Shelby Rodeffer is a
sign painter and artist based out of the city of Chicago. She runs her own
business where she paints signs commercially. When Rodefferer started working
for money as an artist, she was doing freelance work but she didn’t enjoy it.
She didn’t like being forced to create certain things and having creative
directors above her. After doing freelance design work for a while she
discovered a documentary about sign painting that really turned her on to the
craft. Then she started researching all about sign painting, and attended sign
painting workshops where she got to actually practice her newfound love for the
craft.
Now,
she paints text for all sorts of companies on all sorts of walls, windows, and
more. One project that she did that I particularly favor was the tour bus she
painted for The Pitchfork Review. This one is specifically interesting to me
because it differs from the work she does on walls, she got to be less text
based and focus more on imagery.
Link to her page talking about this project:
Rodeffer supports their personal art through the commercial work that they do. Some of the themes that they like to explore include: femininity, gender roles, opportunity, and feminism. Their work features skills learned from sign painting, carefully and artistically placed words and phrases. They work in different mediums like wood and canvas, but to me the most interesting medium they work on is silk.
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| Good Spirits |
Rodeffer delved into the commercial and business side of art more during the question and answer section of the lecture. One useful piece of advice they offered was to have a dedicated sketchbook practice, having one always open at home to explore less permanent and ideas in a pressure free way. If a person was hoping to get into a specific new craft, she offers the advice of contacting an established artist and offering to pay them their hourly wage to teach their skills.
This lecture made me
think about opportunities that I have as an artist, to work commercially and
fund my own work at the same time. The reason I enjoyed this lecture the most
was the authenticity of Rodeffer and the insight into both their commercial and
personal sides of their art.
Link to Rodeffer's website:
http://shelbyrodeffer.com/
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