Illustration by Paige Brubeck
Paige Brubeck and Evan Sult make up Sleepy Kitty Music, a band, and Sleepy Kitty Arts, a design and screenprinting concern. Headquartered in the City’s South Side, the pair’s also the principal creative staffers on Eleven magazine, with Brubeck curating a cool, monthly series dedicated to local flyer art.
A mainstay in both the music and art scenes of town since moving back to the St. Louis region from Chicago, Brubeck’s our second Eleven artist highlighted, following “Watcherrr” writer/illustrator Curtis Tinsley, profiled in our prior, ever-other-week interview with St. Louis visual artists.
As always, we ask the same seven questions and look forward to what arrives back. Here’re the newest responses, compliments of one-half of the Sleepy Kitty’s tireless duo.
Art school? Self-taught? Some variety of both? Or none of the above?
I've been drawing and painting and singing as long as I can remember, but I did go to art school for college. I went to School of the Art Institute Chicago. Those four years were some of the most interesting years of my life. Everything you've ever heard about art school is true.
Regarding your creative habits, are you a night owl or an early bird?
It kind of depends. When Sleepy Kitty is on tour, I kind of have to be a night owl, and I currently live near a loud club, so I had to adapt to that schedule a bit. But I guess I'm a little of both naturally, though. I love working on art and songwriting in the day. I love working in natural light. I like being up early when I can be, but I also can easily work till night turns to dawn when I'm really in the zone. And I'm not one of those people who can function on very little sleep, so my schedule is always shifting.
In basic terms, can you describe the set up and vibe of your studio?
“Vintage” is the first word that comes to mind, and “efficient” is the second. A lot of the furniture and tools have come from all sorts of places. We've acquired lots of useful tools through trades and friends. We've repurposed pieces to be useful to us, too. Our light table for burning screens is a glass sliding door and two bookshelves we found by the dumpster in the alley of our Chicago apartment. That glass door started it all. We use old bodega signs that were dumpster-bound to divide up our space, and our space is basically separated into a "dry" office zone (with our books and drawing supplies) and the "wet" studio zone (with our paints and screenprinting inks and a power washout sink area that my dad did an excellent job in building). Our visual art space, and our band rehearsal space are in separate areas, and I like it that way. It helps me fully focus, and helps the practice space be set up best for music and the art space for art. They've always been very different working styles for me.
What are your thoughts on crowdfunding for the arts? And is that option any part of your own approach to creating and selling work?
It's not something I've ever done or been comfortable with myself for my own projects, but I do realize that that is a way people are getting projects made. I think everyone needs to do what works for them. It's something I've always kind of kept in reserve, in case it seems like the best way to pull off a certain special project or something, but so far I've always tried to solve things other ways.
Do you have a dream project that lacks only funding (or time)?
Like one a day! These are a few I've been thinking about:
1) Twenty-four hour indoor basketball gym that kids 18 and under living in 63118 have free access to and can go there and hang out whenever.
2) A boutique hotel chain targeted to touring musicians who are still on a budget. Sleepy Kitty spends a lot of time in Super 8s and Days Inns, etc., on tour and I've really become aware of what I need and don't need. Ideally this place would be priced like a Super 8, but no TVs in the rooms or cable, no pool or fitness center to maintain or anything like that. It would have a noon check out, and instead of breakfast ending at 9 it would end at 10 or 11 and be a sensible vegan or vegetarian breakfast. There might also be a little practice amp in the room, and yoga mats available at the front desk.
3) I'd like to see a shuttle system that goes between all of the St. Louis venues maybe Wednesdays through Saturdays. It could start at like 6 p.m., and hit Off Broadway, then Firebird, then the Loop for the Pageant and Blueberry Hill, and so on. It just goes between venues from 6 p.m. till 1:30 a.m. In my opinion the biggest thing holding St. Louis back is its lack of a useful public transit system. This could help cut down on drunk driving, and help people get from one show to the next and connect the music scene to itself. Maybe it would be membership-based? You pay a flat monthly fee, and you can ride the rock trolley any time. It would have to be a reasonable fee though. Like $12 or $15 month or something. Musicians don't have a lot of extra money to throw around.
To what degree do you enjoy having public contact, whether that means selling your work at a fair, a gallery opening, etc.?
I personally really like the gallery setting. I think it's a great way to see art and see the difference between a piece in progress in the studio, and then see it in a neutral place like a gallery. I know other people would argue it, but I still think of galleries as neutral viewing environments. I love showing, sharing, and selling work, though. It helps it feel complete, to release it. For our band, I love getting our recordings out there. Hearing Sleepy Kitty on KDHX is one of my favorite things, and getting to do Laser Kitty at the Planetarium was a career high point for sure!
What other St. Louis artists inspire or motivate you?
I love David Langley's work. He's one of my favorite visual artists right now. I also really love Sarah Paulsen’s and Cameron Fuller's work. Also, I haven't seen his work in a while, but David Wolk of Cranky Yellow. Peat Wollaeger and Chris Sabatino both have very distinct styles and are always such hard workers. They're really inspiring. Also, of course, anybody working on the City Museum. Music wise, Jenn Malzone is a songwriting machine! I don't know how she does it, but she is insanely prolific and her songs are great. Also, the new Popular Mechanics album Anti-Glacial has been blowing my mind. Their album artwork looks fantastic, too.
