Sometimes, we like to break it up a bit and introduce our artists in the form of as illustrated interviews, illustrated by the talented artists themselves!

First up in our Forest Fables series is Glaswegian artist, Lesley Barnes. When Lesley reached out to collaborate with Poketo, we couldn’t have been more thrilled!

Check out the Lesley’s Poketo wallet here. And, her mousepad for Poketo here.
More from Lesley Barnes here!

Meet Lesley!

We are honored to launch a new wallet collaboration between Creative Growth & Poketo. Creative Growth Art Center serves adult artists with developmental, mental and physical disabilities, providing a professional studio environment for artistic development, gallery exhibition and representation and a social atmosphere among peers.

The Creative Growth x Poketo series includes artists Dwight Mackintosh, Merritt Wallace, and John Hiltunen. All of the wallets are available at Creative Growth Gallery in Oakland and will soon be available online. I sat down with Creative Growth’s Projects Manager, Jennifer Strate O’Neal and asked her a few questions to get to know more about the history and awesome things that happen at the Creative Growth Art Center. Jennifer handles all of the special projects coming through Creative Growth including this one!

Tell us about the history of Creative Growth, your mission, and philosophy.

Creative Growth was started in 1974 by Elias and Florence Katz, a therapist and an art teacher who had incredible foresight, and trust in the notion that every person, regardless of any challenge, has the right to a creative voice and to tell their story. Today, our mission is the same, and we have expanded the mission, in the last twenty years, to support the artists as their work becomes exhibition quality and requires gallery management and representation.

What does a normal day look like there?

The studio program runs from 9:30am to 3:30pm and the artists work in rotation in a variety of media: Painting and Drawing, Printmaking, Textiles, Rug workshop, Ceramics, Wood and Video. Artists travel to the Center independently and others arrive on Paratransit buses. There is time for social interaction, discussion, and ultimately an incredible amount of focused art making.

Creative Growth fosters the growth of people who have become prolific and well established artists. Tell us a bit about the exhibitions you have at the art center in Oakland and what Creative Growth is doing globally.

Within the Creative Growth gallery we have seven annual exhibitions—themes emerge pretty naturally from the work that is being made in the Studio here–mostly from things the gallery staff are inspired by. Outside the Creative Growth gallery we participate in 20-30 exhibitions annually–from collaborations with White Columns gallery in New York, to art fairs like the Outsider Art Fair, NY and NADA, Miami to exhibitions in and around Paris, via a small space we have there to show work to European collectors. Creative Growth artist Judith Scott’s sculpture is included in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Dan Miller has drawings in the collection at MoMA, New York. Many artists working here are thriving within the mainstream contemporary art world–they have been making work five days a week, some for over twenty years–they are very good at what they do.

Poketo wallet by Dwight Mackintosh

We are so excited to be working with Creative Growth on this collaboration. Is having art be utilitarian and part of the everyday something your artists love to do?

Art as an everyday function goes without saying at Creative Growth–this is what the artists here do, its their job, that they travel to each day–it turns the notion of art as a privilege upside down–Creative Growth is art doing something very important, more important than I have personally ever witnessed. The utilitarian part is certainly inherent in our history–painted chairs, handmade clothing, these items have been made here for years. We love working with Poketo and being able to create an item that makes people so happy to buy, and allows additional income to come into the artists and Creative Growth with out the pressure of having to create original artwork.

Poketo wallet by John Hiltunen

Poketo wallet by Merritt Wallace

How does the Visting Artists” program work? It sounds really interesting for all types of working artists that want to be involved with Creative Growth. What do you hope to achieve with this program?

We receive submissions from outside artists for four-day workshops, which are held in our Studio. We are interested in introducing new media and new ways of thinking to the artists at Creative Growth, as well as expanding the social atmosphere here to include contemporary artists and their world–a world in which many of the artists at Creative Growth have achieved much success. Often the work resulting from the workshop will be featured in an exhibition in our Oakland gallery.

Lastly, any future events or big plans you want to share coming up?

We are currently in the midst of our annual Holiday Show, runs through the end of December and is PERFECT for finding an original gift for your friends and family. Check our website for more info and for upcoming events and art fairs: creativegrowth.org

More info at creativegrowth.org.
Stay tuned for interviews with the artists!

This past July, we embarked on our first ever open call for a wallet design with our friend Jeff Hamada of Booooooom. It was an amazing project that introduced us to some awesomely talented people.

Jeff Hamada, Angie and I narrowed down the hundreds of entries down to five finalists, Jessica Fortner, Jake Pauls, Heiko Xlylophone, Alice Maca, and Andrew Lawandus. Then, we left the decision up to you. With over 1400 votes cast in a just a couple of days, designer Andrew Lawandus received the most votes and won! That winning design now a part of the Poketo archives and available in super limited edition on the Poketo site.

We caught up with Andrew to get to know him better and to see what’s been brewing in his part of the world.

Hi, Andrew. In three words, how would you describe your aesthetic?
Fresh. Thoughtful. Interesting

In our collaboration with Booooooom, we asked everyone to submit around the theme of “Before Life.” Could you tell us more about your design and where it originates?
When I hear the words “before life”, I automatically begin thinking of amoebas and microorganisms. The design actually originated from a drawing in my sketchbook of a one-eyed amoeba, made up of lines and triangles.

What are some of your favorite blogs that you visit daily?
A few of my favorite blogs are: Good, for my news fix; Book Cover Archive, for my book fix; Pirates Press, for my vinyl fix; and Devour, for my viral video fix.

Music seems to be a big influence on your work. What’s currently on your playlist?
Beach Fossils
The Drums
Surfer Blood
The Babies
Yuck
The Vaccines

Aside from the awesome wallet on the site, where else can people catch your work? What are you working on?
Currently, I’m working on two projects; the first is an info-graphic icon poster displaying the evolution of cell phones over the past 24 years. The second is complete re-design of the newest Death Cab For Cutie album “Codes and Keys”, on vinyl.

Andrew Lawandus’ winning wallet design.

What are you looking forward to in the next few months?
I’m really looking forward to the next few months when I’ll be getting to take a break from classes at Savannah College of Art and Design, and have time to work on writing songs with my bandmates.

Check out Andrew’s wallet at poketo.com.
Find more of Andrew on doworkdesign.com.
Check out booooooom at booooooom.com

Karolin Schnoor is an artist from Berlin now living in London. We love her work and you’ve often seen her clean lines and bold illustrations at the studio… on Poketo t-shirts, pullovers and now our latest fall wallet.

We love the contemplative feel of her work and how she’s able to translate that emotion into a beautifully illustrated piece. We wondered if there was something in the London air? Or was it something else?

Our curiosity naturally led us to ask Karolin if she would kindly show us glimpses of her daily life and here’s what we got:

We have a local market nearby so most of my days start with a cup of tea and some fruit

In the mornings the foxes sometimes come into our garden, watching them is quite a peaceful way to start the day.

The view from our window is what convinced me to move to this street 3 years ago, this is the houses across from us at dusk.

Check out Karolin’s wallet on poketo.com
Find more of Karolin at karolinschnoor.co.uk.