TEEL One is an accountant by profession, but art has been a part of his life since a very young age. He joins us to share his journey into the art world, from graffiti artist to muralist, graphic artist, painter and toy designer.  

It was TEEL’s mother who would introduce to art at an early age and mentor him into adolescence. So it was no surprise that after her passing during his teenage years, he found ways to cope with the pain through art. Struggling with the loss, TEEL sought what he calls ‘street therapy,’ by becoming a graffiti artist. Turning that experience into something fruitful, TEEL now creates multi-story murals for corporations in and around the Chicagoland area. 

Yet that’s not all that would come out of his early experiences in street art. He discusses the opportunity that fell in his lap that would set him on path towards becoming a toy designer.

“I became friends with this famous artist named Mark Bodē, whose dad is a super famous artist, Vaughn Bodē, who started a comic book called Cheech Wizard. He sent me my first toy to remix.”

Through the evolution of digital art and specifically NFTs, TEEL shares how he’s used the technology to take back his power as an artist while creating another stream of revenue. 

“I don't know any artist that doesn't know how to use Photoshop. If you're an artist and you've done murals or any kind of art, you’ve tried using Photoshop for something. 

It was just easy for me to fall right into. It was like, ‘wait, what do you mean? My stuff that I do digitally can be sold and create another revenue stream?’ Then I found out that a lot of people don't actually understand. I could probably do a whole podcast about NFTs, but what some people don't understand about NFTs is that it gives the power back to the creator.”

Tune in to listen as TEEL shares how he’s evolved as both an artist and person through his work and the community he’s built along the way.

Kerri Rose has been performing her entire life. A dancer from the age of two years old, Kerri has been dancing and performing in theater, and has recently set her sights on the small screen. She joins us to share her professional acting journey and how she’s navigated moving to new cities and starting a family along the way. 

Since auditioning for Peter Pan in the fifth grade, she’s landed some television roles and continues to audition for new opportunities. She shares where her love for acting started and continued to develop beyond college. 

“The woman who directed Peter Pan was a new acting coach and director in the area.She was directing the fifth grade play for the elementary school, but also directing things in community theater. She was such a great coach for me and so I started doing her shows in community theater. Then she helped train me for college and my college auditions.”

Every actor has their unique approach to taking on their given roles. Kerri shares how she views her assignments and the work involved to connect with her character. 

‘I really like relating to people. It's therapeutic for me to take on roles and to put myself out there. If a character is going through something really tough, how can I relate to that person, put myself all into that, to have others receive it back?”

Tune in to hear more on Kerri’s story from her acting to her family life and the lessons learned along the way.

Ruby Spencer didn’t consider herself an artist for the first part of her life. Growing up an athlete, she played volleyball all the way through college. It wasn’t until after college that Ruby became an active part of the vintage community in Chicago. That’s where her life as an artist took shape as she participated in pinup modeling, classic car shows and was swing dancing and teaching swing dancing. 

“As with most people, you spend time in your teenage years and in college, and even your young adulthood, trying to figure out who you are and what your style is and what you're into. You hit that moment where you're tired of trying to fit in and you realize ‘I just wanna be me. And I wanna like what I like and wear what I wear and do what I do and be happy.”

For Ruby, that moment happened just after her 30th birthday.

“When I turned 30, that was the pivotal time where I was like, you know what? I moved back to Chicago from the DC area and I realized how inclusive Chicago is. I said ‘I'm gonna do what I want to do because I'm tired of trying to fit in.’”

As she recalls it was her friend that approached her to take burlesque classes for fun. Though originally she didn’t think it was for her, she changed her mind when she saw a Groupon for one class.

“I like to try new things. I'll do it. It's one class. It'll be fun. And I had a good time, but I didn't do the performance piece after it, which then she admonished me and said ‘No, you have to do the performance piece. That's what makes it a thing.’  So, I signed up again and did another class.”

Though she now makes a living from her talents, she offers advice to artists and aspiring artists to find what they love doing - without the pursuit of monetizing from the beginning. 

“Every hobby you have does not have to be a career. It does not have to be a money maker. If you love crocheting and you wanna crochet and you wanna donate things to somebody, or you wanna make things for friends as gifts, I think that that's amazing.”

Tune in to hear more of Ruby’s story and get a peek into the world of burlesque dancing.

A Dental Assistant and Dental office manager for 17 years, it wasn’t until the office she managed was bought out that it pushed Amber Green to pursue her passion of photography as a profession. Now working full time as a Digital Storyteller and Photojournalist, she shares her inspirational story of finding her purpose through art.  

A single mom at the time, Amber recalls the series of events that pushed her to pursue photography professionally. 

I believe everybody was gifted with an assignment, almost like I think of as if you go to a village, in any country, any town you have the Potter, the baker, the locksmith. I believe my assignment., through the gift of photography, is to tell stories. Real unedited, uncut stories of everyday people, everyday events, everyday lives.

I always had the gift for art, but I didn't actualize it until seven years ago. The dental practice I was working at was bought out. The new owners cut my hours in half, because I was the highest paid. At the time, being a single mother and having a toddler, it just devastated me. I went home in tears, sat on my couch.”

From there, she says, it was a Kodak commercial that would inspire her to pursue photography. Not knowing where to begin, she searched the internet for classes to take or schools to attend. Not finding what she was looking for, Amber took it upon herself to learn her camera first. From there, it would take her down a path of self discovery. 

“I started Googling my camera, just Googling YouTube in different ways of using it. And then I went into the streets of Chicago and I just started taking photos. I was just posting on social media, random photos of trees and the lake and buildings. Then I ran across a gentleman in Hyde park. I always saw him, he knew my name and I was like,’Let me take your photo.’ 

I took the photo and asked ‘How did you get here? When he was telling me his story, I asked if I could record it. So, I started transcribing the story and I posted his story on Facebook. And then I was going back in the streets and I started taking more photos of if you wanna call them home homeless or less fortunate.”

From there she began photographing full time and even started teaching other women her craft, after only 18 months of learning the trade. Though always surprised and grateful for the opportunities presented to her, it’s clear that Amber’s pursuit of her purpose led to so many incredible experiences.

Tune in to hear more on how she created a name for herself as a photographer in Chicago and her views on art and people.

Singing has been a passion for Charmaine Makeda all her life, but it wasn’t until she went through some difficult experiences that she decided to pursue that passion professionally. Wanting to connect with others, her message of letting people know they’re not alone has become a sort of mission statement. 

A self proclaimed “people pleaser,’ Charmaine understands the courage required to step out of her comfort zone.

“I'm still a little bit of a people pleaser. I'm trying to get out of that and I had to get real with myself and ask myself ‘What's going to make me happy?’ I was not in a good place and I really wanted to do something that fulfilled my soul. Music has always been that for me and me taking that step and saying to myself ‘You know what? I'm going to stop being scared, I'm going to sing my own songs, I'm going to figure this out and I'm going to take this seriously. 

Hopefully with me gaining the courage to do that I can get this out there and I can help someone else not feel so alone. I felt very misunderstood. I am a person that a lot of people can come to, but I don't have a lot of people I can go to when I have problems. Sometimes I felt alone in a lot of my feelings and I'm like, I can't be alone. Other people feel this way.”

Though singing is what fuels her, Charmaine understands the importance of staying balanced. She quickly learned, through trial and error, just how valuable understanding the business side of music is to her success. 

Yet it’s her spirituality and routine that keeps her grounded against the challenges a journey like this brings.

“It started when I began embarking on my spiritual journey about four to five years ago. I would say I was when I really got into it. Meditation is something that really helps me because I have anxiety and have always struggled with it.

Sometimes it's hard to get my mind relaxed and focused on one thing. Meditation definitely helps, so I just go into it.”

Tune in to hear more on this up and coming artist’s journey to connect with others through her music:

https://www.tfocb.com/evoked/podcast/charmaine-makeda

Watch the full video episode:

https://www.tfocb.com/evoked/podcast/stephanie-welter/maria-delton

Ruth Pycke shares her inspirational story of how painting helped her overcome the most difficult times in her life. A newer artist, Ruth started painting at the beginning of the first quarantine in 2020. 

“I was bored and also going through a little bit of a depression and just wanting something to take my mind off everything. The first things I painted were really random things like animals or really anything that came to mind. I was just practicing and I would watch YouTube videos, like Bob Ross.”

As you can see from her instagram account (@myhomeartstudio90), Ruth’s art has been focused primarily on scenes of Chicago. Inspired by local artists she follows on social media, Ruth began reaching out to photographers to collaborate on projects with them. 

‘I knew that very early on, I wanted to do a collaboration with another artist to experience and know what that's like. So, I started looking for photographers instead of just taking a picture off of Google. I was like, why not put a face to this like picture and let other people know who this person is and we can promote each other.”

In addition to the collaboration, Ruth felt it was important to share a portion of her commission when she sells the painting. It’s that type of selflessness that has enabled Ruth to create incredibly meaningful friendships, beyond just art. 

“I've gotten to know people on Instagram on such deep levels. It's been really cool; I've actually made some really good friends there. A year or so ago, I lost my husband and the amount of people that came, were supportive and loving and caring, or even donated to the GoFundMe account was amazing.”

Tune in as Ruth shares her emotional and inspirational story of how art quickly became more than just painting for this artist.

On this episode of the Evoked podcast, we sit down with artist Emma Lyons.

Originally from Indianapolis, Emma moved to Chicago 13 years ago with a passion for theater and the desire to be in a bigger city where she could experience and be involved in stage performance. 

“I grew up singing, dancing, acting, modeling. I love art, whether it is auditory or performative or visual.”

However, after moving to and falling in love with Chicago, Emma didn’t immediately begin her journey as an artist. At the time, she had so many interests and a variety of different directions that she could go in that she chose a job outside of the world of art. 

“I don't think I was as ready to be my own entrepreneur as I thought I was. I've learned that in the visual art industry as well, like you are your own manager.

I had so many interests that I ended up being a nurse instead.”

She spent her time caring for patients and working 12 hour shifts three days a week. Exhausted and drained by her day job, it didn’t leave much opportunity to pursue art in her free time. As Emma puts it, though, “the texture in which my path went was a story that I wouldn’t redo for anything.”

When the pandemic hit in 2020, Emma was working as an event planner. With everything shutting down and no events to be had, she turned her attention to art that didn’t require collaboration - painting. She shares how it all started with a mermaid challenge that went viral on social media. 

“I've always loved mermaids and there's a mermaid challenge that I took a list of and different personalities. And I created a mermaid off of each challenge.

I have a series that was my first painting series of 15 separate mermaids. I got an incredible reception from various friends and people were just saying, I really like this and keep doing it. And so I kept saying what calls to me and let me paint that.”

Since then, Emma has joined the Fulton Street Collective where her studio is now located. Joining the collective has been an impetus of incredible evolution for her. She talks about the amazing artists she has met and made connections with. Emma explains, “There is no competition because there's no room to be. There's only room for growth.”

Tune into this episode of the Evoked Podcast to hear more about Emma’s story, how social media has transformed the world of art, and more about Emma’s own unique and varied style. 

Stephanie Welter, with Keller Williams Success Realty, brings in a special guest, Rich Daniels. Rich is a musician extraordinaire, co-Founder of The City Lights Orchestra and musical director for the critically acclaimed TV show Empire. 

Long before working with the incredible talent on Empire, Rich was a young boy in South Side Chicago who fell in love with the saxophone. During his freshman year in high school, he met two of his classmates and together they formed the Big Band Machine which would later become The City Lights Orchestra. 

“From The Big Band Machine, I can't even tell you the blessings and opportunities that came into our lives for the next 48 years. So it's been an amazing ride and it all started on the south side of Chicago.

Today, The City Lights Orchestra is still going strong and bringing incredible music to the Chicagoland area. Rich talks about how saturated with talent Chicago is.

“When TV came to Chicago, they realized that the environment was rife with talent, not only a musical town for our end, but the production talent, the studios, all the people who create the films they had. We had so much here in Chicago to offer.

John Williams, [famed Hollywood composer] had so much clout and influence that he could pick the orchestra and the musicians he wanted for his various projects. When he scored the motion picture of Lincoln that Steven Spielberg created, he wanted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.”

As Rich puts it, “Hollywood loves Chicago.” There is no better testament to his own words than the work he’s done on

Empire in our great city. While the show itself is fictitiously set in New York, most of the filming and music was done right here in Chicago. 

“We were asked to help them capture their artwork on film and to portray it in a way that was suitable for the television show. It oftentimes was an extraordinary musical experience for those involved, including myself. 

Some of the biggest stars in the entertainment world, on it, both as cast and as musical guests, artists, we had Jennifer Hudson, we had Patty LaBelle. We had Snoop Dog, Alicia Keys. ​​I mean, my gosh, the list is endless.”

Impressive as his resume is, the real spirit of Rich can be found in his philanthropic work. He is currently a board member of Mercy Home, which is run by another one of Stephanie’s previous podcast guests, Father Scott. 

“You know, there's that phrase too much to whom much has been given much as expected.

It's been used by many different people, for many different things, and much has been given to us. My go-to phrase with my family, friends and children has been that giving is a moral imperative.”

Make sure you tune into this special episode of the Evoked Podcast. Rich talks all things Empire, jazz in Chicago, local talent, and the incredible work Mercy Home is doing to change the lives of children every day. 

Watch the episode here:

https://www.tfocb.com/evoked/podcast/stephanie-welter/rich-daniels

On our inaugural episode of the Evoked Podcast, host Stephanie Welter, a realtor with Keller Williams, sits down with musicians Allison Mahal and Van Isaacson. The definition of ‘evoke’ is to “call forth or up” and there’s nothing like music to call forth a memory or emotion, allowing you to get lost in the power of the artist’s melody. This episode is all about how Allison and Van have made their own journeys into music and how they create meaningful moments for others through their art. 

Alison was born into a musical family in Lombard, IL. Her mother has worked for one of the leading Jazz magazines, Downbeat Magazine, since Allison can remember while her father is still a musician to this day when he’s not working full time as a photographer and videographer. 

Similar to Allison, Van also grew up with a musical father in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. With instruments always lying around at home, Van harnessed his ADHD kid energy by trying them all, going from instrument to instrument.

The pair met one Summer in Chicago at an internship while Allison was home on break from college in Nashville. 

“When I met Van and just without any pressure, it was just out of pure enjoyment. We just started collaborating and writing together. “ 

The two have formed a powerful bond and partnership with Van producing all of Allison’s work, including her debut album coming out this Spring. 

Allison goes on to share her own song writing process and how through it, she’s had her own life revelations about life, heartbreak, and navigating your 20s. 

Tune in to this special inaugural episode of the Evoked Podcast to hear more about this electrifying duo, their behind-the-music stories, and what being a musician in 2021 is really like.