POP Meets | Follysome Prints

posted by Si Cunningham October 26, 2020

Our new series meets the people behind some of the industry’s most inspiring work. This week, Mindy Schumacher – of Follysome Prints fame – shares some words of wisdom about her journey into the world of printmaking.

My head is often enough in the clouds.
My studies were in philosophy and psychology – specifically philosophies of art and education. This wasn’t my intention to leap into creative entrepreneurship but I do credit graduate studies with my deepened desire to work with tangible things in my hands… I’m very grateful to be surrounded by creative friends and family who exposed me to many things, including reduction linocut printing about 17 years ago – and to have experiences dabbling with graphic design and all sorts of follies through my early career in non-profit arts. Entrepreneurship itself caught me – the lifestyle of it – and once I became a mother I grew in my confidence to create the life I wanted for my family. It started by sharing my work on Instagram, which was my real springboard. There’s a mystery I can’t explain, but I believe the magic happens when you open yourself up to share what you have with others.

The printmaking community itself is a catalyst, filled with encouragement and camaraderie.
Follysome Prints began in earnest between 2014 and 2016. And starting a shop on Etsy is really pretty painless. The challenge of course is gaining a following of people who surround you and see your work, people who value your unique voice. Plenty of shops gather around the low-hanging fruit – you see trends emerge and there’s a balance to strike with commercial appeal and independent voice. It’s learn-as-you-go, choose-your-own-adventure, often in developing a massive allergy to certain motifs and recognising the tonic that comes when you feel really good about your own creation. It’s a lucky thing to land on one. I believe it comes from cross-pollinating your own interests in a sort of poetic integration of your story… at least that’s how I feel about it.

My style is eclectic, nostalgic, whatever little folly brings me joy.
Sometimes I create specifically for my daughter and that’s when you’ll find a bold colour gradient. I often say I don’t use colour carelessly but for that little burning star you almost can’t be too liberal with it. Inspiration comes from whatever I’m reading, I keep an avalanche-prone library so as to never, ever be bored. Often that harkens back to mythology and the classics, the Habsburgs, and folk art traditions. It is a great delight of mine to make textile dolls and figures, including my most recent baroque guitar.

Recently I created a print inspired by George Orwell, a near prophet as it turns out.
“Twice Two Makes Four” is the simple statement that there is objective truth accessible to us through scientific discovery, but it has broader implications to human consciousness and epistemology, compatibility theories of determinism and of course freedom from authoritarian oppression. “Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two makes four… If that is granted, all else follows.” [Orwell, 1984]. There’s a rich literary and political history of the formula 2+2=4 and we find ourselves in a time of postmodernists seeking to deconstruct the most basic truths… which I could drone on about for too long!

Truly, the talent that continues to come forward is endlessly inspiring.
My friend and colleague Susana McDonnell of LinoCave Prints and I have teamed up to host PrinterSolstice, this upcoming will be our third season. It’s a twelve week art challenge during the winter solstice with weekly prompts, celebrated with printmaking supplies sponsored by Speedball Art, features on the Instagram page of @Im_Printed and a culminating print exchange and print auction. Our recent auction raised $950 for charities. Artists all over the globe share their work under the hashtag #PrinterSolstice and it all starts again this December.

Just get your hands dirty.
Experiment with the material variables until you find success with a combination, then run with it. I didn’t come to it with extensive knowledge, just a great persistence. Keep the subject matter of your work and the process personal, fitting in with your voice and the space you have available. Don’t be discouraged if you’re without a print studio or press, consider the power of print – and print process – in getting your individual message out. Reflect and pay close attention to what comes of your efforts. Really tune in, listen for whether the process and results resonate with you, whether they sing back to you. We’re built in fascinating and complex ways to ponder visual art and it’s a wondrous thing to look down at what you’ve built and begin to see your story as it fits in your hands. If it starts out humble that’s probably the truth, don’t fight it.

I’m very focused on teaching right now.
I was fortunate to team up with The Crafters Box to build curated craft kits and video workshops this summer. I view myself not as a trade master but a dabbler who’s been fortunate enough to find a niche in which I’ve discovered vast patience within myself. In some practices, even drawing on paper, I find myself with insufficient patience. If one can get lost in an art or craft just like one does in a book, you’ve already seen the light. My aim is to come alongside others to learn where they have that kind of patience. In this way I facilitate learning and creativity, for which we’re all designed; that is my core educational philosophy. I do this with my piano students, trying to find exactly what sparks and sings to them. I’ve developed an individuated pedagogical method in music that stems from the Socratic method; with wisdom beginning in wonder. You have to dabble, perhaps, to discover where wonder takes over; and I think that’s nothing short of magic.

Laughter is some good medicine.
My friend recently teased that I was having a rough 2020 before it was cool! But we’re all in this boat; many are suffering and that gets us looking forward. My response has been to keep my nose down in the present, keeping out some of the noise, making peace with the unknown. That’s a coping strategy for the time but I have some great projects on the horizon. When the world opens back up I’ll expand and reschedule some international opportunities to lead workshops. I also am in the position to scale my business, and while it’s hard to judge the direction of the world, I’ve made my humble declaration to press on, to press forward.