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Local Award-Winning Fantasy Author Ellie Raine Talks About Writing

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Ellie Raine is the award-winning author of the Adventure Fantasy series “The NecroSeam Chronicles.” Raine grew up in a family of book lovers, comic readers, and video gamers in the suburbs of Georgia and lives in Peachtree Corners where she attended Norcross High School.

In addition to writing, she has designed and created merchandise, art, and music related to her amazing fantasy series.

We talk about how she started, what inspired her and how she grew her craft and readership.

Resources:

Ellie Raine’s Website: https://www.ellieraine.com
Necroseam Website: https://www.necroseam.com

“Part of my process is kind of combining different arts into one unified piece. Because I like having the art with it and it kind of helps me think about and get a sense for who the character is, what their story is, what their personality is… There’s something about combining different creative things into one work that makes you connect with it more. It touches on all the senses.”

Ellie Raine

Timestamp, where to find it in the podcast:

  • Intro
  • Ellie’s Background
  • Art, Music, and Writing
  • Ellie’s Creative Process
  • Necroseam and Other Projects
  • Ellie’s Self-Publishing Journey
  • Marketing, Merchandise, and Community
  • Closing

Scroll down for the video podcast

Podcast Transcript

[00:00:30] Rico: Hi everyone. This is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachtree Corners Life. We have a great guest today, a Peachtree Corners resident and author Ellie Raine. Hey, Ellie.

[00:00:39] Ellie: Hi.

[00:00:39] Rico: Thanks for joining. Glad you’re with us. Before we get into the interview and introducing Ellie further, let me just say thank you to our sponsor, our corporate sponsor, EV Remodeling Inc. And Eli, the owner. They’ve been a sponsor of ours now for over a year, both of the magazine and and our journalism, and these family of podcasts. So they’re here in Peachtree Corners, based out of here. They’re really well rated on Houzz.com, if you use that to plan your remodeling work and stuff. So check them out. Eli, great guy. He has a great website, so you should go there. You’ll be able to see a lot of what he’s done, videos as well as pictures. Better than most of these remodeling places. And he does design to build, so everything you need under one house. EVRemodelingInc.com is where you can find them. So thank you Eli. So Ellie Raine is an author, she lives here in Peachtree Corners, and just to give you a little background. She has nine titles, at least as of this past summer. Nine titles in her name, right? You have a series, a five book epic fantasy series with two prequels in it. You are a two time winner, recognized by the reader’s favorite in the International Book Awards, and first place in the fantasy division for Writers Digest self-published awards. That was 2019. You know what, I took, you have a personality quiz online to see what knight…

[00:02:01] Ellie: You took it?

[00:02:02] Rico: I took it, yes, and I am blade sworn. A nd the funny part is the author that wrote this Ivy Marie Clark, that interviewed you for our print magazine had taken that same personality quiz and she was the same knight. So must be the same personality, I guess. We’re nurturing people, it was cool. So thanks for putting that there, you guys should check it out. It’s funny because it’s a small world. I saw you at the Peachtree Corners Festival, you had a booth there. And that’s how I got to know you. I bought your book, you autographed it, thank you. The next time I saw you after that was at the anime weekend, Atlanta. You had a booth there at the exhibit and also I was walking that, yeah.

[00:02:43] Ellie: Yeah, it was very unexpected.

[00:02:45] Rico: Yeah. I know. I can imagine. But it is a small world and I was there doing interviews with three voice actors for my podcasts. But tell us, you know, how long have you lived in Peachtree Corners? Let’s start there, a little background about who you are Ellie.

[00:02:59] Ellie: Alright, that’s kind of an interesting question. I actually was born and raised in Norcross, Georgia. And then it kind of became Peachtree Corners sometime around my high school years, I think.

[00:03:14] Rico: Wow.

[00:03:14] Ellie: So technically I’ve been in Peachtree Corners since it existed, I guess.

[00:03:21] Rico: Okay. Yeah, you were probably incorporated into it when the city decided to become a city.

[00:03:27] Ellie: Yeah, basically. It was a very interesting change because there was a lot of questions about what do I put on my address for my mail?

[00:03:35] Rico: Yeah. Yeah. Some people still use Norcross, believe it or not. So even companies do that, so this field, no one knows Peachtree Corners even after 10 years.

[00:03:43] Ellie: Yeah. So, you know, I went to Norcross High even though I didn’t live in Norcross anymore, according to the new city.

[00:03:53] Rico: Well, Norcross is only like one block out of the city at this point.

[00:03:57] Ellie: Yeah. For my old house, well my parents are still there. So we just basically could walk to high school if we wanted to. We never did want to though, because you know, I’m not a morning person, so.

[00:04:11] Rico: No, I can’t imagine. You’re probably more of a night person I bet.

[00:04:14] Ellie: But yeah, I went to Peachtree Elementary, I went to Pinckneyville Middle School, and I went to Norcross High school. Went to college, got married. I think we, moved to Alpharetta at some point for a year. Went to Duluth for a couple years, and now we’re back in Peachtree Corners. And I’ve got a child now, so, it’s all fun. .

[00:04:36] Rico: Is it back to Peachtree Corners because of the Covid? Or did you?

[00:04:40] Ellie: We were looking around for a house and this was right before. I think it was before Covid, or maybe it was during Covid. Either way, it was right before the housing prices just skyrocketed and we found a house in Peachtree Corners right smack dab in the middle of where both of us used to live. Because my husband is also from Peachtree Corners.

[00:05:00] Rico: Wow.

[00:05:01] Ellie: Yeah, we went to high school together and we’ve been dating since then, so.

[00:05:04] Rico: So were you writing in high school? Where’d you get this bug? This, it is a bug, right? Deciding to do this, to write.

[00:05:11] Ellie: What’s weird is I never thought of myself as a writer back in school. I have dyslexia, I’m slightly autistic, and I was a slow reader in my viewpoint. But apparently I was comparing myself to my avid reading family. So according to all my friends no, no, no, you read a lot. But writing wise, yeah, I didn’t expect to be into writing. I think I took like a, some kind of contest thing in middle school for writing and I got like a judge’s award for it. But I didn’t consider myself a writer because it was just a thing I did for school and then I went to college.

[00:05:46] Rico: Okay. I was gonna ask.

[00:05:48] Ellie: Yeah, I went to college for game art and design. So I wanted to create this story into a video game originally.

[00:05:55] Rico: Okay.

[00:05:56] Ellie: And they had a creative writing course in the Art Institute of Atlanta while I was doing that. I didn’t know what to write, so I just started writing my video game idea into a book form and I absolutely loved it. Yeah. So like art is, I have a love hate relationship with it. I really love to draw, but what I really love is just creating the story and creating the characters behind it. So art tends to make me angry the more I do it because it doesn’t fully hit, the way that I want it to. So it makes me angry. But when I was writing, I was calm and I was happy with writing.

[00:06:40] Rico: Happy with writing, that’s good.

[00:06:42] Ellie: Yeah, so that’s when I switched gears and moved on to English and all that.

[00:06:47] Rico: Yeah, okay. That’s interesting. And the fantasy aspect of it?

[00:06:52] Ellie: I was raised on fantasy. It’s basically the main genre that I absolutely adore. I grew up with Terry Pratchett, Discworld series. I grew up with dragons all over the place. Yeah, my parents just have these giant bookshelves all over the house filled with fantasy books.

[00:07:11] Rico: Oh wow.

[00:07:11] Ellie: And science fiction. But I was more into the fantasy stuff because magic, dragons, swords,

[00:07:17] Rico: King Arthur, Harry Potter, Final Fantasy?

[00:07:20] Ellie: Oh yes.

[00:07:21] Rico: As far as games and stuff. And you played Zelda, I’m assuming, and stuff like that?

[00:07:25] Ellie: Yep. All the good classics I guess you would call them.

[00:07:29] Rico: Are you into Game of Thrones? Talking about dragons.

[00:07:32] Ellie: Yeah. I mean, I read the first book. I still need to read the rest of them. I watched the show and everything, but I know that obviously it diverts from the rest of the, the series. So I kind of want more dragons. But you know, that’s me. It doesn’t mean it’s bad. I still like it. Yeah, I still like it. I just wish there were more dragons.

[00:07:51] Rico: Who’s your favorite author today? Like new authors that you might have? Are you still consuming? Like, do you still consume fantasy? Do you still read a lot? So, who now are you reading that’s new maybe or new to you?

[00:08:03] Ellie: New, I don’t know if Brandon Sanderson counts as new.

[00:08:07] Rico: Yeah, he probably doesn’t. He’s been around for a long time.

[00:08:11] Ellie: Yeah. He’s not that new, but like, so Sanderson. Rachel Aaron is another favorite of mine. She’s done The Legend of Eli series and The Heartstrikers series. It’s about dragon shifters.

[00:08:22] Rico: Okay. Okay. But you know, I was gonna say, you, not to jump, but we’re gonna jump around here probably a little bit. You have something in common with Sanderson because when I got to reading some of his stuff, I realized through interviews that he had and blog posts and stuff that the author it’s not just the books. I mean, he makes most of his money, probably more than the books, but in merchandise. And it’s kind of interesting how people have gone to that. I mean, Star Wars with Disney World and Disney World with their merchandise. It seems like if you’re writing, at least today, if you don’t have merchandise that you’re just being a disservice to yourself. Because hey, if I can listen to an audible book and pay one credit for it, I keep wondering how much the author is making on that book. So you have a tremendous amount of merchandise. Do you design some of that yourself or?

[00:09:10] Ellie: I design most, if not all, of it.

[00:09:13] Rico: Okay, but you have necklaces, pendants, and all sorts of things going on.

[00:09:17] Ellie: Yeah, some of it’s handmade with the braided bookmarks and some of the jewelry. Because I just can’t seem to pick one. That’s why I need to, I need something to do with my hands, so I just do it.

[00:09:29] Rico: Is that because of the creative side that you have, the drawing? I mean, do you sketch them out before you do it actually?

[00:09:34] Ellie: Sometimes. It’s usually best if I do, but I don’t always sketch it out first. But it does turn out much better if I do.

[00:09:43] Rico: When you got into writing and fan tasy was where you started, obviously with this. You have five books and two prequels on that series or on your best series, I guess. Tell us a little bit about that. Necroseam, is that the way you pronounce that? Tell us a little bit about how that came to you and what that story’s about.

[00:10:00] Ellie: Yeah. So, it goes back to high school. I just started drawing characters and started creating stories surrounded by these characters that I would draw. And the first one started with the main character, Xavi er. So it’s what I would be doing in math class instead of equations.

[00:10:17] Rico: Okay.

[00:10:19] Ellie: So part of my process is kind of combining different arts into one unified, I guess, piece. Because I like having the art with it and it kind of helps me think about and get a sense for who the character is, what their story is, what their personality is. And I also am a musician. I really like creating songs. I like writing songs into the stories. And if you look at our audio books I actually have the narrators produce and sing. The songs that are in the books, so we’ve got that whole deal going on. I don’t know, there’s something, there’s something about combining different creative things into one work that just kind of makes you connect with it more. It kind of touches on all the senses.

[00:11:08] Rico: Do you have a Spotify playlist?

[00:11:10] Ellie: Actually we do.

[00:11:12] Rico: You do? Okay.

[00:11:13] Ellie: That’s because my bestie slash narrator Krista, kind of started that. And she was like, these are the songs I kind of feel like would go really well with the, like, reading the books. And I was like, this is really fun. So we just started randomly gathering music that could fit with the books while reading.

[00:11:33] Rico: Right. So do you start the process actually drawing a character? Like when you think up of a character, do you sit there and draw the character first?

[00:11:41] Ellie: Most of them, yeah.

[00:11:42] Rico: And do you do, I’m assuming you do some sort of, different writers have different ways of doing this, I guess. From the ones I’ve interviewed and read about. Do you create like a background, the backstory? Do you write that out at all? Do you like create who they are, where they came from? Pros and cons of who they are and stuff? Do you create any of that before you get into the writing some of it? Or does it expand as you write?

[00:12:04] Ellie: A little of both. It really just depends on the character. If it’s the main, like the main crew of the protagonists and their friends that are part of the party, you kind of need to know every single one of them first. Their backgrounds, where they’re coming from, their personality, all of it. When it comes to secondary characters, then it’s a little bit easier to kind of work that in as you’re going. You can just go back in the editing and make it line up earlier.

[00:12:32] Rico: Do you also plot the stuff?

[00:12:34] Ellie: Oh, absolutely.

[00:12:34] Rico: The story ahead of time?

[00:12:35] Ellie: Yep. Absolutely. So, I call it an acre point plotting where I have a master outline of events that I want to happen.

[00:12:45] Rico: Okay.

[00:12:45] Ellie: And I know always where I’m going to end. So I start with where it’s going to end. And I did this for the entire series overall. So I knew where I was going to end. Then I went to figure out how I was gonna begin, and then I had one major point for the middle, which would be book three.

[00:13:05] Rico: Okay.

[00:13:06] Ellie: And once I had those three down, beginning, middle, end. Or, end, beginning, middle, however you want to do it. Once I had those down, I would kind of go into sort of more of a micro bullet point anchorings for beginning, middle, end, for the beginning. Beginning, middle, end, for the middle. Beginning, middle, end, for the end, type of thing. Sometimes I had to change what happened and then I had to like move it around because I would get to a plot point that was supposed to happen like books later. But once I got to the point in the writing itself I realized, oh, I’ve gotta do this now. So sometimes you’ve gotta be a little bit flexible with it, because otherwise if it doesn’t feel natural while you’re in the story, then it’s probably not going to translate well for readers.

[00:13:55] Rico: Not surprising. It seems like every author, the book also is alive, right? So the book is actually guiding, almost like you’re living there. It’s almost like one author I know said they can’t wait to see where their character’s gonna take them. I mean, what’s your, as far as your process layout, let’s go there a little bit. Do you have a word count or an hour count? I mean, how do you pace yourself and where do you put yourself when you write your stories?

[00:14:17] Ellie: I try and do one sentence a day. Some days I can’t do anything because you know, administration. Gotta do all that social media work.

[00:14:28] Rico: Did you say one sentence a day?

[00:14:31] Ellie: One sentence. That’s the goal. So I set small goals that are very achievable.

[00:14:37] Rico: Okay.

[00:14:37] Ellie: And it’s actually a trick. It’s like a brain chemistry trick, loophole, creating productivity.

[00:14:44] Rico: Okay.

[00:14:44] Ellie: So one sentence a day goal. You do the one sentence. And because you have achieved the goal you set out to do, you get a hit of dopamine in your brain. Which you know is like, oh, I finished my goal and now you feel great. You’re feeling wonderful. And guess what? Now you feel so good that you can keep going.

[00:15:07] Rico: That is interesting. That actually, I can see that.

[00:15:10] Ellie: And the more you add onto it, the more sentences you do. It’s like, I got so much done today. I exceeded my expectations of what I was going to do today. And it kind of just tricks your brain into thinking that you’re, you can do more. And you did like such a great job that you’ve just gotta keep going. And it gets you excited about it. So it’s like a fun little trick.

[00:15:33] Rico: Yeah, I like that. I think I’m gonna use that on my daily thing. I have a to-do list that grows every day and sometimes there’ll be days where I’ve done a lot of work. But none of it is on my to-do list. And I can see that if I do one of those items on that, I’ll probably get that dopamine feel and keep going.

[00:15:52] Ellie: Yeah, it’s, it is a fun work around.

[00:15:54] Rico: Yeah. And so in the process then, how long does it actually take to complete your first draft of a novel? I know the rest of it could take long, depending on edits. But on your first draft of a novel, how long does that take?

[00:16:07] Ellie: Well, back in the day, it used to take three months to finish a first draft, then another three months of editing. So six months to basically come out with a book. But nowadays with a child, it’s been a lot harder and much slower. So, it takes a lot of time to finish something when you don’t have childcare. So, yeah.

[00:16:30] Rico: Yeah, I can imagine.

[00:16:31] Ellie: So. It’s, I don’t even know yet. I’ve been able to finish a couple short stories, but as far as book-books go, I don’t know yet. Because I’m still in the middle of like three of them.

[00:16:43] Rico: So are you doing, so the short stories that you’re doing, are you getting those published online? Or how are you doing, how do you handle that with your readers?

[00:16:53] Ellie: Well this recent one just got accepted into an anthology. But I can’t really disclose much of that, because you know, NDAs and all that.

[00:17:01] Rico: Sure.

[00:17:01] Ellie: But so that’s going through, not myself. That is for an anthology. The other short story I have, I don’t know what to do with it yet. It’s just kind of sitting there in the ether. Waiting for some kind of opportunity for it to have a purpose.

[00:17:18] Rico: Okay. But it’s good to keep writing though. And I didn’t even think about short stories being a good conduit. Have you ever done novellas?

[00:17:26] Ellie: Oh yeah. Actually I’ve done, let’s see, 1, 2, 2 novellas. I guess this one up here is more of a traditional novel, so yeah. So my novellas range about 40,000 to 45,000 words. And one of them is the prequel to the main series, and another one is actually the first book in a series of a paranormal noir.

[00:17:53] Rico: Okay. Are you using that to sort of jumpstart that series? I’m imagining it’s going to be a series of books.

[00:17:59] Ellie: Yeah. I mean, at first I actually wrote this for one of my publishers a couple of years ago. And it was supposed to be 30,000 words according to the contract, but I ended up overshooting to like 40, 42,000. And then eventually I just did a second version for myself.

[00:18:18] Rico: And we’ll have a link in the podcast for people to go check the books out. Now, you had an interesting way I think of going about this really. You got published in the traditional sense of the word, a traditional publisher. But then you decided to go the self-publish route after that. Do you want to share a little bit about that, how that worked for you? I mean, other people that might have an interest in writing or are writing might want to look at and listen to this to see what you did.

[00:18:43] Ellie: Right. So I did start with two traditional publishers for two different stories. And for the main fantasy series the first book, it was with a small publisher and things were great. And then the second book came. It came time to publish the second book and they came back saying that it was too big for them to afford to print. So, they had to make it an ebook only or I had to split it in half. And I tried splitting it in half, and then I realized that splitting it in half for the second book meant I would have to do that for all the other books later in the series because they were all as big or bigger than that book.

[00:19:28] Rico: Right, right.

[00:19:29] Ellie: So I tried doing that, splitting everything in half. And you know, trying to fill in the gaps of, you know, oh, well now this needs a conclusion. Now this one needs a beginning and things like that.

[00:19:39] Rico: Right.

[00:19:40] Ellie: And it just was not working. It kind of broke my excitement about the story. I basically fell out of love with it being broken up like that. Because when I outline each of the books, I’m very exact about where the arc is, where it’s going, and what is considered like the whole arc. And splitting it in half just kind of threw off the rhythm and it threw off the pacing and it just felt soulless. Because I kept trying to push in just this random, empty spacing of content to try and make it the right size for compensation and it just was not working. So eventually I asked for the rights back for book one and I just took it back and put everything back together and just did it all myself.

[00:20:33] Rico: Wow, okay. So now you’re self-publishing, but people can find your books on the traditional places, right? Amazon, you even have all your books, or a decent amount on Audible, I guess people can listen to them too.

[00:20:47] Ellie: Yes. We have two audio books out right now. We are more than halfway through the third one. So it should be out by the end of this year or January latest. I can’t properly describe how much I love these audio books. They’ve ruined audio books for me. Like, my narrators are just so amazing that I actually like the audio books better than the actual physical books.

[00:21:14] Rico: That’s funny.

[00:21:14] Ellie: So yeah, I cannot recommend the audio books enough. And you know, check out my narrators, they are amazing voice actors.

[00:21:22] Rico: Some of these, I mean, when I listen to audible books, I mean some of them are performances.

[00:21:27] Ellie: Yes.

[00:21:27] Rico: That’s what you have to look at them as. They’re not just reading the story, they’re performing that story.

[00:21:31] Ellie: Yeah. And for this story, which is very much action adventure, it really suits it.

[00:21:37] Rico: That is cool. So are you working along the same chronicles that you’ve started or are you looking to getting to a different storyline? Are you launching a new story?

[00:21:48] Ellie: Both. I’ve got some extra stories, different timeline in the Necroseam world. Different characters planned, ready to go. Some of them I’ve started. But I have other stories in other worlds that I’ve been kind of working on.

[00:22:03] Rico: Okay, alright. The writer never stops. And you’ve also written a book for young readers as well. So I think that’s called A Ballad of the Ice Fairy?

[00:22:13] Ellie: Yes, I also did the illustrations for that.

[00:22:15] Rico: Beautiful work too. I was looking at it. Very nice work. And that’s available as well on demand. I’m assuming you self-published that as well?

[00:22:22] Ellie: Yes. We actually had to go through a different printer other than KDP Amazon or IngramSpark. We didn’t like the quality of their images and their paper wasn’t really that good for children’s book illustrations. So we went with a different printer and right now you can only get it directly on our website.

[00:22:43] Rico: Oh, as a digital edition? Oh, you mean the book itself?

[00:22:46] Ellie: The book itself.

[00:22:47] Rico: Okay. When you publish by a traditional publisher they have a marketing department, but the author still has to go out, do book signings, do your own promotion. You have to cultivate your own followings too. The traditional publishers, I don’t think do that as much as they used to anymore. But so you’re actually also going to a lot of different events. We saw you, like I said, at Anime Week in Atlanta, and that was surprising. But not surprising because a lot of fantasy writers do those types of things. But it looks like you’ve been, since the summer, I guess you’ve been to places like Savannah Mega ComicCon, Key City Steampunk Festival, Multiverse Fandom Convention. I haven’t heard of that one. The Conjuration, which is November fourth and sixth, just passed. And people can listen, find you, follow you on most of the social media, I guess. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. Do you do trailers for your books?

[00:23:39] Ellie: Yeah I’ve done a couple trailers. I kind of prefer the audiobook trailers now to be honest, because they just, they’re more engaging.

[00:23:46] Rico: Sure. And people can go online to your store though. I mean just like Sanderson sells swords and other things for his stuff. Which is interesting because he does it out of, I think he does it out of his house or something, is what I understood. Or maybe the pick and pack of it is somewhere else. Do you find that’s actually helped you more?

[00:24:04] Ellie: Oh my gosh, yes. Man, having the weapons is one of the dreams, man. One of the dreams. Just need the, need a bit more funding for that, so.

[00:24:14] Rico: Yeah, yeah. It’s a lot different. But the jewelry part and some of the other stuff you do it’s kind of neat to draw people right into that story. I had seen someone else, I think it was a local Georgia writer that does novels. And she actually created jewelry specifically for each of the books that she wrote. So it comes actually with that piece of jewelry and the book packaged together which is kind of interesting. So do you want to share anything else with us as far as writing methods or other things that you do? Have you gone back to Norcross Highschool? By the way, the media center, if you’ve ever gone back to talk about your books to students there?

[00:24:48] Ellie: I’ve never considered that. Is that a thing I can do?

[00:24:52] Rico: Yeah. Yeah, you can. I’m pretty sure you can. I know.

[00:24:55] Ellie: I don’t even know who to talk to about that, to be honest.

[00:24:57] Rico: You probably go to the head of the media center, at Norcross Library. They had Mayra Cuevas I think. She was a CNN producer and she wrote a book, a series of books, I think. And there were young adult novels actually from the Hispanic, Latinx point of view. And she was one of the speakers a couple of years ago there. But they do sometimes do that. And I know the Gwinnett Public Library actually does, not only in person, but online having authors come in and stuff like that. It’s kind of neat. I think young kids or adults, I mean, 30% of young adult novels are read by adults. I think those are adults that want to get back into their young, into the youngness of where they were, maybe.

[00:25:35] Ellie: Yeah, I think it’s also because young adult books don’t take themselves too seriously. So they…

[00:25:40] Rico: Yes.

[00:25:41] Ellie: They know they can have more fun with it. So if the author is having fun, the reader’s gonna have fun.

[00:25:45] Rico: Right. For sure. I mean, I’m into, I have three kids and I’m into, we watch everything from Studio Ghibli, every movie. And because of them I’m into anime and there’s a whole variety of anime from light slice of life to the stuff like Death Note. I mean, they’re all different from American animation, that’s for sure. So what else can you share with us as far as maybe that we haven’t touched upon as far as writing style or what you do as a writer?

[00:26:09] Ellie: As a writer? I mean, I feel like we’ve kind of covered that pretty extensively, but I could talk more about why the merchandising is so important.

[00:26:17] Rico: Yeah, let’s do that. How did that start?

[00:26:20] Ellie: I mean, this is just my observation from it, but the reason why I think merchandise is so important is mostly because it’s an indication that there is a community or can be a community created from this work. And I think having a community around a series is what makes a series successful. It kind of brings people together, it gives them something to talk about it kind of helps them get into the immersive nature of that story and of that series.

[00:26:51] Rico: Interesting. One of my kids, she just finished her masters in psychology and she’s into fantasy books and stuff like that. What she grew up on was like the Warrior Books, these are cat warriors and stuff. And what she’s found is that she would go online and play some fantasy role games and stuff, even now, she’s 24. Because it’s fun it’s mindless sometimes. And as she’s doing it, she’s meeting people and she’s talking to them. Like there’s, could be like, she has a group of, I think six or seven people they have discussions unrelated almost to what they’re doing. It’s just a community they built around that. She’s starting an online discord book club to talk about some of the books they all have in common that they’d like to read. Which is again, social media, so and that’s where I wanted to get to. Social media is kind of an interesting platform place that writers did not have before. And I don’t even as it was coming in, I don’t think, I mean yes, Stephen King will be on Twitter and he has millions of followers and he can tweet stuff. But do you find social media is helping you? Which platforms do you find more beneficial to you?

[00:27:49] Ellie: Yeah. Social media definitely, I think is the only way that has helped any kind of visibility, online at least. Conventions are always going to be the top, like biggest visibility jumpstarters. But online social media is pretty necessary. I haven’t had too much success with Twitter, but I have had some people meet me from Twitter specifically who came to the shows to come see me because they followed me on Twitter and or TikTok or Instagram. So there are some individuals that I do actually only talk to in those platforms because that’s where they are. So I think as an author, you need to go where your audience is.

[00:28:35] Rico: Okay. Makes sense. Do you use Reddit at all?

[00:28:38] Ellie: I’m scared of Reddit. It terrifies me.

[00:28:43] Rico: Dark web. There’s an underlying layer in there somewhere.

[00:28:49] Ellie: Yeah. I used to go on there a lot to try and figure it out how it worked, you know?

[00:28:55] Rico: Right.

[00:28:56] Ellie: But, after learning about it, it just terrified me more.

[00:29:00] Rico: I thought NextDoor, which is one of these neighborhood apps was bad, but Reddit is really bad. It’s just like, my God.

[00:29:07] Ellie: Well, if there’s a lot of fireworks that go on around here, so you know, every time you see a post on a Neighborhood or something, or Ring, it’s just like, I heard gunshots. And it’s like, yes, those are really fireworks.

[00:29:23] Rico: That’s true. I didn’t think about Ring after, I just installed that and I didn’t realize I was part of a community all of a sudden. I’m getting ring messages like your dogs, some dogs missing or gunshots. Yeah. It’s unbelievable.

[00:29:34] Ellie: Oh yeah. No, it’s been super useful whenever our cats escape. It’s like, hey, we need our cat, have you seen him?

Right, right.

[00:29:41] Rico: You know the other thing that goes on, one of my other kids also, he’s 19, he actually has been writing since he was 16. So he goes online. He used to use, I think it was WhatsApp, was one of them, was one of these online writing communities, you could serialize chapters and stuff. And he’s still writing. He writes every night. He’s 19 and he hopes to be able to be a creative writer. To make a living at it, that’s the thing.

[00:30:02] Ellie: Yeah, I was about to say, it sounds like he already is.

[00:30:05] Rico: Well, he’s, I mean, he has 200 followers right now that are like his beta readers essentially. And he is into fantasy and sci-fi. I think he’s shifting a little bit more to sci-fi than fantasy. But it is a field that I think today, I mean, he looks at it and says can I make a living at this or not? If I can’t, what do I have to do to make a living to be able to still write regularly? How do you find that? How do you balance that? You have a child, I know it takes you longer now to write. Your child will get older, be in school at some point, preschool and stuff. So it will get easier a little bit. But how do you juggle life like that?

[00:30:40] Ellie: With much difficulty and defiance. Basically it’s one of those things where if you really love something, then you basically have to fight for that time. You have to fight to find time to do it. If you really love it that much and the things that are more important to you, you will find a way and a time to do it. But I can’t really give advice on how to go about that because everybody’s situation and brain chemistry is different. So I guess the best I can say is you’ve just gotta find what works best for you. Find the method that is uniquely perfect for you.

[00:31:25] Rico: I think you gave good advice before about that one sentence goal though.

[00:31:30] Ellie: It’s a good trick.

[00:31:31] Rico: Yes, and I can see people doing that. I can see, you get that one sentence done and you feel like, wow, okay, cool.

[00:31:37] Ellie: It’s worked for me so.

[00:31:39] Rico: Well, we’ve been talking to Ellie Raine. She’s a self-published author, that has nine books, I think, right? Nine books to your name. Merchandise. She’s going strong.

She’s already, well, third audio, audible book, coming out. We’re looking forward to seeing a lot more from you. I do appreciate the time you’ve given us. Why don’t you tell everyone that might be interested where they can find more. We’ll have these links, but where should they go to find more about you?

[00:32:04] Ellie: Sure. You can go to either EllieRaine.com or Necroseam.com. That is N-E-C-R-O-S-E-A-M.com. So we have a blog. You can find me on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. It’ll all be on the website.

[00:32:22] Rico: Great. And if you have any questions for Ellie, obviously message her through through social media or put comments if you’re listening to this on Facebook. You can put your comments in that in the spot on Facebook. Again, thank you Ellie. I appreciate your time. Good luck and have a great career. Looking forward to seeing more books from you.

[00:32:40] Ellie: Me too.

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Arts & Literature

Artists and Creatives

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Peachtree Corners is perhaps best known for its technology and scientific minds, but it’s a proven fact that science and art go hand-in-hand. So it should come as no surprise that Peachtree Corners is also bursting at the seams with creative people who produce art at all levels, across all art forms and in every medium.

From the visual arts to the performing arts, you will find painters, dancers, actors, musicians, and yes, even photographers, who are brand new to their craft — and others for whom it has been a life-long quest for creative expression.

Enjoy these photos taken by the members of the Peachtree Corners Photography Club, who are artists themselves, taking photos of other artists in Peachtree Corners!

The monthly meetings of the Club are open to everyone, from beginners to pros. For more information about the Club, go to their website at pcphotoclub.org.

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Arts & Literature

Wesleyan Artist Market Celebrates Its Silver Jubilee in 2023

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Wendy King

This spring ushers in the 25th annual Wesleyan Artist Market (WAM), our favorite local fine art, jewelry and fine wares show. It’s set for Friday, April 28, 10 a.m.-7 p.m., and Saturday, April 29, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Wesleyan School in Peachtree Corners.

Enjoy scrumptious beverages and snacks while taking in the talents of 85 professional artists from all over the Southeast and 19 student artists. This two-day event is open to the public; parking and admission are free.

Engage with artists as you hunt for works that you’ll treasure for years to come. “Come to the Table,” Wesleyan’s hardcover cookbook with over 200 recipes, will be available for purchase. Proceeds help fund Wesleyan’s fine arts programs.

This year, your support will facilitate the purchase of a new truck for the marching band, the refurbishing of a Steinway piano, new chorus risers and upgraded lighting in Powell Theater.

From casual customers to avid collectors, WAM always delights. To preview participating artists, visit artistmarket.wesleyanschool.org. Cheers to 25 years, WAM!

Spotlight on three artists

Wendy King — Poppy and Jewel 

Wendy King
Wendy King

Inspirational jewelry that cuts the mustard

When Wendy King received a spherical, vintage charm containing a single mustard seed from her husband’s grandmother long ago, she had no idea it would be the catalyst for starting her own inspirational jewelry line one day, nor that it would have such a profound and far-reaching impact on others. 

In the 1950s and 60s, it was apparently customary to gift such charms, alluding to the parable of the mustard seed. Some were set in brooches, many hung on necklaces.

King found it was very effective to wear the sentimental trinket she had received as a reminder to walk in faith every day. She elected to sport the bauble on a stylish new bracelet and realized that women today would be more likely to benefit from continuing this tradition if the cherished charms of yesteryear with real mustard seeds inside were set in more contemporary, fashion-forward jewelry pieces. 

“A lot of the religious jewelry has a similar look. I wanted to elevate it, put a different spin on it,” King said.

She thought she could breathe new life into these vintage charms by using them to create contemporary jewelry pieces. “I went to antique stores, but it was like finding a needle in a haystack, especially to find them in good shape. That’s when I realized I’d have to make the charms myself too,” she added. 

Today, her Poppy and Jewel pieces are made with natural gemstone beads like white lace agate, amazonite, aquamarine, pearl, tiger’s eye, labradorite, hematite and river stone and her perfected bezels with metal finishes in silver, polished gold or antique brass. Each one contains a solitary, immortalized, goldish-brown mustard seed suspended in the center of a clear resin-filled charm. 

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase; just take the first step.” – Martin Luther King

It’s a powerful visual, to see how physically tiny a mustard seed really is. King painstakingly creates lovely earrings, necklaces and bracelets — vessels that spark the might of faith when worn.

Her jewelry line speaks with the promise that if you believe it, everything will work out for the best. Each distinctive piece comes with a card explaining the parable that inspired it. 

Faith can move mountains — pass it on 

Jesus says in Matthew 17:20, “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” 

It’s a message that transcends all faiths and provides comfort whether you’re religious or not. We all go through low points when digging deep to find the strength to triumph is vital. 

Even the smallest amount of faith in an all-powerful God, or an ever-just universe, results in great things. Sometimes life’s tests may seem insurmountable: divorce, job loss, infertility, illness.

That’s when you must believe in your heart, without a doubt, that God or the universe is bigger than those mountains. It’s hard to do in our we-have-to-see-it-now-to-believe-it society. Enter Poppy and Jewel. Cue “You Gotta Have Faith” (George Michael, 1987)

King has enjoyed witnessing the organic growth of the one-woman enterprise she started in 2016 named after her maternal grandparents who planted the seeds of faith in her. The ripple effect of customers sharing her pieces is special.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had people tell me they hear stories that grip their hearts and give their bracelets away to comfort someone in need. Then I get an email, “Well, I gave another one off my wrist. I need to restock.” That’s what it’s for. You hear somebody going through a rough patch and you pass it on,” King smiled.

The evolution of an artisan

A bachelor’s degree in government administration didn’t exactly allow King a creative outlet. Nor did her 12-year stint as a fitness instructor at Country Club of the South. She founded Poppy and Jewel when her kids were still in school, and she was able to ramp production up or down as needed. “Now that they’re grown, I can devote so much more to it,” King said. 

Producing her pretty, handcrafted pieces took plenty of trial and error. “The first time I worked with the resin, I poured it, set the seed in and wondered why it was gooey. It took years of making charms that I can’t use. Those little boogers float around,” she laughed. 

Lately, King has been working with a company to replicate the vintage charm that started it all for her. They are three samples into tweaking a spherical bauble with a metal band around it that should be available in a few months.

Behind the scenes

Removing air bubbles in the resin, stringing smaller beads one by one with a needle and thread, perfectly positioning the seeds — it’s tedious work. 

If the resin mixture isn’t spot on and perfectly timed, it doesn’t cure correctly. It’s all part of learning what works. “I’m very methodical now. I follow the same steps every time. I don’t want any mishaps,” King explained.

This jewelry line is a true labor of love for King who has since fine-tuned her two-step resin pouring process. Still, every phase of a successful batch of charms has to be completed within a certain window. She purchases the bezels (the empty metal part), mixes the resin with hardener, pours it and positions the itty-bitty mustard seed in the center while wearing glasses and a magnifying glass.

King patiently allows it to cure, but she must also check on them at exactly the right time to be able to redirect any seeds that may have drifted. Once that stage has cured properly, a second round of resin is poured.

King prefers to work on small batches of about 100 charms at a time. “When inspiration hits, I’ll go to my studio down the hall and work while those juices are flowing and I’m in that creative mindset, whether it’s crack of dawn:30 or late at night,” she said. 

Shop Poppy and Jewel

Shop King’s handcrafted jewelry in person at WAM, The Red Hound in Norcross and Alpharetta, Under the Palm Tree in Dunwoody, and Josephine’s Antiques in Roswell. Electronically, visit her website, poppyandjewel.com, or Instagram account, @poppy_and_jewel. 

Customizations include requests for particular colors, smaller or larger sizes. Some people bring their own beads or a broken necklace to be used. If you find a vintage charm after rifling through your family’s jewelry boxes, you can have it added to Poppy and Jewel bijouterie. 

“If it brings a sense of joy or hope to somebody, if I touch one person’s life, then I’ll keep doing what I’m doing,” King declared.  

Shane Miller — Artist

Shane Miller
Shane Miller

Stumble into art

Maryland native Shane Miller did just that, and he’s been swimming since 2016. Miller transferred to Nashville in 2013. He always knew he’d do something creative full time, but he didn’t realize it would be painting until a chance encounter at an art crawl with Paul Polycarpou, then CEO of Nashville Arts Magazine, changed his instrument from guitar to paintbrush.

Miller had already hung up his physical therapist hat after six years in the field to pursue music. His father introduced him to guitar early. He took lessons at age 10 and was giving them by 15.

Strumming for a living wasn’t much of a stretch. For most, it would be a giant stretch. For musical Miller, easy peasy. 

Touring on weekends with an independent artist, his year in the life of a professional musician allowed more time for painting. Eventually, the music volume decreased as the painting volume amplified.

A natural knack

“I had a watercolor tutor in high school. Before that, I’d draw on the back of my worksheets in elementary school. I have a natural knack for it,” Miller stated. 

Miller clearly paid attention in watercolor class where he learned the fundamentals of color theory and composition. Through college and thereafter, he painted in his spare time.

After trying different styles, he settled on creating what most resonated with him: abstract, atmospheric landscapes influenced by tonalism like those one might recall from a reverie or a distant memory, using oils on canvas.

Miller took Polycarpou up on his open-door policy for local artists. The executive was open to critiquing artists’ work and had offered to introduce Miller to a gallery in town when he believed him to be ready.

True to his word, Polycarpou provided direction and in a short time, Miller signed with the Rymer Gallery. Others ensued.

Needless to say, the painter isn’t missing his regimented physical therapy days. He considers his flexible schedule a dream. “I’m happy with my career. It was an interesting road getting here,” he said. 

The sway of social media

Curating a cohesive Instagram story and posting regularly paid off for the promising artist. The platform revealed a market for his work. Miller was both astonished and assured by people’s readiness to buy paintings online.

“I’ve shipped work all over the world: the UK, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Germany — all through the power of the internet,” Miller said.

Studio space

Miller works out of his Germantown studio with soaring ceilings, a massive north-facing window and skylight in an old flour mill that’s been converted into a business collective north of downtown Nashville.

A believer in being disciplined, he reports to his atelier daily, inspired or not, “You have to be consistent with showing up. Diving in allows creativity to start flowing.”

The painter’s process

Miller finds inspiration in his travels. He doesn’t work from reference photos; he finds them restrictive. Surprisingly, he doesn’t aim to depict any particular panorama. He paints from his imagination.

More interested in expressing himself and capturing feelings, he seeks to take viewers on a spiritual voyage. “Painting is a subconscious process for me, like meditation,” he explained.

Miller paints bodies of water because, besides being visually interesting, they create lines leading the eye into the composition. It evokes turning a chapter, especially flowing rivers.

His monochromatic, non-specific landscapes act as a bridge to tap into emotions. He’s pleased when people feel like they’ve been to “that place” in any of his paintings. 

A prolific painter, his preference is to juggle about six pieces at once. “I paint skies on different days than the foreground, working in batches. I’ll mix a certain color and carry it throughout multiple paintings so I’m not wasting paint. It’s a nice way to streamline things and jump around through different pieces,” Miller said.

Stepping away frequently when working on multiples allows him to avoid tunnel vision, “I can always reassess the direction.” 

Most paintings are varnished once he’s done. He likes the subtle finish of satin varnish mixed with cold wax for a less reflective sheen.

Mystery blooms

“Recently I’ve been painting abstract florals. There aren’t many rules when painting florals,” Miller stated. One gets the impression he wouldn’t follow any if there were. He enjoys using brighter colors than he would in his landscapes.

Shane Miller
Shane Miller

“I don’t know one flower from the next. I just paint whatever shape looks great and my wife will say, “That looks like a lily.” For Miller, it’s about creating a composition that feels right.

A left-brained creative?

Miller has a penchant for numbers and organization. “I have systems to keep track of everything,” he said. His paintings have an identifier that correlates to a spreadsheet and an internal tracking system. He can trace any piece, whether it’s at the studio, at a gallery or sold.

Miller dove into the accounting cycle and relishes keeping up with his books. Documenting his endeavors makes him feel accomplished. 

A logbook holds records of the colors and dates of every layer of every painting — all steps taken to achieve the end result. These come in handy when clients request something similar to one of his older works.

“Painting is a very subtle thing, especially working in layers. It could be hard to recall every step,” Miller explained.

Commissions

At shows like WAM, you might not find exactly what you’re looking for, but if you like his style, Miller can create a unique piece for you. One can request a painting reminiscent of a location — the Carolinas, a marsh, the coast or mountains — and any desired elements for the piece. 

Miller then gets to work. A 20% deposit gets the ball rolling. Within a month, one can expect to see photos and videos of a piece for final approval.

Shop Shane Miller Art

Meet Miller and see his work at WAM. So that buyers can purchase with confidence, he is responsive to inquiries from his website, shaneartistry.com or through Instagram @shane.artistry. 

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” — Pablo Picasso

Miller espouses Picasso’s sentiment. He feels painting or any creative outlet is an escape from the mundane and rejuvenates the spirit.

Jennifer Keim – JKEIM Fine Art and Lifestyle Design

Jennifer Keim
Jennifer Keim

Becoming JKEIM

Atlanta artist Jennifer Keim switches between oils, pastels and mixed media to best capture her subjects’ personalities. She’s been fostering her artistic talent since fourth grade at the behest of the late Jill Chancey Philips, a summer camp instructor at the Columbus Museum who noticed she had something special. 

Keim studied under Philips until earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drawing and painting at Auburn University. Philips owned the gallery and studio where Keim spent her young adult summers learning the business side of being a professional artist.

She credits her mentor for emphasizing grit and form. “It’s so important understanding technique before you can evolve your style. You have to understand dimensions, perspectives and shading to bring a subject onto the page,” she said.

Keim worked in advertising for practical reasons until a successful solo art show convinced her she could do art full-time. She felt “suffocated” behind the computer, so in 2007 she left graphic design for a career as a painter.

Art therapy 

An unfinished space in her home is Keim’s special place. Nails dot the walls where pieces have come and gone. Paint and resin splashes adorn the studio floor. Her beautiful work surrounds her on all sides.

Seeing how color and shadowing can bring the beauty of a subject up off the page has always intrigued Keim for whom painting is a creative outlet. “It feels good. If I’m a little cranky, my husband says, ‘You might need to go to the studio for a bit.’”

Off to the Races 

The jockeys and detailed horses of the pastel-on-wood Off to the Races series feature clean lines and vibrant colors. Keim captures the energy of the horse races. “My favorite part is doing the kickup,” she said.

Fun fact: Mud can splatter up to 20 feet behind a galloping horse. 

Starting with a pencil drawing is key as the nonporous wood allows for only one or two strokes of pastel. After 20 years of working with high gloss resin, Keim is still surprised by the chemical reaction that occurs when it’s poured over pastels on raw wood. It enriches the woodgrain, melts the pastels heightening the colors and creates an almost 3D effect.

The family is warned before a resin session begins with “Do not enter; mommy is pouring.” Then it’s literally off to the races. It takes two to three minutes to precisely mix the concoction of resin and hardener and another 15 minutes to pour the epoxy before it gets too sticky. 

Keim releases air bubbles with a torch and walks away for three days, hoping no bugs land on the curing resin. The finished pieces, with their glossy sheen and beveled edges, do not require a frame.

Generation Wild collection

An African safari in 2009 left Keim forever enchanted by the way of the wild — how the animals communicate, the smells, the circle of life. “It makes your heart beat in a different way. I still get chill bumps from it,” she said.

Capturing animals is all in the eyes in Keim’s view. “Start with the eyes. If you don’t get them right, you might as well start over,” she explains. “I have to feel like they’re blinking at me before I can move on.”

Fly Guys

“My Fly Guys collection started from my husband’s grandfather’s fly box in the studio. I was up late one night and started tinkering around with it. Creative moments,” Keim said. 

Textiles

Whose Booze? It’s what Keim likes to call her set of four hand painted linen cocktail napkins with a hemstitch, each in a different color for easy glassware identification. They’ll be available at WAM for the first time this year.

Keim also makes tea towels, scarves that double as cover-ups and more. The painted fabrics are durable and washable.

Shop JKEIM

Find Keim’s artwork and textiles at WAM, Marguerite’s in Brookhaven, B.D. Jeffries in Atlanta or visit her website, jkeim.com.

A day in the life

“I jump around like a ping-pong ball, which keeps me in the groove” is how Keim describes her workday. There are textiles drying on tables and on the floor, scarves on mannequins. It’s a carefully timed game of drying stations in anticipation of the next color. Snuck in between is a layer being added to an animal piece. 

She prefers coastal and mountain pieces in oils with visible palette knife blade marks. “I like to work with oil on linen or canvas with a venetian red backing. I was trained to emulate the masters,” she said.

Keim keeps a supply of canvases painted with a venetian red basecoat in all sizes at the ready, in case there’s something she wishes to paint immediately.

Commissions

Keim completes commissions of all sorts. Even her textiles can be personalized. Pinpointing what the client is interested in comes first. Next, learning what the space is like.

She’s been known to bring an assortment of works to homes to see what size works best with the ceiling height and the environment. A 50% deposit gets a commission underway. 

The best part

Keim wants her work to incite nostalgia, cheer and joy. For her, the best part about being an artist is having people connect to a piece she was inspired to create.

“You’re getting a little piece of me in every one of my original works,” she said. “When all those happy moments combine, that really is magical for me.”

See you at WAM’s 25th!

I’m positive you’ll enjoy meeting these gifted artists at WAM. The show is the springtime indulgence we’ve all come to expect. Exhibitors are looking forward to meeting you and sharing their zeal for art with you.

Thanks for one exquisitely imaginative quarter of a century, WAM!

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Arts & Literature

Wesleyan Artist Market, Student Artists 2023 [Podcast]

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On this episode of Peachtree Corners Life we take a deep dive into the world of young artists at Wesleyan School, featuring three talented individuals: Freddie Reinhard, and Anastasia and Juliana Lamas. From digital art to painted oyster shells, these artisans have created unique, inspiring pieces that showcase their creativity and passions. We explore their inspirations, hobbies, and future aspirations, as well as their involvement in academics and extracurricular activities. With the Wesleyan Artist Market approaching (on April 28,29, 2023), this podcast is the perfect sneak peek into the exciting works these artists will be presenting. Don’t miss this chance to discover the next generation of artistic talent.

Resources:

Wesleyan Artist Market Website

“I HAVE A FASHION ICON WHO I’M JUST OBSESSED WITH, AND SHE REALLY INSPIRES ME. HER NAME IS REBECCA COHEN, AND SHE’S THE OWNER OF THIS BRAND THAT I LOVE CALLED LOVE SHACK FANCY. AND SHE’S SO GIRLY AND FEMININE, AND I JUST ADMIRE IT SO MUCH ABOUT HER. AND SHE JUST MADE THIS HUGE BRAND THAT EVERYBODY MY AGE AND AROUND MY AGE LOVES, AND I JUST WANT TO BE HER WHEN I’M OLDER, AND I JUST LOVE HER DISTINCT STYLE.”

freddie reinhard

Timestamp (Where to find it in the podcast):

[0:00:00] – Intro
[0:01:48] – About Anastasia and Juliana
[0:02:58] – About Freddie
[0:05:40] – Other Interests
[0:06:19] – The Creative Process
[0:10:50] – Presenting at The Artist Market
[0:12:34] – Inspiration
[0:14:35] – Difficulties of Mediums
[0:19:32] – Art Courses and Extracurricular Activities
[0:23:50] – Closing

Podcast transcript:

[0:00:00] Rico Figliolini: Hi, everyone. This is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachtree Corners Life. And I have some special guests today. We are a sponsor of the Wesleyan Artist Market, and the guests I have here are student artists that are going to be presenting at the show this April. So let me introduce Freddie first. Hey, Freddie, thanks for joining us.

[0:00:18] Freddie Reinhard: Hi, how are you?

[0:00:19] Rico Figliolini: Good. Anastasia and Juliana, left and right, respective. Thanks for joining us.

[0:00:26] Anastasia Lamas: Thank you.

[0:00:27] Rico Figliolini: Appreciate it. So before we get right into it, I just want to say thank you to our corporate sponsor, EV Remodeling. I say corporate, but they’re a neighbor of ours, right? They live in Peachtree Corners. Eli is the owner of the place, and EV Remodeling does design to build and renovation work, and they’ve been around for a while, and they do great work. So check them out at EVRemodelingInc.com. They’re our sponsor and a great supporter of ours, so we appreciate them. So let’s hop right into it. You girls are exhibiting at Wesleyan Artist Market this April. I wish I had the dates in front of me, but do you remember the dates, Freddie?

[0:01:07] Freddie Reinhard: Yes, April 28 and April 29.

[0:01:10] Rico Figliolini: Great. Thank you. Just testing you on that one. Right? So we’re featuring it in the upcoming issue of Peachtree Corners Magazine as well. So we have three adult artists that we profiled in the magazine. So check that out. That’s coming out. Hitting the post office, I think Thursday. Mailboxes this weekend, hopefully. So check that out. But let’s get right into it. Juliana and Anastasia do artwork on oyster shells and a little different medium, right? They’re in 8th grade and 7th grade, and they’re working together on this project. So why don’t you two tell me a little bit about what it is that you do.

[0:01:48] Anastasia Lamas: So we take oyster shells from where we vacation at Hilton Head Island, and we paint them with a lot of different designs to be used as trinket dishes and decorations and gifts.

[0:02:04] Rico Figliolini: We’re going to flash one on. So when you paint these, I’m assuming you paint the background white, and then you use colors. What mediums, what actually are you using to do this?

[0:02:15] Anastasia Lamas: So first we bleach them to get any sort of, like, black spots off, and then we use acrylic paint. We do a few coats of that.

[0:02:25] Rico Figliolini: So what got you into that?

[0:02:28] Anastasia Lamas: We really loved the style, and I actually used them as nutcracker gifts for my dance friends as well, originally. And we thought that they would sell really well at the Artist Market.

[0:02:38] Rico Figliolini: Cool. Here’s another one that let’s pop that one in there too. So how many varieties do you have actually, that you’re using?

[0:02:46] Anastasia Lamas: Probably at the moment, probably seven. Like, seven-ish.

[0:02:49] Rico Figliolini: Cool. Freddie, you’re doing different stuff, so tell us a little bit about some of your work.

[0:02:58] Freddie Reinhard: So I have a button right here, like college buttons. And this one happens to be for Wesleyan. So they’re for, like, game days, and whenever you just want to support your team. They’re very popular at big SEC schools, especially. And then I’m also doing dorm room prints, so you can put, obviously, your dorm room, bathroom, wherever you want to show your team spirit. And I’m also making sweatshirts that have, like, a teddy bear design on them, wearing jerseys for Ole Miss Alabama.

[0:03:29] Rico Figliolini: So what medium? I know you said I believe you said before we started rolling on this that you use digital. So it’s digitally done? So what programs are you actually working in?

[0:03:39] Freddie Reinhard: I use Fresco. It’s, like, from Adobe, and it just is great. Definitely my go to. It’s pretty simple. I have, like, a button machine, and you just print out your pictures, and a pretty easy job to get done.

[0:03:55] Rico Figliolini: So some of the stuff, like, for example, Auburn, this would be on a button I’m assuming .

[0:03:59] Freddie Reinhard: Yes, that would be on a button.

[0:04:01] Rico Figliolini: Excellent. So leave that up for a minute. Freddie, have you done the Wesleyan Artist Market before, or is this the first time, or how long have you been doing it?

[0:04:16] Freddie Reinhard: No, this is my first time doing it.

[0:04:18] Rico Figliolini: Really?

[0:04:18] Freddie Reinhard: I thought it would just be a fun way for people to wear my art. I thought it would just be cool to see people wearing it. And I’m going to college next year, so I’m like, what better time to make college pins? I can even make some for my friends next year. And I just thought it was something unique that I knew would probably sell well.

[0:04:35] Rico Figliolini: Cool. Now, you’ve been, I understand correctly, you’re an AP art student at Wesleyan School?

[0:04:41] Freddie Reinhard: Yes.

[0:04:42] Rico Figliolini: And you’ve done about three and a half years of art in high school, I’m assuming. That’s a lot of years of art for a high school kid.

[0:04:48] Freddie Reinhard: It is.

[0:04:49] Rico Figliolini: Is this something that you want? Where do you want to take this when you go to college?

[0:04:54] Freddie Reinhard: Well, I’m hoping to do something in fashion, and so all this art is definitely helping me just kind of know my style in general, and I just love art. In the first place, I would like to do fashion, and I’m sure that if these buttons sell well, I’ll probably sell them in college. Yeah. It’s just something I’ve always loved.

[0:05:16] Rico Figliolini: Do you want to do a career out of this? What do you think your major would be in college?

[0:05:22] Freddie Reinhard: Well, currently I’m majoring in Southern Studies, which is, like, I can study the art of the south. So I really would like to tie in my Southern culture with my fashion. Hopefully, I could go into something fashion related would be my dream. All of this definitely helps out.

[0:05:40] Rico Figliolini: Absolutely. All right, let’s go to Anastasia and Juliana. I mean, middle school, 7th, 8th grade. Is that middle school? Yeah, that’s middle school. You’re way before college, right? Why don’t you share some of the interests that you two have? I mean, is art part of that, or do you have other interests besides that?

[0:06:00] Anastasia Lamas: I’m a dancer. I really do enjoy making art outside of dance and school. And Juliana?

[0:06:08 ] Juliana Lamas: I’m a gymnast, and so I really like that, and I really like just being creative and thinking of new ways to make something.

[0:06:19] Rico Figliolini: So when you’re doing the oysters and that artwork, are you both working on it at the same time? Do you collaborate? Does one of you say, no, I don’t think I like that, or how does that go? And do you sketch it out before you actually put it on the oyster?

[0:06:35] Anastasia Lamas: Yes, we have designs that we know we’re going to do on the shells, and we’ll put on the shell and do them together.

[0:06:44] Rico Figliolini: Cool. I guess there’s always someone a little bit more creative than the other right in a pair. Does anyone want to raise their hand? Which one’s more creative?

[0:06:55] Anastasia Lamas: I think we’re both creative in our own ways, like, different parts.

[0:07:01] Rico Figliolini: And where do you get your inspiration for what you do? Like, the artwork that you put on the shells, how do you come up with that?

[0:07:08] Juliana Lamas: For some of them, so we play the piano. So for one of them that we made, we put piano notes on it. I actually have it with me. And then Anastasia really likes flowers, so we made some with flowers on them, and then we wanted to incorporate something from Wesleyan into them. So it says Joy on it. It’s the joy motto. And then we have the ones that have the crosses on them.

[0:07:32] Rico Figliolini: Okay. Got a bunch of them up there now. Okay, so let’s go back to Freddie a little bit. So, Freddie, where do you find your creative process, your creative space, physical space or mind?

[0:07:53] Freddie Reinhard: Yeah, honestly, I do a lot of my drawings during class, which isn’t a good thing. I call it the doodlebug. My friends know it as that, and it’s just like, I’m in class, I can’t think of anything but just, like, drawing something on paper or my laptop. So, sadly, to my teachers, it’s definitely in class. And then also, I’ll draw when I get home from school, or if I just have some downtime, I’ll do some drawings then, and I get a lot of my inspiration from Pinterest. I see all these cute dorm room stuff, and I’m like, I could do that, but I want my Freddie spin on it. So I’ll do bows often. A lot of people know me for my bows because I just have bows in all my artwork. I just have practiced my handwriting for probably, like, four years now.

[0:08:47] Rico Figliolini: All right, well, the Pinterest, I’m surprised, actually. My daughter uses it. She’s 24. So is that something that you use a lot of? Do you create boards and put up your stuff that way too?

[0:09:07] Freddie Reinhard: Normally I’ll just go on there. If I need a pattern for this cherry background, maybe I saw something with cherries, and then I was like, that’s pretty cute. Or if I just see fun colors that I could incorporate in my art, I’ll do that. Or if I just need inspiration for something, I’ll definitely go there, because obviously it’s Pinterest. They have everything under the sun.

[0:09:30] Rico Figliolini: Okay. All right. Juliana, how about as far as inspiration? I think you said your family goes to Hilton Head, or is that correct? So when did that start? And I guess do you beach comb? Do you go searching for the shells on the beach, I’m assuming?

[0:09:51] Anastasia Lamas: Well, our grandparents owned some condos up at Hilton Head, and they’ve been going there since before we were born, definitely since my dad was a kid.

[0:10:00] Rico Figliolini: Okay.

[0:10:01] Anastasia Lamas: And so we kind of got the inspiration for the shells there, and we ordered them from a lady who cleaned them for us, actually, at Hilton Head. And we also sometimes when we go to restaurants there, we’ll ask the cook if they can give us some of their old oyster shells.

[0:10:21] Rico Figliolini: That’s ingenious. That’s a good way of recycling. That’s good. I would never have thought of that. My creative process runs a little different, but that’s cool that you did that. Okay, so now that you have your process and stuff, do you know where you’re going to be doing it at Wesleyan? Where you’re going to be presenting your products and stuff? Whoever wants to go first.

[0:10:46] Freddie Reinhard: Where I’m presenting them, do you mean, like, in Yancy?

[0:10:50] Rico Figliolini: Yeah, at the show. Well, at the show. Well, I guess people can find you when they go to the show. But will you have a variety of things at the show, I’m assuming?

[0:11:00] Freddie Reinhard: Yeah, I’m going to have my stand is going to be very obvious, I think. My mom’s trying to plan, like, a huge pink bow above my stand. So if you need to look for it, just look for the pink bow. And I’m going to have about 400 buttons there, 100 prints, 100 sweatshirts, I think, so there’s definitely going to be a variety. And I’m also taking commissions for the, I obviously can’t do every college I wish I could, but commissions for smaller colleges like Sanford and wherever else, I’m going to do commissions. So whoever’s going there, they can get buttons or prints or whatever they want.

[0:11:36] Rico Figliolini: Cool. So they can order from you, and then you’ll ship it. You can ship it later.

[0:11:40] Freddie Reinhard: Yes.

[0:11:41] Rico Figliolini: And Juliana and Anastasia, obviously, you’re going to have tons of product too, I’m imagining.

[0:11:47] Anastasia Lamas: We’re trying to do maybe ten to 20 of each design, but we’re definitely going to have made more by the time of the artist market. So far, it should start. I don’t know about you, but I want to keep selling them after the artist market when she goes to high school. Keep doing them.

[0:12:09] Rico Figliolini: Do you have an Instagram account? Do you have a place where you show off your artwork online?

[0:12:16] Anastasia Lamas: Not really. We all have just our personal Instagram account.

[0:12:20] Rico Figliolini: Got you. Freddie, the same for you, I’m assuming.

[0:12:23] Freddie Reinhard: I’ve decided that if these sell well, I’m going to make an Instagram account. So however well this art market goes, will decide if I post these on an Instagram account or not.

[0:12:34] Rico Figliolini: Got you. Okay, so a little bit about you all personally? A little bit, I guess. Let’s start with Freddie. Do you have a favorite artist or filmmaker or author that you’d like to share?

[0:12:51] Freddie Reinhard: Well, I have, like, fashion icon who I’m just obsessed with, and she really inspires me. Just so creative and so cool. Her name is Rebecca Cohen, and she’s the owner of this brand that I love called Love Check Fancy. I’m sure they probably know what that is. And she’s so girly and feminine, and I just admire it so much about her. And she just made this huge brand that everybody my age and around my age loves, and I just want to be her when I’m older, and I just love her distinct style.

[0:13:28] Rico Figliolini: And that’s called love. What is that called? Love Shack.

[0:13:30] Freddie Reinhard: LoveShackFancy.

[0:13:34] Rico Figliolini: Cool.

[0:13:34] Freddie Reinhard: She’s the queen of the world in my eyes.

[0:13:37] Rico Figliolini: Really? Okay. I haven’t heard of that one yet. My daughter tries to keep me abreast of things, but that one I haven’t heard. What about you two? Julianna, Anastasia. Do you have any artists or brands or styles that you follow that you like?

[0:13:54] Anastasia Lamas: Nothing in particular. I’m a giant bookworm, so I read, like, a lot. And a variety of genres.

[0:14:02] Rico Figliolini: What’s your favorite genre? Top two genres, I guess.

[0:14:08] Anastasia Lamas: Probably right now, fantasy and romance.

[0:14:10] Rico Figliolini: Okay. And your sister Juliana?

[0:14:14] Juliana Lamas: For me, probably someone I really love and look up to is Selena Gomez, because I’ve been seeing it on Instagram recently. I think she’s really inspirational and stuff.

[0:14:26] Rico Figliolini: She was the actress in Wednesday, right? On Netflix? Or am I thinking of someone else?

[0:14:33] Anastasia Lamas: Yeah, Jenny Ortega.

[0:14:35] Rico Figliolini: Yeah, that was Ortega. Sorry. All right, cool. So what do you want to share that we haven’t talked about yet, related to the artwork and stuff that you do, process or anything like that? What’s the most difficult thing? What’s the thing that you’ve done that you thought was great and all of a sudden you’re like, yeah, let’s try something else, and you start from scratch again. Let’s start with Freddie. She looks like she already knows something.

[0:15:05] Freddie Reinhard: Well, I think you’re probably asking something a little different, but through this button process, I thought it was going to be so easy. I thought I would just be, like, clamp and it would be done. My palms were sore after I was doing it. It’s actually hard work. And my mom kept trying to show me how to do it. We failed at, like, ten buttons in a row. So that’s definitely a lot harder than I expected. This whole artist market, I’m excited for it, but it’s definitely a lot of work.

[0:15:33] Rico Figliolini: But I know, yeah, the button machines are definitely I’ve done that before for political things, it’s not easy. What about you girls? Have you had stuff during your process that you found difficult or had to start all over again on?

[0:15:55] Anastasia Lamas: I think it’s just a lot of time to paint the shells with so many layers and just letting it all dry takes hours. Just keeping on going and going and going. And we’re trying to make all of them perfect. So that just takes a little bit of extra time. And then also, since we’re kind of working together on this, we both have our own different styles, so we kind of intervene and we both like, oh, but I think it looks better like this, better like that, or whatever.

[0:16:32] Rico Figliolini: Did you ever decide to okay, this shell is mine. I’m going to put my initials on it because do you do individual shells like that? This one’s my creative thing.

[0:16:43] Anastasia Lamas: Not really. I really enjoy doing the cross oyster shells, though, so I usually stick to those.

[0:16:46] And I really like doing the notes, the music notes and the joy one. So we each have our shells that we work on.

[0:16:59] Rico Figliolini: Okay. All right, Freddie, when you’re doing the work that you’re doing, I know you’re using digital, so is that easier to do that? I mean, when you’re creating patterns and all that? I imagine some of the process is easier, but also that gives you a little bit more creative space, maybe.

[0:17:15] Freddie Reinhard: Well, I prefer doing lettering on paper. I still enjoy it because it’s easier to just erase things and clear. But if I could, I would definitely prefer paper for just doing my lettering. But for the pattern and such. Like the cherries, I just have to draw one and then just duplicate a bunch. So it’s way easier than if I had to do every single cherry. And then for these prints, it’s so much easier when I can just kind of just fill this hat in with one click instead of, of course, drawing in the whole thing. So in some ways it’s easier. Other ways I feel, if it was all handmade, if it was all made on paper, I think it would have more of like I don’t know, I feel like it has your hand more in it. As my art teacher would say, you could tell it’s from me because you could tell it’s drawn on paper. So that aspect I kind of miss, but definitely easier for math, product, to do digital.

[0:18:16] Rico Figliolini: Have you ever thought about I know 3D printing is like, the big thing now, and I’ve seen artists use 3D printing, actually. Have you thought about that?

[0:18:25] Freddie Reinhard: No, I haven’t. I know we have a few at Wesleyan, but I didn’t even get into consideration. That is a really good idea, that would be really cool. Maybe I will start trying to figure that out.

[0:18:36] Rico Figliolini: It doesn’t take much on some of that. Some of that is just fed these templates. But you can feed your creativeness into that template. You can customize some of these templates. So that’s just another avenue of art. Same thing. I guess for that you could 3D print shells, but then what’s the point, right? I guess those shells might have been out in the ocean for like, 100 years before they got to you or whatever. However long. So there’s some history to that, maybe even that’s unknown to anyone. Have you ever thought about doing your work, girls, on other materials besides shells?

[0:19:20] Anastasia Lamas: We haven’t really. We’ve mostly just stuck with the oyster shells.

[0:19:26] Rico Figliolini: Okay.

[0:19:27] Anastasia Lamas: Yeah, it would be interesting to see how it would work on other mediums.

[0:19:32] Rico Figliolini: Yeah, probably. Well, I’m assuming you’re taking art courses or you’ve taken art courses at Wesleyan?

[0:19:41] Anastasia Lamas: We were both in digital art last semester, and we both really enjoyed that.

[0:19:45] Juliana Lamas: I took it in fifth grade and 6th grade. Just normal art. And then I did digital art, and now I’m in technology class.

[0:19:57] Rico Figliolini: Cool. And are you liking it? Is it everything you thought it would be? What about Freddie? Freddie, what about you? I mean, you’ve been in three and a half years of AP Art course. Because of that, you probably have done different mediums, different subjects and stuff. How’d that go? And did that help with what you’re doing now? Any of that?

[0:20:18] Freddie Reinhard: Yeah, I’m going to have to think back to freshman year. I think it was 3D art, and I got stopped midway because of COVID. But I like that, it’s not my thing. I enjoyed it because it’s fun to do, but I don’t know, I just prefer doing things too deep. And then I’ve been on digital art as well, which I love. That was like so much fun. And so from then I was like, yeah, I think this is my thing. So I started getting into that. And I do some digital art on my AP Art stuff now. I don’t know, I’ll doodle on some of my pictures and I do a lot of mixed media, so that also helped with my creativeness, I guess. Too much to count.

[0:21:04] Rico Figliolini: And doodling in the classrooms. That helps, too, a little bit.

[0:21:09] Freddie Reinhard: Yes, definitely does.

[0:21:11] Rico Figliolini: Let’s make sure the teachers don’t hear that. I’ve covered quite a bit with you three. If you want to share anything else with the audience that will be listening to this, want to start that with Freddie and we’ll go the other way.

[0:21:29] Freddie Reinhard: I don’t have too much more to share, but I’d say to you two girls that you should definitely take AP Art because it is just such a great way to really learn your style and just do so much stuff you’ve always wanted to do. And it just helps with who you want to be as an artist, definitely.

[0:21:47] Rico Figliolini: Have you done any, the girls do dance and gymnastics. Have you done anything along those lines? I mean, that’s one creative aspect. Right. Have you done anything similar?

[0:21:57] Freddie Reinhard: Well, this year I actually did the musical for the first time. I’ve never done musical theater, but it was just me and my two best friends, and so that was just a great experience. Overall, we had the best time, and I’ve never been in an environment like that, and it was just so much fun. And then right now, I’m doing lacrosse, and in the fall, I do cross country.

[0:22:16] Rico Figliolini: Wow. Okay. Busy schedule. Sounds good. What about Juliana and Anastasia? It’s gymnastics and dance?

[0:22:28] Anastasia Lamas: Our main things are gymnastics and dance, but we do other sports too. She’s in the musical, and I do lacrosse and cheerleading and all that stuff.

[0:22:41] Rico Figliolini: It’s amazing how much activity girls have. I don’t know how, so what do you do to unwind then? I mean, you have schoolwork, you have artwork, you have sports. What is it that you do that’s not associated that way, to sort of do something different? Anything?

[0:23:03] Freddie Reinhard: For me, it’s honestly just, like I really get my energy from my friends, so I’ll definitely try to hang out with my friends in the little free time that I have, because they just bring me so much joy. And also hanging out with my parents since I’m going to college next year. I know I’ve got to savor these last few months, so I just make sure if I’m home during a school night, I’ll definitely go and just hang out with them and talk with them.

[0:23:31] Rico Figliolini: That’s cool. That’s a good daughter. Thank you. My kids do that. What about you girls? Juliana? Anastasia?

[0:23:39] Anastasia Lamas: Well, we try to do stuff as a family. Like family movie nights and stuff on weekdays and weekends when we aren’t super crammed schedule.

[0:23:50] Rico Figliolini: Yeah. Wesleyan kids, Great Atlanta Christian, The kids that I’ve interviewed and stuff always busy. Norcross high school. I don’t think any kids that I’ve interviewed have had more than a night or two free because of academics and sports and everything else. They’re there. But you know what? Your future is secured when you do that. I think you develop a different way of looking at life and become more successful that way. So glad you three were able to spend some time with me. This took a little time to get this together. Mostly my fault on the scheduling, but I appreciate you three showing up and doing this interview with us.

[0:24:32] Freddie Reinhard: Yeah, it was awesome.

[0:24:34] Rico Figliolini: Thank you. Hang in there with me for a minute. I just want to say thank you to everyone that’s been watching this. So the Wesleyan Artist Market is at the end of this month, and you just Google Wesleyan Artist Market, and you’ll be able to find the schedule and everything else from there. Follow them on Instagram there are going to be 75 artists from around the country there as well, besides the student artists. So there’s a lot of stuff, a lot of mediums. Check out the latest issue of Peachtree Corners magazine. You’ll see three of the artists of the 75 that will be there. It’s some good feature stories. And there’s a podcast interview also with Jennifer Keim, another adult artist that is going to be showing there. So thank you. And thank you to EV Remodeling for being a sponsor of ours. So thank you all. Take care.

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