Christian Solorzano [00:49]

Hi, you're listening to Underscore, a show by the Chicago Graphic Design Club. I'm your host, Christian Solorzano, and today I'm joined by co-host Hamid Alavi.

Hamid Alavi [01:01]

Together we speak with guest Violet Luczak, an artist, educator, and designer who currently directs the graphic design program at McHenry County College. In our conversation, Violet takes us through her path from graphic design to fine art, exploring how her formal design training influences her style that employs digital-like precision across her paintings.

Christian Solorzano [01:27]

In 2019, she was featured in the online publication it's Nice that, which highlighted her work centered on big dairy, capitalism, nutrition, and social awareness through a surrealist lens. What particularly fascinated me was Violet's creative process. Rather than beginning with visual references, she collects words and phrases Snippets of conversations, song lyrics, or random sentences that serve as a foundation for her creative explorations.

Hamid Alavi [01:57]

Violet offers candid insight about her transition away from commercial design. While she has a deep appreciation for design principles, she found the professional industry less fulfilling than her current teaching and independent practice balance.

Christian Solorzano [02:14]

Most recently, she opened a new space dedicated to her art and community engagement. Which reflects her evolution towards more experimental and interactive work, demonstrating her commitment to pushing her practice in new directions. We hope you enjoy this conversation with Violet. If you enjoy the show, please rate us wherever you listen. Thank you, and we'll talk to you soon. Hey Violet, good afternoon.

Nice to see you again, and thank you for taking the time to speak with Hamid and I, we recently saw each other at Typeforce a few weeks ago now. The first time that I met you was at your studio at Mana. I think it was during the open studio hours last year in 2024. And I am curious about what's the state of your studio today?

Violet Luczak [03:07]

Yeah. So when you, when you saw me, I was at Mana, which was great. I was with a few other of my friends. We all Shared studios when we were at the Chicago Art Department right before that. So after our residency ended, we joined forces and got a studio together at Mana. And just within the past 6 months, I got my own studio, which is exciting, but a lot of work. So it's not really set up yet. It's still in progress.

Christian Solorzano [03:35]

And right now, the listener can't see this, but you're in a very creative-looking room at the moment. Do you have a— so you teach at—

Violet Luczak [03:46]

Yeah, McHenry County College.

Christian Solorzano [03:47]

Do you have a studio there as well?

Violet Luczak [03:48]

No, I don't have a studio here. I have— I just work in my classrooms. But when I'm here, I'm mostly teaching. I'm not doing a lot of, my own creative work. So that's more done in my home studio.

Christian Solorzano [04:01]

And looking through your work, there's a lot of Visuals of rest. There's a lot of rest that's expressed throughout your subject matter. I would love to know if you keep your work separate from your home, because given that you have a studio, do you separate— is your home— you don't work at home? It's just there's a boundary there?

Violet Luczak [04:28]

I hate working from home. I've always hated it. During COVID it sucked working in my kitchen and living room and having no separation. I'm also really messy when I work, so I hate having any non-studio stuff around because I like to be able to be messy without destroying things that I care about. So I very much need that space. My new studio now is a storefront, and then I live in the back. So even though they're— They're connected, but they're 2 separate spaces.

Christian Solorzano [05:04]

But you have easy access. You could go back and forth.

Violet Luczak [05:07]

Yeah, it's like a 10-second commute, so.

Christian Solorzano [05:08]

I don't have a studio, but I work from home, and I work— everything happens in my home. And sometimes those lines get very blurry, and you kind of wake up and you feel like you're in your office already.

Violet Luczak [05:23]

Yeah, part of me is nervous because I've never had a studio that's close to me. When I was at Mana, it took me a good 30 minutes to get there, which was great because the only thing I had to do to motivate myself was get in the car and get there. And then once I was there, I didn't really have a choice because it— I wasn't going to stay for an hour because it takes me 30 minutes to get there.

So having the commute was like the way I would start the creative process was literally driving there. Now that I don't have to do that, I'm a little worried about—

How that will work. I think it'll be fine. I just— the way I'm setting up my studio is to encourage me to stay in that space. So I have my little fridge in there and a little setup to eat so that I'm not leaving the space to go have lunch, but instead I'm staying in the space. That way it feels like I'm not at home.

Christian Solorzano [06:18]

And when it comes to having your own space, your own studio space, do you have any must-haves? Or like, well, can you paint a picture for the listener of what are some of the objects or items that Violet needs to make a space feel like it's hers?

Violet Luczak [06:38]

Again, it's in process right now, but I think my space looks a little unique. When I was in grad school, people made fun of me for my space because it didn't look like the other studio spaces because I love tables and I paint. In a really uncomfortable position, which you're not supposed to do. And I paint on flat tables, which is bad for your back and bad for your body. And that's why most people paint on walls. But I can't do that.

I have to be on a flat surface. And I'm doing a lot of things at once. So I like to be surrounded by, I think right now I was setting up and I have 6 tables and they're all pretty large and I'm just surrounded by tables as I'm working. But yeah, I need a lot of flat space, and I'm still setting up right now. I'm trying to figure out how to install a utility sink, like figure out how plumbing works, like other things that I need.

But yeah, I just, I need a space where I can be messy and not have to worry about it because, we'll probably talk about it, but I make very clean work.

And then my studio is the opposite because I'm hyper-focusing on what I'm doing. So I'll make the mistake of, oh, I only need to paint for 10 minutes, so I'm not going to change into painting clothes. And then I destroy whatever I'm wearing, even though it's only a few minutes, because I'm so focused on painting a small detail that I'll just wipe stuff on the table or on my clothes or knock something over.

And because the timing of the painting is so important, I'll just let that exist as a mess. So that I don't mess up the actual work. So I like, yeah, I like for it to be messy and that paint can fly and I don't care about that, right? So, the stuff I have in my studio is all used stuff because I don't necessarily take the best care of it in that way. But it's nice, right?

It's nice not to have things fresh and clean because now you're not so nervous to use it.

Christian Solorzano [08:44]

And you don't have to be so precious about it. It reminds me of how sometimes if you get a brand new notebook, you're afraid to use it because it's so perfect. And you're like, as soon as I write something in it, it's ruined. So I've heard that some people just scribble on the first page just to ruin it and just get that pressure out of their system.

Violet Luczak [09:08]

That's a good example. Yeah, I'm a person who just has a bunch of empty journals because I don't want to mess them up. Setting up my space right now, I put down some linoleum flooring because it's waterproof, it's super easy to clean up. And I was painting some pipes in there for something, and I was being so cautious about getting paint on the floor.

And I was like, I should just mess it up now because it'll make it easier later, and I'll be able to get into it more because I already made the first drip.

Christian Solorzano [09:40]

I'm always very interested in learning about designers' and artists' childhood and whether there's always been— whether it's always been— yeah, just in general, have you always had a fascination with making, with visual storytelling? And is there an early memory that you have of the first time that either something really made an impression on you?

Hamid Alavi [10:11]

Yeah.

Christian Solorzano [10:12]

Or the first time that you made something?

Violet Luczak [10:15]

The first time I remember making something that I really enjoyed was making birdhouses with my grandpa. And I loved, physically putting something together. And I was really young at that point, so I wasn't, cutting out the wood or anything, but I was holding there, standing there waiting for the goo to dry and trying to build something 3-dimensional and yeah, I loved it. Other than that, I feel like it's fairly traditional. I was an art kid?

I took art classes and fell into that, I feel like, almost typical, middle school art kid vibe.

Christian Solorzano [10:49]

What were you into as a teenager?

Violet Luczak [10:52]

Middle school and mostly high school, the first thing that comes to mind is I was very into punk. Punk kid. But I was also an art kid, so it was punk but combined with, ultra nerdy. Art kid vibes. And I was just a perfectionist. I still kind of am, where I overdid it on everything, right? I overstudied and I overprepared. To get a B would've been the end of the world. It's just, I was a highly anxious teenager.

Yeah, I think that even translated into the work that I was doing then, which was— Not what I'm doing now, but it was still like— fairly clean, right? It wasn't a very— I never had a very messy style because I think it was just like a way for me to organize everything in my mind.

Christian Solorzano [11:40]

And the themes or some of the— so for example, like your background is in graphic design and I've heard you speak about how your process sometimes involves starting digitally and you do your thing in Illustrator and then you kind of use that as your reference point for what you paint. And is that still your process?

Violet Luczak [12:06]

So, early art career is really high school, right? So everything I'm doing then is traditional art. I didn't take any graphic classes. I don't even think we offered any type of design classes when I was in high school. So everything was traditional art. And I worked a lot with oil paints when I was young. That was my favorite thing to use. And then when I started undergrad, I had to figure out what I wanted to do.

So I just was like, well, I'll just study art and then I'll study business because I don't know what else to do. But I like art, but my dad says I have to make money, so I'll study art and business. And then through that, I was required to take a graphic design class. So it was never something I was like, I'm going to do this.

But I took it and I loved it, and I think it just fit my personality really well. Again, I like things to be clean, and that's what design is often about, right? The things you learn and little details and just paying attention to all these small things. And I, yeah, I don't know, I really liked it and I was good at it. So then I just did design for a while and I stopped doing any type of fine art. Because everything was just digital.

And I learned, any type of higher ed, I learned on the computer. So I never took, formal painting or drawing classes really in college. I learned on the computer. So, learning the fundamentals of drawing was learning on Illustrator. So I got more used to drawing with digital tools than, with a pencil. I'll still say now, I'm not good at drawing. I'm not— it's not my skill. You hand me a pencil and I draw stick figures.

I can paint, but painting doesn't mean that you know how to draw. It's not the same thing. People play like Pictionary with me and they're like, you're supposed to know how to do this. And I was like, I never said— I never said I was good at this. Yeah, so I just— I learned all of the fundamental techniques on digital software.

I learned to brainstorm digitally, so I never did a lot of sketches by hand. I did everything digitally. So I was used to being able to come up with multiple ideas and copying, pasting, and making small changes without redrawing everything 16 times. So that's still how my brain works. I still— any idea I have, it starts digitally. But to me, it's the same as if you were brainstorming on paper, right? It's the brainstorming phase. I'm just trying to put out ideas.

But instead of using a pencil, I'm using the pen tool. And then I got back into painting, not until after that. It wasn't until I went to grad school, and I went to a very conceptual grad school where I was in the 2D program, but no one touched computers in the 2D program, like their graphic design program. I was kind of forced to try something that wasn't digital. And that's when I started painting again because I was like, well, I did that when I was young.

I could try painting again.

Christian Solorzano [15:14]

So today you teach full-time and then you also run your art practice in addition to that. But for a while you were doing some commercial work. You were working with clients and you were doing the whole businessy side of design. And I want to know if it was a conscious, decision to leave that world and just say, you know what, I'm going to go teach and I'm done with this, with the commercial side of things?

Violet Luczak [15:46]

Yeah, I feel like I shouldn't say this because I teach students to enter the workforce as designers, but I kind of— I won't kind of— I hate graphic design. I hate the professional part of it. The parts of design that I like, I took with me into my own practice, but I couldn't stand just the— I think the shock was how little you actually design as a designer.

The time at my computer designing was only maybe 30% of the day, and the rest was meetings and… Like marketing strategies and things I just honestly just don't care about. And yeah, I didn't like it. So now I am in a very lucky space where I get to be really picky about the design work that I make because I'm not relying on it as an income. So now I still freelance and do design work, but it's really fun illustrative design work.

Where it's really more about the creative process than anything else. And in an interesting way, I think I'm hired more as a designer— or I work as a designer, but I'm really hired as more of an artist who does design. So, there's a different expectation of what you make than a designer who you hire to make your identity and your own— logo and your brand assets and all of that stuff. Yeah, I don't think I liked the professional world of graphic design.

I like the tactile aspects of design. I just ended up translating that into fine artwork that I do, which I still consider graphic design. Except that in the context of the art world, you're making it for yourself, or at least based on your experiences, not as a for-hire.

Christian Solorzano [18:00]

Before you were at McHenry County College, you were also teaching. You were teaching at DePaul as well. And how did teaching become kind of like your calling? And was there an instance where you found yourself leading a workshop, or what was that? That spark that made you want to just focus on that?

Violet Luczak [18:21]

Yeah, my mom is a teacher. My sister, who's similar age, ended up going into teaching. It seems to be something that we all like to do. When I made the choice to go to graduate school, it was because there were multiple reasons, but a large portion of that was, well, I kind of want to go get my graduate degree, and it can't hurt because I need my MFA to teach, so I might as well get it.

Where it would have maybe been a harder thing to commit to if I was only doing it because I wanted to continue my education, only because there's other opportunities to do that aren't a graduate program. It was like at the back of my head, I was like, well, now I can always teach if I want to because I have this degree.

And then I also wanted to go just because my undergrad was— it was kind of— it was design, but it was really through like a business lens. It wasn't through an art lens. And I just wanted more of the art background. So I was able to do both of those things. By going to school. And then, I don't know, I've just kind of always taught, even in just like in non-formal settings, right?

I don't know, when I was in school, even undergrad, students would ask for help and I liked helping and I was fairly good at explaining things. And I found some sort of joy in that. So I Was kind of like the go-to person for a lot of like, oh, how to use this tool or how to do this. And even like things that weren't related to design. When I was in grad school, we had a riso and no one knew how to use it.

So I learned how to use it and how to fix the machine and things like that. And I had a lot of fun just teaching that to other people. I was like, look at this cool thing, like this cool machine we can use, and we have all these fun colors and you can make all these fun things. And a lot of those times, it wasn't like a— it wasn't like a teacher-student thing. It was more like just peer-to-peer teaching each other how to do things.

I'm sort of just like having a collaborative learning experience, which I just always was drawn to. But I love it. I love teaching, whether it's in class or— I do, I'll lead workshops here and there, or I don't know. Anytime someone has asked me to really do something like that, I've almost always wanted to do it because it's just fun.

Christian Solorzano [21:04]

Yeah, it is fun. I also started teaching not too long ago, and I enjoy it a lot.

Violet Luczak [21:10]

And you learn so much. I learned so much from my students that, influenced my work to a degree I didn't know it could. And now, it's like if I Stopped teaching, what would that do to my practice? Whether it's learning, technical skills for my students, or it's learning how to be excited to do something. Things are still shiny and new when you haven't been in this field for a long time, and then you forget that.

Things are less exciting. But then when you see it through the lens of someone who's so psyched to get to do these things. I'm like, yeah, I want to go home and make stuff too. That's great.

Christian Solorzano [21:54]

And you run the entire graphic design program at your school, right? Is that a lot of pressure?

Violet Luczak [22:00]

No, it really isn't. It's actually, I don't know, it's such a cool opportunity. I am young and I am young in my teaching career, so it's pretty rare to have an opportunity where you can build a program the way that you want yeah. Usually, you're thrown into something that already exists and you have to kind of find your place in that structure.

But I was brought on because essentially the department had inherited this design program and they didn't have a designer to run it or anyone with design experience. So they wanted someone to come in and, update all the classes and rewrite classes and add new ones to make sure that it was current so that students could get their degree and go find work. And it's actually, it's a lot. It's definitely a lot of work, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

It's such a rare and incredible experience that I've been able to do that. Still, this is my 5th, 6th year of teaching, at all. And I am already in this position where I get to make something new. And yeah, and I think it makes me really passionate about my job. We were talking earlier, the joke of how far I commute, but it's so easy to deal with that commute because I love my work so much.

I love going to school, and I love teaching, and I love my program. So having— yes, you build something and it really means a lot to you. Yeah, it just gets me excited to do things. I just have such an incredibly wonderful department that really trusts their faculty and believes in their faculty. Yeah, I don't get all of this pushback. If anything, I get criticism, but in a really helpful way. It's not criticism that's to prevent me from doing anything.

It's only to make sure that as I continue to grow the program, I'm thinking about these things. But yeah, the general environment is to keep building the program and to keep trying to make it as strong as I can. So I have a lot of support for that.

Christian Solorzano [24:25]

So can we talk about your art and your paintings? Walk us through the process of how does an idea come to you? Do you have to be in the environment that fosters the idea? Do the ideas come to you in your sleep? How do you determine which idea to bring to life?

Violet Luczak [24:48]

I think a lot in words, which is interesting because I'm a visual designer. I'm a visual artist. I don't write a lot. Right? But I just, I think a lot in words. I am able to come up with more ideas when I am just saying things out loud than I am by looking at things around me. So a lot of my ideas just come from words that I hear.

I make a big notebook on my, the Notepad app on my phone where I just fill it up with random sentences I hear or an interesting word that I hear.

An interesting lyric that I hear. I don't know. It could be literally anything. Obviously, there's something inside of me that decides which of those things I think are interesting, and they tend to have a common thread just because it's the things that interest me are the things that I'm making work about. And yeah, I don't have to work very hard to find that thread because it's just kind of part of who I am, right? But yeah, it's a lot of language.

If I'm feeling really stuck, I read. That's how I will get unstuck. I'll read, or I will just, literally shuffle my music, but I'll put the lyrics on my phone and just read them as they're going. And, what sticks out to me to try to, start my brain that I'm able to come up with different ideas. One thing I learned in grad school was, one of the best pieces of advice I received was that I was very thesis-driven.

I thought I had to always have this really grand idea and all of this research behind it, and then that my design work was like a visual version of that research, which was just a lot of pressure anytime I wanted to make something, that it had to be this, grandiose idea.

Then I— we had we were just having conversations, and someone who was visiting my studio was just well, you don't need to do that because what you care about or what matters to you will just naturally come out. It'll come out whether you plan for it or not. It's ended up being true, and it's allowed me to just produce more work because I'm not so— I can just have an idea and I'll just go for it.

And then I figure out a lot about what that work's supposed to be as I'm making it, or a lot of times after the fact, which is interesting. A big part of my process is after I finish a piece of work is just to sit it on the floor and sit there with it and just, stare at it for a while. Why did I do this?

Christian Solorzano [27:30]

Yeah.

Violet Luczak [27:31]

What was going on inside my head when I was making it? And it takes me a long time to figure out what it's actually about. Whenever I have, a show or something where I'm working up until the deadline, it's kind of an odd sense because the show will be up and I won't know what it's about. Everyone will ask you, right? What's your show about? Write a statement, do this.

And, to the best of my ability, I will, but it takes a while to actually think about why I am making these things.

Which is kind of, actually kind of cool, right? It goes back to the whole idea of artists and designers just have to make for the sake of making. We just don't know how not to be making something. We don't know how to be part of the world without making. It's like how, at least for me, like how I process things and how I sort through everything that's going on in my mind and in my body is just through the work that I'm making.

So that's kind of how, yeah, that's like how the ideas stem from is really like language and then just how I'm feeling. I make most— not most, all of my work in some way represents myself or represents my experience, right? So it's all very— maybe not very specific, but somewhat specific to me. So it's not that hard to make instead of maybe trying to make something that's about something I don't really understand.

Christian Solorzano [28:59]

You made a body of work that was inspired by being a vegetarian. And you became vegetarian when you were 10 years old and you watched an awful video. I had this— I had a similar story. I became vegetarian not when I was 10, but I think I was like 13 or 14. I would love to have you speak about— you mentioned being drawn to words. What are some of those themes?

There's definitely like a common thread throughout your work, and I would love to have you explain however much you want to explain.

Violet Luczak [29:40]

So the series that you are referencing, the series I titled Your Ass Sucks Buttermilk, and that was a series I started in graduate school, but it lasted way through that, right? And it kept changing, right? But it was all started from the same idea, which was I was entering my second year of grad school. I had before that, when I just started painting, they were just very designy to a fault. It was just look at these shapes. They were boring. I just didn't care about them.

They were not descriptive in any way. And I was like, I want to make stuff that's more narrative. But I didn't know how to do that. I'd never painted that way before. So I was like, well, I'm a vegan. That's something I care about. What about, what if I try starting with that as an idea?

Hamid Alavi [30:31]

Yeah.

Violet Luczak [30:33]

And then the language thing, your ass sucks buttermilk, is this ridiculous saying that my grandfather used to say. And we have no clue where it came from. I have done extensive Googling on this phrase. It doesn't exist anywhere else, but he would get mad at you and just say your ass sucks buttermilk. What a weird thing to say. Exactly. So it's like it stuck with me forever. And I was like, oh, this is so obvious that this has to be where it starts.

So I started that series. Again, not knowing where to start. And I started with just thinking about very basic imagery about veganism, right? And then I started thinking about sayings. I'm really into wordplay, right? One of my favorite things is titling my work because I like to make really ridiculous names. But so I was thinking of, I'll start with puns, like puns about dairy, which were really kind of ridiculous in retrospect. Some of the stuff I made, I'm like, what was I thinking?

Christian Solorzano [31:29]

Yeah.

Violet Luczak [31:30]

But it was all for a reason, right? It got me to where I am. But so that's how it started with all this wordplay. And then what is cool is, again, because I'm just naturally making this work, it's becoming something else whether I want it to or not. So it started to become more about— I really don't know how to say this in a way that doesn't sound cliché, so I'm just gonna say it the way I know how to say it, right?

It became more about, like, my experience as a woman, right? It kind of turned into this thing because it's not something I can escape, right? So, the milk started to become, instead of being about, concerning about, the reason any of this, I started my diet was I was, concerned about animal rights, right?

So that's where it started from, but then it became more of a symbol for other things, right? So, the dairy became more of a symbol of, fertility and, womanhood and all these other things. And it just slowly progressed where instead of having imageries of cows, it was images of women, right? And things like that. And at that point, I genuinely didn't really realize I was doing that. I just kind of started doing it 'cause I was just trying to brainstorm ideas.

And I watched a lot of those Got Milk '90s commercials. I loved the language in those. They're ridiculous. There's the one, where it's like the lady's a witch, and then she drinks milk, and it's like she becomes all happy and like a princess again, because the whole— the myth, which is incorrect, was that milk would reduce PMS symptoms.

So that all led into a piece that I made called Say Yes to Less PMS, right? And it was like this weird trippy. Painting. And then my favorite one, and one of my favorite pieces that I made to this day, was based off of a commercial where this— so it's a Got Milk commercial, and basically it starts with this kid at the kitchen table, and mom was like, you need to drink your milk. The kid doesn't want to drink his milk.

And outside the window, you see the neighbor, and he's got a wheelbarrow, and he's working on his yard. And the kid is like, I forget the— I don't remember what the guy's name was, but he's like, Mr. Wilson or whatever his name is, doesn't drink milk and he's fine. And then they zoom over to him and he picks up the wheelbarrow and his arms just rip off. And they're still attached to the wheelbarrow, but like not to him. And he just screams.

And then it zooms into the kid whose eyes pop out like bug-eyed and he just chugs his milk.

And I was like, this is just incredible. A scare tactic to get kids to drink milk? What's better? So then I made a piece that was called Drink Milk, Your Arms Will Fall Off, very literal to the commercial, which was visually incredibly different than the commercial, right? Because it was, again, it was more like, it was like nude women that were like, I don't know, like some body like their arms were falling off, like ridiculous things like that.

And I don't— like, that's just where my mind went. I don't know, right? So then that kept going, and then it like— the dairy symbolism went away, right? And then it became more about this other thing. So it's where exactly that series stops and where something else starts is kind of blurry.

But one of my favorite stories or memories was that I was— I had a piece, just one piece in a group show, and someone heard me talking and connected the dots that I made the piece.

And they came up to me and they're like, oh, you're the dairy girl. They'd seen my work at other places. And I was like, that's it. We're done with dairy. Right? I didn't want to be known as the dairy girl. Hard stop. We're moving on to something else. And that was fine because it was already naturally becoming something else. But yeah, I just didn't want to be— I don't know. I didn't like the phrase. I didn't like the phrase dairy girl.

I was like, I just don't love that. So I wanted to make it so that doesn't happen again.

Christian Solorzano [36:01]

The dairy girls.

Violet Luczak [36:02]

Yeah. I was like, oh, okay.

Christian Solorzano [36:05]

That's funny. It was fun.

Hamid Alavi [36:08]

So yeah, about your previous, your older works, I know you're kind of inspired by Chicago images and also some surrealists or artists. So how does their work kind of— but how did you find that like style connected to your works or the subject that you were working on?

Violet Luczak [36:26]

The Chicago Imagists are by far like the biggest inspiration to any of the work that I've made. Hands down. I'm, obsessive about their work, right? And I went to Elmhurst University. It was Elmhurst College when I went there, but they changed it. And it has the largest Chicago images collection in the world. And that is because when I was there, Sue Ellen Roca was the curator, and she herself was a Chicago—

Imagists. And I didn't know who they were when I was there. It's almost— it's kind of embarrassing, right? I was surrounded by this work and I had no idea. I just— it was like, it was just work on a wall, right? And it was interesting because it wasn't— like, it really did just look like work on a wall. It wasn't very protected. You didn't— it didn't seem that significant. But I liked them, right? They were interesting.

And I would study for my— history class under an Ed Paschke painting. That's just— and I didn't realize how incredible that was until way after the fact. But I was surrounded by this stuff unintentionally. It was just being ingrained into my brain. And it wasn't until I left that school that I started to pay attention to that group of artists.

And research them and realize all of the things, all the connections, and how I related to that work, right? So, I was very drawn to the design aspect of their work where it was like they were really influenced by, packaged goods and commercial goods, but it was in, a very critical lens. So it was like the opposite of, Andy Warhol and what's happening in New York. Instead, we're having, Yes, we're really interested in capitalism, but also we need to be concerned about this, right?

And it's very designy. They did the reverse acrylic painting where it looks like— if you take a picture of it just looks like a print. You don't realize it's painted by hand. And yeah, so I didn't— it just took me a while to actually understand how lucky I was to be there. And then when I left, I was lucky enough to still know Sue Ellen well.

And for a while outside of, once I left, she was a really big influence in my life, a really strong mentor. And sadly she's passed away. So up until then, she was really involved in my practice. And influenced my work by literally talking about my work. So yeah, they've always— the whole group of them, which is all very different styles, but has influenced my work a lot. And I'm such a fan of surrealism. I like weird things.

I just, I don't want it to be boring, right? I just want things that are interesting. My favorite thing to do with students, and I should preface this by saying I only do it with students that I know well, they like me, right? It's a good atmosphere, so I'm not actually being cruel, right? They get a kick out of it. But when we're doing work, my favorite feedback is just to write boring when things are boring, right?

We just want to be interested in what we're doing, and we want other people to be interested. And surrealism for me is like, a no-brainer. It's so weird that you can't not look at it, and you're confused, and that's great. I want you to be confused. If you don't have any questions, then what's the point of making anything, right? So I've always been drawn to surrealism, and then, yeah, the images were just such a perfect example of that.

And yeah, other things about the image, I love the intense color. Right? I use a lot of, pop color in my work. And again, it just, grabbed my attention. And I liked that, their work, and hopefully mine, is really weird and maybe disturbing, but not right away.

It's like their work is a very easy entry point. It's fun, it's weird, you want to look at it, and then you're like, oh. This is about a much deeper thing than I realized, versus maybe some other work that is so intense right away that maybe some people are just nah, I don't want to get into that.

So I loved all of that, and I try to carry a lot of that over into my work and that approach of maybe things being a little more whimsy and humorous to talk about things that are Maybe not so funny, I really like. And then there's people who just think it's funny and they don't get the rest of it. And that's fine too. You don't have to understand all of it. I don't understand all of it.

But yeah, the impact that group of artists has made on my— I don't know, has been in my life is pretty incredible. And I'm still learning more, or I'm meeting people who knew people and connections. It's one of— it's a great thing to be inspired by a group of artists that are from Chicago, right? And still have all these connections. So it's not— it feels close to home. It's not, oh, I read about you in a book kind of inspiration.

It's like, no, I knew you and I knew your friends and I knew— I know people who you taught, right? And all of this kind of stuff. If you don't know their work, I highly recommend checking out the Chicago Imagists and specifically the Harry who.

Christian Solorzano [42:30]

You have a very distinct style. Your work feels very Violet's, I would say. There's even just looking through your website or seeing your work in a gallery setting, there's some familiarity across your different pieces regardless of when they were done. And yeah, I'm glad that you mentioned this because I was a little bit curious about your influences and maybe how you manage and how you continue to manage to find your voice.

I'm not a big fan of the word style, but how have you defined your design choices, like your color, the way that the things that you make look, and how do you continue to push yourself?

Violet Luczak [43:15]

I think that there is a common thread because I work from one painting into the next, always some sort of a link. I have a hard time, I've had to at times, but I have a hard time just creating something brand new versus like, here was my previous work, now what can I do?

Christian Solorzano [43:34]

Yeah.

Violet Luczak [43:35]

It's usually coming from that. It's just, I mean, honestly, it's easier, right? It's easier to have like that thought and have your mind work that way than always starting from scratch. So I think that's how some of the, Some— there's some similarity, but also why if you look at like things with big time lapses, they look fairly different as I'm evolving or as I make new things or get interested in new things. That kind of, goes on.

And then there's like the whole graphic design side to it. So I think studying design and that being my primary education has influenced how my work looks.

So that has given it some sort of consistency. More than once, right, I've had someone come to a show or something who is a designer, and they'll be like, oh, you studied design, right? By looking at the work, because you can see a lot of that, see that connection pretty clearly, I think, right? At least in some of the work. So that also gives some sense of consistency.

I don't really try to make everything consistent unless it is a series or for a specific space or show, right, then I'm thinking about how it all lives in one physical space. But if not, I'm not really trying to make them all look similar.

Some other— I mean, there are colors I'm attracted to, so they're gonna show up more than once because I'm really drawn to them. Certain symbols or things like that. I like flatness. I like things being really clean. It, I don't know, lets out some sort of endorphins or something when everything's perfect. Right? But it's also not perfect because it's a painting, and that's what makes it so, for me, cool, because it isn't a print.

So if you look at it closely, you're going to see places where I messed up the paint, right? Or there's mark-making, even though they don't they don't look like— they look like there is no mark-making. That's not true. It is there, right? And I used to actually— I used to hate that. I wanted to be like, oh, I don't want you to even know that there was ever a brush here. And I was like, well, that's crazy. Why? Embrace it.

There was a person here, a person who made this. That's kind of beautiful. And then in terms of pushing myself, I have just— I'll never be able to not enjoy or fully get away from just a flat painting. There's a lot of joy that just comes from a painting that can go on a wall. But I'm also very interested in other things that are more sculptural. So I'm trying— I've been trying to push more into that, things that are more hands-on.

If we go back to the Imagists, I've always been obsessed with these chairs, these metal outdoor chairs. That I want to say were painted by Jim Nutt. And they've just, they're these funky little chairs, but where the arms go and where the butt goes is all worn off.

People sat in the chairs, which I loved about the work, right? They're like seeing its history and seeing that it was used and that something maybe painted perfectly was no longer perfect. So I like the idea where there's some sort of physical interaction happening. So it started where I made— the first time I tried something sculptural was making, still working with a flat painting, but adding doors to it. So you had to physically open it up and touch it.

And I don't have that painting anymore, but for as long as I did have it already was kind of scuffed up around the handles, which I liked, right? Again, I was like, well, you're supposed to interact with it, have some sort of—

Then you're invested, right? I think when someone has to do something, they're invested. And then if they get some sort of reward for it, like they see something interesting or different, right now they're like connected to that piece. So anyway, I did that. Then I made puppets, like these wooden puppets that moved. And now I'm thinking about bobbleheads, like kind of odd things. I don't know.

I like— there's like, if you think practically, there also is like the work that sells and the work that doesn't, right?

Hamid Alavi [48:00]

Yeah.

Violet Luczak [48:01]

So you kind of have to do both, right? I have to pay for my studio and all these things. I make paintings. Paintings are easy to sell because people want to put a painting in their house. Now, not all my paintings are easy to sell because they get kind of weird, and not everybody wants something that weird in their house, right?

But still, overall, it's a lot easier to sell painting that goes on a wall versus a puppet that's made out of string that probably isn't gonna last for more than a few years if you keep using it. Or weird bobbleheads or odd trinkets, things that don't really have a— are not easily displayed in, those ways.

But that's, the fun stuff or the weird stuff. At least for now, it's, what I'm more interested in. So that's— so pushing myself is also, learning new skills. I don't know how— I don't know anything about 3D work. So, learning how to do that is a whole new world, trying to figure out how to make something come to life.

It's so easy to have an idea in your head or on paper, but then how do I make that thing is so hard when it's something that I'm not familiar with. Even things that look simple were really hard to me. Even figuring out how to— the thing just had doors, but figuring out how I made it, how I got some— I had to figure out how to do a double-sided panel and then how to attach it so that it wouldn't fall down.

Like all those little things I had never had to know how to do before that I had to learn. Or even like the puppets, I had to make like 100 puppets out of paper to understand where you put the little pivots so that when you pull the string, it did this little dance that I wanted it to do? Which I really enjoyed. I enjoyed needing to solve the puzzle.

Right? Before even starting like the process of painting them. So yeah, I wanna— I just wanna do more weird, interactive, 3-dimensional stuff. And I think pushing yourself is maybe not even the right word because I don't think I'm intentionally being like, how can I challenge myself? I'm just— you get bored. Everyone gets— at least me, I get bored doing things very easily, right? So after 3 paintings, I'm like, I don't ever want to make another painting.

Of course I do. But in that moment, I'm sick of it. So I'm like, I'm going to do something else. And then I was like, oh my God, I made these puppets. I'm never making a puppet again. That was awful. And now here I am being like, what if I made a bobblehead?

Christian Solorzano [50:27]

Yeah.

Violet Luczak [50:30]

I get bored, so that's what pushes me, I think, to try new things is I just want to have fun. I want to enjoy what I'm doing. If I'm just doing the same thing over and over again, I'm no longer enjoying it.

Christian Solorzano [50:40]

So how do you define— for you, how do you define a project as being successful or fulfilling?

Violet Luczak [50:48]

I don't know. I just know.

Christian Solorzano [50:50]

Okay. It's just you feel it.

Violet Luczak [50:51]

Yeah, like I'll finish something and I'll be like, yeah, that's awesome. This is great. I knocked it out of the park. And I don't know, I just know it is. And then I'll do something, I'll be like, this is no good. Yeah, it's just like a feeling that I have when I finish something. I mean, if it's good, I'm gonna finish it and I'm gonna make everyone look at it. Like all of my friends are gonna get an unsolicited text message of my finished piece.

And they're like, we don't care. Where I'm in the middle of something, all my family members are getting pictures, and they're like, great, okay. But, I'm proud of it. I'm excited to show it off. And if I'm not thrilled, I keep it to myself and no one has to know about it. But yeah, that would probably be how I would define, something being successful. It's almost the same thing as, finishing a painting. How do you know a painting is done?

You know a piece of design is done. You just kind of know.

Christian Solorzano [51:40]

That's a great answer. It's, very practical. You just know.

Violet Luczak [51:45]

I like that.

Christian Solorzano [51:47]

We're almost at time, but we have a few more what we call just rapid-fire questions. So Hamid will be doing the honors of asking the questions fast. Don't think too hard.

Violet Luczak [52:03]

This is my worst nightmare right now. Go for it.

Hamid Alavi [52:06]

Yeah, before maybe rapid-fire questions, I'd like to know what do you like about Chicago?

Violet Luczak [52:11]

Yeah, I love Chicago. I will never leave. It's the best city. It just really is. I grew up in the suburbs. I did not grow up in the city. And then after that, I moved to the suburbs of Detroit, and I was out there for a while. And I enjoyed Detroit. There was a lot of— I made great friends. There's a nice art scene out there. But I— all I wanted to do was get back, be in Chicago, right? That's always where I wanted to live.

Not only lived up to, but it's gone beyond any expectations I've had for in terms of a place to live.

It's like the community is so incredibly strong, which is how I function, right? I function in a community. I need other people around, people I can relate to, right? And it's so— it was so easy to find that in Chicago. And it's like big, but it's not, right? It's actually kind of small. So once you find your kind of, your kind of group, like you've, you found your place, right? And now you fit in.

And it's just such a great feeling. And when I moved, so I moved back to Chicago, or moved to Chicago for the first time, back to the Chicago area right after COVID, or not after COVID, during COVID right? Beginning COVID 2020. Yeah. And so it was a bad time to move. It was a hard time to make friends. And even though I grew up in the suburbs, I didn't know anyone because everyone moved away, right?

So I Didn't know anyone in Chicago except for one or two friends who I went to school with who moved to Chicago as well. And that was when I joined the Chicago Art Department, which I just really value that community. It was what I was looking for when I was in grad school, but I didn't really get.

Hamid Alavi [54:05]

Yeah. Right?

Violet Luczak [54:06]

That's what I hoped grad school would be, and it was just a little more toxic than that. People were, I don't know, it just wasn't the same. And then I went to CAD, the Chicago Art Department, and I met so many people so quickly who just genuinely wanted the best for me, so quickly. And it's like true love in that sense. Where it was like, if you are successful, so are we. And people say that, but they don't mean it. It really was that.

And I met all these great people, and I got connected to the art world, and I just fell in love with it. And I owe a lot of that, I think, to being in such a strong community like that. And now I still am a part of CAD in that I am still part of that world and I attend events and I help out when I can, but I'm not a resident there anymore.

So it's— I'm not necessarily living in that world, but it allowed me to just connect to the art world as a whole in Chicago. And now I have that. And you don't have to be— I don't know. I have a lot. I know everyone I know has some sort of community if they want to, right? If you want to have a community, you can find it in Chicago. And it doesn't have to be art.

Maybe you're into like the music scene, or like, yeah, you're in the punk DIY scene, or whatever it is. There's a group of people out there who you can find and connect to. And I think Chicago is an easy place to do that. And there's just a lot of opportunity. I don't know. I just— I love it here. We got good food. We have cool museums.

Christian Solorzano [55:53]

You know?

Violet Luczak [55:53]

It's a great place to be an artist because it's big and small. So it's small enough that you can get in. It's not like an impossible barrier, but it's big enough that you don't run out of opportunities. I don't feel like I have to leave to do what I want to do.

Christian Solorzano [56:13]

Do you have a favorite Chicago restaurant?

Violet Luczak [56:15]

I'm not going to be good at these rapid-fire questions. I'm not really good on the spot.

Hamid Alavi [56:20]

That was not on the list.

Violet Luczak [56:22]

So many. There's so many. I mean, I have a— I told you I love my notebooks. I have, the longest list of— I started it right when I moved here, and it was at that point all places I wanted to try. And now it's a combination of, places I've been to that I want to go back to. And I leave little notes, right? And they're really funny notes because they're, whatever my experience was in that moment, and I don't really know what they mean anymore.

But, I'll have, like— I'll be like, here's a restaurant, and it has the best Diet Coke. I don't know. But that's what I, but I don't know, I eat a lot. I go out a lot to eat well, usually to kind of cheap places, but the food's still incredible. But I don't know if I have a top of my head favorite restaurant. I'm still vegan. It's really easy to be vegan in Chicago, which is cool.

You don't have to seek it out. I used to always have to check the menu back in the day. I don't even have to check the menu anymore. They'll have something I can eat, which is cool.

Hamid Alavi [57:23]

So do you have any favorite projects or any dream projects in mind?

Violet Luczak [57:29]

Dream projects? I want to make more murals. I made one mural, and it was when I was at the Chicago Art Department for a fundraising event. I did it with my dad, and it was really fun because we— he always helps me with stuff. He's awesome. We work together very well, but this was more collaborative than like him helping me make something 'cause I don't know how to make it kind of thing. We did it together.

So we came up with the idea together, and then we painted it together. And we would either talk, or we'd sit there in silence, or we'd listen to music. And it was very just fun to fill in all of the shapes. And then I had a bunch of other people help. Murals are so collaborative. You can't do it by yourself, which is cool. So my sister came, and she helped paint some of it. And my friends came, and it was so fun.

It was like 2 weeks of just hanging out with cool people painting a wall. And yeah, it was also fun to make something that wouldn't last forever. It was a temporary mural. It was up just for that fundraiser, which was kind of cool. The idea that it's just here for a moment, just here for something specific, but not supposed to last forever.

But I'd love to do more murals. I'd love to do an outdoor mural, but I don't know how. I've never done one, but I would like to learn and have that experience and just, yeah, make work with other people. But that's like top of my head dream project.

Hamid Alavi [59:09]

Great. And what are your hobbies or what do you do on your free time or something that maybe people With a note?

Violet Luczak [59:15]

I karaoke. I'm really into karaoke. I can't sing. I really can't. That's not just me being, oh no, I can't sing, but I love karaoke. I do songs that just have a lot of words, and I impress people with memorizing. So I can't sing, but they're like, wow, she knows all the words to that song. That's my ability. But it's so fun. It's that whole community thing again, because you see the same people and you make friends.

And people show up because it's like— I have a local karaoke bar literally 2 houses down from me. So I go down there and I have made friends and they're like the Thursday karaoke crew. But yeah, I used to hate karaoke. I thought it was the worst. I was like, who would want to go and listen to other people sing terribly?

And then one of my best friends is super into karaoke, and it did not take— it was not a lot of work for her to convince me to do it and realize how fun it is.

Christian Solorzano [60:19]

What's your go-to? Do you have a go-to karaoke?

Violet Luczak [60:22]

Anything Madonna, or yeah, songs that just have a lot of talking, like Weezer. I don't know why, but I know all the words to every Weezer song. Not that I remember a time in my life where I extensively listened to Weezer, but I don't know if it was on the radio a lot or something, but I know all the words. Any of their songs for some reason.

Hamid Alavi [60:40]

What are you listening to these days?

Violet Luczak [60:43]

Oh, so I'm a little bit scatterbrained in general, and I will— I don't do playlists. I only have everything that I like on my library, and I just shuffle it. So it's pure chaos where it goes from, I don't know, to a really hardcore metal song, and then it will all of a sudden be to this flowy little indie song to Something totally different, and there's no vibe. It's just like all over the place.

That's always how I've listened to my music, and my students hate it because that's what I play in class. And they're like, what are you listening to? And I was like, listen, it's like, it's fun. You never know what's coming next. So I'm listening to just random stuff. All over the place. I will say I recently rediscovered Death Cab for Cutie, in like that I used to listen to them all the time when I was younger.

And I like recently was listening to a song and I was like, I should, I should listen to them again. And I guess they're having like their anniversary or something. I don't know. But so I've been re-listening to their albums and it holds up. Still great sad music to listen to.

Hamid Alavi [62:05]

What are you reading these days, or what shows are you watching? Any movies? Any—

Violet Luczak [62:10]

I just watch— I watch a lot of garbage TV, to be honest. I mean, I watch like— I watch some good stuff too, but a lot of the TV I watch is just— it's just not very good, and it's just a lot of talking. I don't like silence, so I always have some noise. So if I'm working for a really long period, I get bored of music after a while, after a few hours. So then I want to listen.

So I watch a lot of shows that are mostly talking, so I don't have to actually watch the screen, but I can still hear it all. And a lot of those shows tend to not be very well done, but I love them. So I don't know, a lot of garbage TV. I just watched Severance, which I feel like everyone is watching right now. So I've been following along to that. But I watch a lot of TV. I like TV.

I'm a big fan of like consuming media that way, whether it's watching or listening. I consume a lot of it.

Hamid Alavi [63:13]

So yeah, what was the last thing that made you laugh?

Violet Luczak [63:17]

Love that question. The last thing that made me laugh. So today we're inheriting some equipment in my department from a different department, and we're inheriting a game design degree. So they had all of these, old gaming systems, including all of the, original Dance Revolution mats. So now we have a bunch of these DDR mats, and I am so ready for a full-on faculty DDR competition. So that brought me immense joy today because I was like, let's go, we're gonna have a lot of fun with this.

That's what's in some of these boxes around here are DDR mats. I had to put booties on my dog today, which always makes me laugh.

Christian Solorzano [64:05]

I noticed that there's a dog that is really present in your paintings.

Violet Luczak [64:10]

Happy the puppy. She's a little studio dog, so she's always around. She comes up every once in a while.

Hamid Alavi [64:18]

So we got 2 more. What are your some guilty pleasures?

Violet Luczak [64:21]

I don't know, probably again, like just really terrible television.

Hamid Alavi [64:23]

And then what keeps you up at night?

Violet Luczak [64:27]

Did I mention I'm a really anxious person? Anything can keep me up at night. Like one weird comment and I'm not sleeping. It's not— in like all honesty, the thing that I've maybe been like anxious about lately has been like acquiring a new space and trying to learn how to do that and then, make a space that I'm happy with and that can involve, my community somehow.

It's super exciting, but it just feels like a lot of pressure where I don't know, I think I'm, just overthinking every decision I make because it's all so new. So that's been a little stressful. I'm eager to kind of just have it all ready to go so I don't have to be making all those choices. But there's plenty that keeps me up at night. The list goes on and on.

Christian Solorzano [65:13]

Is your studio space open? Is there— are you planning on doing an open studio?

Violet Luczak [65:18]

Yeah, I actually designed it where only half of the space is my studio space and the other half is just empty. And I'm still figuring out what that other space will be, but I'm hoping it can turn into something that's more than just like my studio space, whether it's like a little DIY show or I don't really know. I mean, I'm really into those types of creative spaces.

I find myself at them all the time, and I'd love to be able to be part of that and get people involved somehow. But yeah, I really don't know how yet, but I've literally put tape in the middle of the floor, and I was like, this side is the studio, this side is to be determined.

So we'll see what happens with that. That's kind of like one of the benefits of having your own space is that you can turn it into more than just a traditional studio space.

Christian Solorzano [66:13]

So that covers our interview. Thanks again. Any other questions, Hamid?

Hamid Alavi [66:19]

Yeah, how can people find you?

Violet Luczak [66:22]

I don't know, I'm on Instagram. That's probably the best way. Violet_Luzak_design. That's probably the best way to find me. I think, I think if you dig around on there, there's contact information in one of my links or something.

Christian Solorzano [66:37]

We will put that in the description for this episode. Thank you so much for taking the time. So anything that people should be out on the lookout for?

Violet Luczak [66:47]

Yeah, I think the biggest shout-out is just maybe staying tuned to what my space will become. I think that's definitely the newest chapter in my life. I have high expectations for it. I think it'll be really great. So yeah, once it's ready to go, I'll start having events and people over and things like that. So hopefully, yeah, people can get involved in that.

Christian Solorzano [67:13]

Well, thank you so much, Violet, and thank you, Hamid, for co-hosting. Thank you so much for sticking around if you enjoy Underscore, please consider giving it a rating wherever you listen. To learn more about us, visit www.chicagographicdesign.club. Thank you, and we'll talk to you soon. Goodbye. Thank you.