks to do it. I don’t think I really grasped the artistic side of taking photos til recent times, and even then it is something I want to get better at. Photography in general is very saturated these days, how do you stay inspired and motivated to create new work? I find inspiration from not just other photos but paintings, music, movies, and just daily life in motion. Some photographers that inspire me are William Eggleston, Stefan Ruiz, Saul Leiter, and Fred Herzog. What are some goals you have set for the near future? I want to continue evolving my style and refine my subject matter to the vision that is in my head. If you asked me to explain that vision, I don’t think I could. Perhaps it is always changing and that is why the artistic chase is never ending. Is there some place, location, look or style you’ve always dreamed of shooting? I have been to New York a few times but never had the perfect opportunity or glimpse of inspiration to really take solid street photos. The kind that peer into the insanity that is the city. I need to spend more time there to grow an eye for that type of photography. The midwest makes me think differently. I would love to shoot a fashion based editorial in a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Also, I love Indian architecture, so shooting in India. Are there specific artists that you take inspiration from? If so, who? In addition to the photographers I mentioned earlier, I am a huge fan of Othello Grey. Any colorist from the 60’s and 70’s. Non-photographer artists would be Vermeer, Kazmir Malevich, Francis Bacon, and Egon Schiele to name a few. Musical artists are ever changing but the current flavors are David Bazan, anything Josh Homme touches, old Chicago House tunes, and any band putting music out on Sacred Bones Records.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are just so many different things you can incorporate it within the food and beverage industry to make it creative. You can have an unlimited amount of spirits, garnishes, glassware, and people to give you ideas. The ability to learn something new every single day.â&#x20AC;? -Amber Archer

AMBER ARCHER Photos by Bill Sioholm What do you wish that people knew about the industry that they may not know or appreciate? I literally just want to share everything that I know about like spirits, liqueurs, cordials, bitters, and the importance of fresh squeezed juice and how you can Incorporate all these for the perfect cocktail ratio. 2 parts alcohol, 1 part sour, and 1 part sweet. There are so many different ways we can mix it up and create a perfectly layered and flowing drink. Make them realize like hey the beverage industry is pretty cool.

What is your favorite part about creating a drink? Developing the drink. Picking flavors that you think would go well together, Measuring the ratios, finding the garnishment. Cultivating a drink from start to finish. Largest challenges that you face industry? The largest challenge that I find is that I have a pretty adventurous palate. It hard getting people used to my palate. I would love to get people integrated into thinking about more flavorful drinks that they may not be used to. New and crazy flavors that they may not even know about. Are there any words of advice for someone who would want to go down this path? Reading as much as you can is so important then go out and about. Force yourself to try new things. Make yourself uncomfortable. Whether it is with beer, liquor, wine, or spirits, because there are so many cool things you can learn. If you go out donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t order things that you have ordered. Always get something new that way you are continually cultivating your pallet. What is next for you? Other than some cool events at Flame, I graduate with my masters in a year. So then hopefully looking for career opportunity in Oregon. In the end I really just want to keep learning about the industry.

What started out as a weekend hobby for Elijah Baig and Sam Fuson has evolved to become both of their full-time jobs. Together, Baig, a marketing major, and Fuson, a fashion merchandising major, created Springy Jeans, a popular local brand that sells thrifted and vintage clothing.

SPRINGY JEANS Photographed by Sidney Young How did you guys come up with idea to sell thrifted clothes? Baig: “We’ve always kind of thrifted together just as something we’d done as a hobby so we’d spend days in thrift stores or in KC on consecutive days and we found some cool jeans and Sam ended up wearing them to rush week. Everybody wanted her jeans, she came back all stoke up because everyone wanted them. We had distressed them and made them cool and I was like, ‘Okay, well let’s start selling them.’” Fuson: “It was kind of before the mom jean hype started, so it was like three years ago.” Why do you think Springy Jeans has been so successful? Baig: “We’ve been super personal from the start, we are the target market ourselves, specifically Sam, so she’s been a good in. With her doing rush, even though she did join a sorority, we got this huge initial push from the sorority she was going to join. They all jumped onto her instagram and all of them helped our page grow. But we’ve also just had a good eye for what to post and sell and we pride ourselves on our pricing and our aesthetic. We put a lot of effort into the appeal and drawing people in with our page. We have really good customer service, I would like to say, that’s one thing we pride ourselves on, we love talking to people and meeting them.” Fuson: “Which is partially why we still sell through instagram because we have to talk to everyone to sell the stuff.” Baig: “Which is fun, they know us, we’ve met all these people and we’re talking with them all the time. It’s pretty easy to buy from us and we sell cool stuff too.”

What are your long term goals for Springy Jeans? Fuson: “We definitely want to start here (in Springfield) and see where we can keep growing.” Baig: “I mean, it’s in our name, Springy Jeans, we’re pretty locally rooted and we like that this is our home base. We want to do brick and mortar, open up our own store, do retail directly which is kind of in the works but we want to improve creating our own clothing, maybe doing our own jeans, producing our own product and branching out stores around the area.”

TANNER CARUTHERS Photographed by Zoe Brown Tanner Caruthers is 26-year-old self-taught painter originating from Springfield, Missouri. Tanner is currently attending Missouri State University majoring in painting. Art has always been a part of Caruthers’ life. As a kid he would draw comics and was fascinated by “crazy worlds” in the media. Although he expressed his imagination as a child, his art today isn’t in comparison. Tanner focuses on landscapes and describes them as “surreal and fantastical.” What draws him to the idealistic genre of landscape painting is that there are “no limits” to what he can create. Though painting is his main medium, he does experiment with others, namely digital art and sketch art. “I used to think about art as … very separate, but it is a compound skill,” Tanner tells us. He explains that all these mediums are connected to one another in some way, and that practicing sketching makes his painting better. Sometimes he will have a classical approach to painting, beginning with an under sketch, but other times he lets the painting evolve on its own. He describes his creative process as “organic, for better or for worse”. Caruthers hopes to pursue painting as a career in the future. He says painting is “linked to other things” he is interested in and that he is inspired by artists who are currently making a career of their work. Making art for album covers or book covers is something that Tanner sees a potential career in because there will always be a need for them.

SGFCO Photos submitted by Jesse Tyler We had the chance to talk about the local fashion brand SGFCO in an interview with Jesse Tyler, Co-Founder of the brand. How did you create your brand’s slogan “This place is as good as any”? The slogan came from one of the co-founders, Jacob. We were trying to think of messaging that expressed what we loved about Springfield without sounding too cheesy or self-serious because that’s not really Springfield’s style and people would see through it. The brand needed to represent really polished experiences like Hotel Vandivort, but also Fun Acre mini golf. At first, the slogan was mentioned as a joke, but the other co-founder, Giancarlo, and I were both like, “That’s actually perfect.” What inspired you to create SGFCO and what does the brand mean to you personally? We’re all transplants to Springfield, from Florida and New Jersey respectively. We’ve been really thankful for the community we’ve found here and it turned out to be the perfect place to plant roots. We love starting businesses and projects and have found that it’s really easy to do that here. We have tons of self-employed friends and our favorite businesses are run by creative people motivated by craft over profit. I think the goal was to create a brand that helped people see that and encouraged them to participate. What makes supporting local artists so important in our current social and economic climate? I think I’m still making sense of it, but there’s a real movement with young people towards independent and sustainable businesses. Consumerism conditioned us to purchase and now we’re looking more deeply about what the things we purchase can mean to us and to the world at large. As a brand, we’re finding purpose in using SGFCO to boost the signal of local independent businesses that we love, too. Where do you see yourselves and your brand headed for the future? With SGFCO, we just try to follow what we have creative energy for. We’re trying to have fun with it. Events are definitely going to be a bigger focus for us in 2020. We have our “SGF” hats that we’re treating as a cornerstone piece for the brand and we want to create experiences that make the brand “click” for people. SGFCO isn’t just representing “Springfield” broadly, it’s representing our favorite parts of it and the potential we have individually to make it even better.

JULIA ESSMAN Photos by Sidney Young, direction by Emma Crosswhite What inspires you as an artist? There are so many things in my everyday life that inspire me, especially the striking colors in nature. I love to incorporate the striking shapes and colors of plants and animals into my looks, particularly when I’m creating a makeup look that isn’t focused on traditional glamour. I am also constantly looking at other mediums and forms of art to be inspired by the works of other artists. It’s so satisfying and fun to take a beautiful painting and create a makeup look in my own style based off it. The world is full of so many talented individuals, so the ability to learn from the work of others drives my passion and inspires me to create every day. Are there other mediums that you work with? How does that translate to your makeup? While my main medium is makeup, I do love all different forms of art such as painting or sculpture. Recently I’ve especially loved using textures or materials in a makeup look that’s not necessarily meant to do so, such as cloth or beads. When seeing the face as a canvas, the possibilities are limitless, and you can truly create whatever you envision on your model. The human body is such a beautiful structure in itself, so it’s a wonderful opportunity to create a piece to highlight the sculpture of the face or communicate your viewpoint on a subject. What’s your goal? Where do you see yourself in the next five years? In regards to goals, I try not to box myself in to specifics. I simply want to live in a beautiful area and be able to get paid for my art that I love so dearly. It is such a dream and aspiration of mine to be able to completely thrive off of doing makeup full time, so I am actively doing everything I can to get there. In five years I sincerely hope to be working on editorial photoshoots and backstage at fashion shows. Whether that means moving out to L.A., New York, or otherwise, I’m not sure. But I am absolutely up for the adventure and know that I will end up in the right spot if I continue to work as hard as I can!

What advice would you have for anyone trying to develop as a makeup artist? If your goal is to become a makeup artist, my main suggestion is simply to practice as much as you can. Put yourself in an environment where you are constantly working on new faces, whether that be asking friends to be practice models or reaching out on social media looking for people to practice on. Consistently push yourself to do looks that are outside your comfort zone. They may not look amazing the first few times, but you will learn an incredible amount simply by trying and failing. Consume as much makeup content as you can by following artists that inspire you and seeing their processes, as you can always pick up on new tips and tricks. While trying to get work as a makeup artist in the community, I originally took a lot of free work for photographers simply to get my name out there and get experience. Making connections and building a positive reputation with the artist community is so vital! Lastly, never stop looking for opportunities for education. Even the best makeup artists can learn new things from others, so donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be afraid to ask questions and keep yourself humble. What is your favorite thing about creating your art? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nearly impossible to pick a favorite thing, to be honest. I love the transformation of a face with an avant garde look, and the satisfaction of seeing a model walk down a runway with a look I created specifically for the theme of the show. But I think my favorite thing is sitting someone down in my chair, someone who barely wears makeup and doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see themselves as beautiful, and getting to put a look on them that makes them feel truly stunning. The fact that I am able to pursue my love of helping and caring for others through a medium that is so dear to my heart makes me feel truly fulfilled. Even if I never see my client again outside of the one hour I spend with them, I love that I am able to show them how truly beautiful they are with or without makeup.

This zine was curated by Sartorial members Sarah Gorden, Katie Chandler, Bill Sioholm, Ashley Robertson, Camryn Mahnken, Leanna Ordonez, Katie Dolan, Morgan Carlton, Zoe Brown, Emma Crosswhite, and Sidney Young. We want to thank everyone who was featured in being a part of this project, as it was the end to an amazing academic year for 2019. Sartorial will continue to collaborate and build the future of the art community here in Sringfield, serving as Missouri State Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premiere source for cutting-edge fashion, beauty, and pop culture providing a platform for all creatives.