Stepping Into Gallery Life, Visual Journalists Find Inspiration

What’s a visual journalist to do when inspiration runs a little crispy and the old news business keeps churning out news bites for Jim Romenesko?

Shake it off and look for inspiration elsewhere — maybe open a gallery and put on a show. That’s what design consultant Ron Reason has done at his new contemporary art space, within(Reason), in Chicago. Starting Friday, the personal work of illustrator/designer Andrew Skwish will be shown there. Reason’s original photography will also be on display.

Skwish and Reason have more creative energy than a newsroom artist hopped up on Red Bull. They photograph and paint any surface they can find -– old LPs, printed publications, Polaroid photos and even a guitar. Any situation they run across in their travels might become fodder for a photographic series to be posted online. So I wanted to know what keeps them making their personal art and how that work differs from creative work for publication.

Sara Quinn: Hey, Ron. What made you take the leap to sign a lease on the gallery space?

Ron Reason: I decided late last year to explore the idea of office space for my redesign business. I had been mostly working out of the house and was itching for the stimulation of a real office, and interaction with people.

It was a coincidence that the space I liked the most was in a neighborhood, Pilsen, known as an emerging arts center for Chicago, and an office building that hosts a popular “2nd Fridays” gallery open house event. Essentially, anyone in the building can open their doors for gallery night. It was almost an accident that it happened this way, really.

Did you second-guess yourself, or just jump right in?

I sort of jumped right in but followed my gut also. I signed the lease, and the next day went on a two-month trip to Africa. Six weeks were [spent] working with two clients there; about two weeks were personal travel and photography.

This trip put a lot of creative ideas into my head about how to use my new office space and how to explore some personal interests in art and also philanthropy, At least three of my gallery shows this year will see proceeds going to charity.

When and why did you first start to create personal work, Skwish?

Andrew Skwish: I started doing what would be called my own work quite a few years ago, just as I had gotten out of college. I had studied business and was working as a paste up boy at a small newspaper to earn a little cash and was trying to impress a young woman. So I started doing little pieces and giving them as gifts. Then I started doing more and more, still trying to impress her. Eventually I wore her down, eventually she left me for a higher calling, but I found that I didn’t need her to continue to create little pieces.

When and where are you most creative? Is it different for one type of work than another?

Reason: For die-hard work –- whether newspaper stuff, or my own art and promotions for the gallery shows –- I am most creative starting around 3 p.m. Here’s why: I think my brain is hotwired from the first 6 or 7 years of my career, when I was on the night shift with the copy desk!

I’m convinced I still work best around dinnertime when the adrenaline and genetic memory of working for an 11 p.m. newspaper deadline kicks in.

For just ruminating about things –- ideas for art or concepts for shows –- I like to keep my brain humming during odd times, when I’m in a hotel or on a plane for my clients, or in the shower or at the gym during down time.

Skwish: After midnight. I will often try to get going sooner but it never works out that way. I think I need to believe that the rest of the word is asleep in order to get anything done. Once the clock strikes 12 I get going and work well through the night. It is pretty much that way for everything I do. I like to lounge away the day and work through the hours of darkness.

Which visual world is more challenging and which more rewarding and why?

Skwish: Both have their challenges and rewards. I have been working in the news industry for so long that the rewards don’t have quite the same impact as they may have when I was 20 or so. Not that they aren’t still there but there is a bit of “been there, done that” syndrome.

But I must say when an interesting, well-written story comes through (and what interested me 20 years ago is different from what interests me today) it makes me really want to try to get people to notice the story and read it. So if I can get that to happen, that is pretty rewarding.

That effort is often to reach the masses, while in my personal work I’m really not trying to reach anyone in particular. If only one person notices something in the work that makes them want to possess it or even to just spend time with it, then that is awfully satisfying. Even if that doesn’t happen, the times when it is 2 a.m. and I am painting and I can hear my little boy breathing on the baby monitor, then that moment cannot be surpassed. Seriously.

Reason: The newspaper world is challenging, well, because of economic times, though I’m happy to say I’m busy enough for now. I’ve just completed the bulk of a project in Kenya and will gear up for continued work in Nigeria which is pretty darn exciting. I blog about that.

I also have worked on five startup newspapers within the last year, which is pretty cool.

And the gallery world?

The art world is also extremely challenging financially. Let’s just say, thank goodness for the day job — but it’s a part-time thing so I’m not too worried about it. Right now I’m having fun and telling stories and taking chances, which are all good things for people to try to do in anxious times.

In surprising new ways, it’s rewarding to put together a show conceptually, work with new artists and people I’ve known a while from the industry like Andrew, and connect with people in real time and real space.

The gallery to me is like a 4-dimensional newspaper story –- all four walls but also the ceiling and interior space can be used, as well as light, video, sound. It’s daunting but lots of fun.

It’s also been cool to connect the two worlds. In June I showed and sold photographs I took during my off-hours while on assignment in Kenya, which raised nearly $1,600 for arts programs and an after-school club for kids, as well as a new library there.

What one piece of work is your favorite -– of your own and of each other’s?

Skwish: I’m not sure if this one was part of any of Ron’s shows, but I really loved his birthday wishes to his mom from his travels. I looked forward to seeing them and thought they were a nice and genuine way to express his affection in a time when he couldn’t be home.

Of my work I have a fondness for one that is a yellow-haired lady (aka “Victorian Sensation”). It is a very simple piece and most people I’ve spoken to don’t think too much of it, but maybe because of that, the unwanted child of the litter, I like it more. Plus it was while painting this one that the 2 a.m. moment occurred.

Reason: There’s a photo I showed in my June exhibit, “Hope In a Hard Place,” of Reuters photographer Noor Khamis ‘collecting string’ for future stories about life in the Kibera area of Nairobi.

I was inside a dark shack and noticed a local resident engaging Noor in a heated discussion about Kenyan politics. Of course Noor was shooting away but talking a good game, too. It was horrible lighting in some ways but forgiving in others. I just loved the moment it caught, and it also represents the gift of the amazing insider’s tour of the area that I was given by Noor, made possible by my proximity to the area via my client, The Standard newspaper, for whom I was completing a redesign.

Of Skwish’s work, for sure it’s a piece that I call the ‘Guitart!’ It’s a guitar that he painted for me a few years ago, front and back, with one of his elongated whimsical characters and lyrics from a French pop song. It’s usually in my house and guests remark on it all the time -– which is what good art or journalism should do, right? -– but it will be part of our exhibit on Aug. 8.