(gentle music) - [Narrator] On this episode of "Postcards."

(cat meowing) - You really do have to be patient and able to let them come to you.

You can't just like, "Hey, I love you," you know.

- Painting and creativity in general have helped me just to have a good outlet.

It's a good way for me to just be able to sit down and like wrap up a day.

- I am a big national parks girl.

I have to travel and I have to see the world and I need to experience things to have content for my art, if that makes any sense.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - [Announcer] "Postcards," is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the Citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web at ShalomHillFarm.org.

Alexandria Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at ExploreAlex.com.

A better future starts now.

West Central Initiative empowers communities with resources, funding, and support for a thriving region.

More at WCIF.org.

(bright music) - When my mom was pregnant with me, she lived with my grandparents and they had just gotten a kitten and he was in love with her belly, and then once I was born, he was in love with me, and we've been in love ever since until he passed away.

He was my best friend my whole life.

Growing up with a cat was amazing.

I think it really taught me true love in a sense.

I've always known that love and that connection since I was born, so I think it's really special.

(bright music) On this day there is 11 cats in my house.

My mom has three cats, I have three cats, and then there's five foster kittens running around, chewing on the things they shouldn't.

(playful upbeat music) This is Willow, Clawthorne, Guss, Eda, King.

Okay, this is Lily.

(Lily hissing) Nevermind.

This is Leon Kennedy Miracle.

(laughing) This is Louie.

(laughing) I swear he loves me.

You're not looking good for the interview.

(Louie whining) (playful upbeat music continues) That's all the ones down here.

This is Dharma.

This is Munchkin.

This is Sneakers.

He's our old man cat.

He's about 13.

(playful upbeat music continues) I'm not just a cat enthusiast, I also like other animals.

This is Gizmo, trying to get her face.

She doesn't like being awake early.

She's a night creature.

She's so cute.

Yeah, this is Biggie.

He's insane, but he's so cute.

Sometimes he thinks he's a cat.

(playful upbeat music continues) So I've always kind of painted my whole life.

Like my grandmas both paint with me.

My mom and I have always done art together, but I had a really hard few years right after Covid, during Covid kind of.

I moved out of my house and into my mom's.

I had went through a breakup and there was a lot of stuff, so I started painting in my free time and it really helped me get out my emotions and calm myself and like figure out what I wanted to do.

It was a lot of thinking time and also I was painting things that I enjoy, so I painted like a big board of me and my cats and Biggie, my dog, in like "Adventure Time" style.

And it was just kinda like a silly thing that I wanted to do for myself, but I loved it so much.

I was like, all right, I like doing this.

I'll just keep painting little silly cartoon cats.

So I hang them up everywhere and I paint more for myself just 'cause it's what I enjoy, but it's cool to know that other people enjoy it too.

So this one I did last night.

It's all the cats in this house as little cowboys.

So it's Sneakers, Louie, and Dharma and they're like the sheriff cats and these are the little scary deputies.

Those three are like shy cats and these three are insane like big tough boy cats.

It's Munchkin, Leon and Lily.

And then this whole wall is like all of our cats and it goes in like age order.

So these are the upstairs cats and then those are my three.

And then it has like a little thing that kind of goes with them.

But two of these ones have passed away now so we don't have them anymore, but it's kind of nice to have something to like remember them by.

And then these are all of their paw prints, including my hedgehogs.

She has little footprints on there.

They're just little blobs but.

And I even got our cat Max's paw prints before he passed away, and then I added our new kitten recently, so it's really cool 'cause I have almost all of them on there.

(upbeat music) My artist residency was two weeks at the Yes!

House, so I got to really just like sit and paint and I don't really get to do that 'cause I have to get up and feed my dog or I have to do something with my cats or I have to work and there's always something that I need to do, especially with all the animals, so it was nice to be able to just like sit and paint.

I got a lot of paintings done and I did some that were different than how I usually do.

I tried to do a little more realistic and less like cartoon, and at first it was really frustrating because it was harder, but once I got them done, they're probably my favorite ones I've ever done and I plan on doing more 'cause I love them so much.

They're so cool.

(guests chattering) - So without further ado, I would love to welcome Janel.

(audience applauding) - [Janel] I had an artist salon, we had cat treats, live cat music, all my cat art, and then we had a Paint Cats with Me where everyone could paint their own version of a cat.

(singer vocalizing) ♪ He just loves to play all day ♪ - [Janel] The whole thing, it was just amazing.

It was exactly how I wanted it to go, like the treats, the music, everything like I just wanted it to be all about cats and it was and so it was really awesome.

And like everyone that came was so cool and it was so fun to like talk about cats with so many people.

Sometimes, you know, people aren't a fan of cats and they, I'm a crazy cat lady and you know, so it's really cool when you meet people that also like cats and then you can just talk about it.

(playful music) So I really want to work on opening either a cat shelter or a cat cafe in town.

They're really popular so I think it'd be cool to have a little place to hang out, meet some cats, maybe adopt 'em.

It's a lot of work though and it's a lot of money 'cause I have to be able to find like a vet and food and all the stuff you need for cats.

(cat meowing) (Janel laughing) (gentle music) I do wanna do more art shows.

When I did mine at the Yes!

House, I didn't really focus on selling it, I just wanted to show it and share my love of cats.

But I do think I wanna sell more.

I think it's really cool like somewhere in someone's house there's my cat painting, like that's just a really cool idea.

But some of them are just hard for me to sell 'cause it's my cats.

I feel like I'd prefer more to do commission pieces where like it's painting someone's cat for them so that it's easier to part with it.

(chuckling) (gentle music) I love taking care of cats.

It just, it wakes me up in the morning, you know?

And I used to work at the shelter and I really miss waking up early and just cleaning after cats and feeding them and cuddling them.

It sounds like it wouldn't be that fun, but it was the best part of my day every day working there.

(gentle music continues) I wouldn't say I'm like shy, but I'm not as out there sometimes, you know.

It takes me a while to warm up and be able to think of things to say and stuff like that.

So I think, yeah, I probably do see myself in cats.

I definitely think cats teach me a lot about myself and about not being like a selfish person too.

You can't really be selfish and give your all to a living creature.

You really do have to be patient and able to let them come to you.

You can't just like, "Hey, I love you," you know?

You have to let them be like, "Oh, you're okay."

(gentle music continues) Hi.

- It's hard to describe what inspires what I'm doing just because it just sort of happens, so I don't like sit down with a thought in mind of like what I wanna paint.

It kind of just ends up reflecting how I'm feeling at the time so I can really, it's kind of how I express my emotions.

Yeah.

(chuckling) It's just how I express emotion.

(solemn music) So right before, a little bit before the pandemic, I moved out to Minnesota.

My dad had moved here to help with the family trust after my grandparents passed away and I was working five jobs in San Jose and like sleeping in my car so I needed a change and I came out here and I could just work one job and maintain and like buy a home, whereas I was never gonna do that in San Jose.

Like I was never gonna have $2 million to buy a home with so I came here instead.

(upbeat music) Growing up in California was a lot, it was congested, it was very crowded.

It was like there was so much to do that there was nothing to do, if that makes sense.

There was a lot going on all the time, but so many people that it was hard to go do anything.

(upbeat music continues) My grandpa was born here in Montevideo and my grandma was from Milan, so we came here most every summer.

A lot of really good memories.

(upbeat music continues) Come on, come on.

(turkey gobbling) Come on.

Come on.

Are you guys scared of the weather?

Come on, what are you doing?

(turkey gobbling) Is it too scary?

Come on.

Little monsters, come on.

(turkey gobbling) Come on.

(goats clunking) Come on.

(goat bleating) Come on, girl.

Come on.

Come on.

I live in the country, not super far in the country, obviously, I can get into town pretty quick.

I have a handful of critters.

I have some goats, some geese.

Nothing that would really make up like a real farm.

It's kind of a funny farm, but they're really like pets, which I know some people don't really condone, but they're fun to have around.

(leaves rustling) They like leaves.

(laughing) (foliage crunching) I started painting casually right before I moved out here.

I was living in like a really expensive rent house with my mother and I just kind of started painting as something to do, but really it took off two-ish years ago was when I really started doing what I'm doing now, feeling like more comfortable in my art and kind of not trying to be something that I'm not artistically because I have a really hard time with things like perspective and realism, so when I kind of got rid of that idea of like trying to paint things and draw things that were realistic, I really fell into my own groove and was able to make things that I feel comfortable making.

(upbeat music) I don't use a lot of brushes when I paint.

I use stuff like spatulas, windows squeezes, my hands pretty often, candle tops, the lids of the paint, just pretty much anything but brushes.

Sometimes I'll use brushes if I'm feeling a little more detail oriented, but to really get the lay down, to really get like the first part of painting down, I just kind of go nuts with stuff.

Whatever feels right, whatever's at hand, whatever's new, maybe sometimes I wanna try something different.

(upbeat acoustic guitar music) I paint mostly with acrylic, but I have been diving a little more into things like ink.

I do a lot of watercolor.

I've been trying to figure out how to make that a little more abstract recently 'cause that was where I started trying to do realism was with watercolor and it, you know, doesn't go super well for me.

I'm trying to learn more realism, but I'm also learning how to do it abstract as well, so ink, walnut ink, pencil pen, ballpoint pen, I like working with a lot, super fun.

Random office supplies are fun to paint with.

Shall I go slow?

I'm just gonna hit it with a little explosion of color.

Ready?

Maybe not as explosive with that.

(laughing) Painting and creativity in general have helped me just to have a good outlet.

I know that sounds kind of contrived, but like it's a good way for me to just be able to sit down and like wrap up a day.

There's stories of like men who come home and they put their worries on a tree outside so they don't have to bring 'em home.

I can do that with paint and canvas often.

(rhythmic jazzy music) The showing at Java River's cool because that was kind of the first place that I showed the folks at Java were kind of the first people to pull me out of my studio and into the world with my art.

They pushed me a lot to be a little more public, to show my art, to work.

(rhythmic jazzy music continues) My future, like within the next five years, I'm hoping to do a lot more art.

I'd like to get something happening locally that's a little more art-oriented and starts to get more people involved in the arts within the community.

(bluesy jazz music) Art has led me to be a lot more open with my own work.

I think often I've been someone who could like get the attention of a room easily, but it was very much like a customer service retail kind of mentality, whereas now I can, I'm learning to talk about my own work and be someone who can like advertise myself and show off what I'm doing, as opposed to just kind of doing things for others, so it helps me to be a little bit more of an individual, as opposed to someone doing things for others.

(bluesy jazz music continues) I come from a big family, but also from a place where there were a lot of people, so like individuality wasn't the first thing.

Like sometimes it was just about getting things done, being efficient, making money, like surviving, keeping your head above water, so it was very easy to let individuality fall to the wayside, whereas now there's a little more time and a little more space for me to kind of grow into what I want to be, as opposed to just thinking about surviving.

(bluesy jazz music continues) - I grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida.

- [Narrator] The sands of Daytona, the world's most famous beach.

- Which is also where Bob Ross is from.

I'm a big Bob Ross girl.

(gentle music) But I lived in Daytona Beach my whole life.

I never thought I was ever gonna leave Florida, and then my parents got divorced and my mom took me and my sister out to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which was like so far away from everything that I've known in Florida.

But after Jackson Hole, I learned to love mountains and stuff like that so I moved to Bozeman, Montana, for college where I went to Montana State University, and I loved Bozeman so, so much.

I met my boyfriend there and then my boyfriend got a job out here in Minnesota so that's why we're in Minnesota.

(upbeat music) I own my own business.

It's called Red Fox Design Studio.

I turn my drawings and illustrations into stickers, postcards, greeting cards, primarily little replications of my artwork for people to be able to consume at like a cheaper level than one would buy like a full painting so it's like more accessible for the average person to pick up like an a postcard and say like, "I really like this piece of art and I wanna take it home."

Got prairie dog.

Again, love the prairie dog.

I think this is the cutest thing that I've ever made.

I have a frog, which a lot of people love people.

People, I think, but giraffe.

And skiing raccoon.

I have a bison in there somewhere, but bison has gone missing.

So art doesn't make a whole lot of money so I bartend at Talking Waters, but part of bartending for me is I like to be social, I like to talk to people.

With art, a lot of it is creating in my own space like by myself so I need to get out of the house and just talk to new people and experience new people's perspectives.

(jazzy piano music) My degree is in art, which is why I work in a bar.

You can cut that out.

But I have a degree.

It's a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in drawing and painting.

(jazzy piano music continues) I've got a singing bass that I'm working on.

He's gonna get watercolored, but I think he's cute.

I love the stupid singing fish.

I got a pig.

Love pigs.

I have a whole page of like jellyfish and squid.

The squid I'm actually making for Squid Fest.

That's golden, that's like genius.

And that is all for that sketchbook.

(upbeat jazzy music) I like to get outside of Montevideo as much as I can and get inspiration from everywhere that I possibly can.

A lot of my work is based upon national parks and things.

I'm a big national parks girl.

I have to travel and I have to see the world and I need to experience things to have content for my art, if that makes any sense, but I like to share my art too.

I like to experience cultures and meet new people and see everybody's walk of life.

(upbeat music) I also do a lot of acrylic paintings, like neon invasive species, just large scale, bright, colorful in your face.

(upbeat music continues) The invasive species, so I think about them a lot and I'm from Florida, so there's a lot of very wild invasive species there, such as Burmese python, iguanas and things like that, so I think about them and growing up, I always thought they were such marvelous animals, like this giant 13' snake is the coolest thing that I've ever seen, but you're encouraged to kill it 'cause it's invasive and it is ruining the environment, but it's not the animal's fault necessarily, it's the human's fault that they release the Burmese python into the wild and let it grow and thrive and now the animal is getting punished for human error essentially, so I really connect with those animals, I guess.

So I made my invasive species study neon, so it's like in your face, this animal is in your face.

(upbeat music) The yellow one right here, this is gonna be a pheasant.

And pheasants aren't necessarily invasive, but they're not from Minnesota.

They were introduced here and people don't really consider them invasive, but I also, I disagree with things being brought into environments that they're not necessarily part of.

I started gravitating towards a lot of conservation-esque work, just silly conservation-esque.

(upbeat funky music) This heat press set up, I make t-shirts and things, water bottles, stickers, basically just any sort of thing that I've got going on.

I do hats.

I'm all over the place.

I take commission paintings, but I throw it all under the same umbrella of Red Fox Design Studio.

A glass press and what you do is I get these transfers and it's the same transfer you would use on a shirt, so I think I have a couple of them.

It'd be like one of these and you just, you tape it on with like heat-safe tape and then you can, I'm not gonna turn the bottle 'cause it's gonna drip, but... (upbeat funky music continues) Yeah, my studio assistant, I got her back in Bozeman.

There was this really cool reptile store and I was looking at the geckos and then an employee was like, "Oh, do you wanna hold one?"

I was like, "Yeah, I'll just hold one just to like see it."

And it was that one, the one that I have a 40 gallon tank for, so I've had my gecko for about two years now.

Turn around.

You're a star.

So this is my studio assistant.

Her name is The Raptor.

She approves all of the paintings and all of the graphics that come out of this design space.

(ethereal music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) When I grew up in Daytona Beach, my parents, they almost set me up for being an artist, although none of them were artists themselves.

They had Van Gogh posters and stuff all around my room so I was constantly exposed to fine art and painting and I grew up, like elementary school, I was always the art kid and I would just paint and draw it.

(upbeat music continues) So my goal is to really just make as much art as I possibly can, be as happy as I can doing it.

(upbeat music continues) (dramatic music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A Cargill Philanthropies.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen, on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web at ShalomHillFarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at ExploreAlex.com.

A better future starts now.

West Central Initiative empowers communities with resources, funding, and support for a thriving region.

More at WCIF.org.

(upbeat music)