Navigating Grief through Sculpture: Bobbi Meier’s Story

Stephanie Graham: 00:00:00

Hey, friends.

Bobbi Meier: 00:00:00

Welcome.

Stephanie Graham: 00:00:01

And welcome back to Nosy AF conversations about art, activism and social change. I'm your host, Stephanie, and we are kicking off season six of the show.

While I'm prepping for the next few seasons, I will be sharing some special conversations that originally aired on Lumpen Radio along with a past few episodes. So today's episode features Chicago based artist Bobbi Meier.

And just a heads up, this conversation touches on sensitive topics, topics including the death of a child. So please take care while listening.

That said, Bobbi's work is deeply emotional and thought provoking, using fiber and sculpture to explore themes like power, repression, and desire. I'm really excited to share this conversation with you. So welcome to Nosy af. Gotta get up, get up to the whole world. You will win a winner.

Vision of a star with a mission in the cause. What you doing? How you doing, you're doing and who you are.

Flex yourself and press yourself Check yourself don't wreck yourself if you know me then you know that I be knowing what's up.

Bobbi Meier: 00:01:11

Hey, Stephanie.

Stephanie Graham: 00:01:12

Graham is nosy. Oh, my gosh, Bobbi, welcome to Nosy af.

Bobbi Meier: 00:01:22

Thanks, Stephanie. I'm so excited to be here.

Stephanie Graham: 00:01:25

So I'm so happy to have you on here because you and I, we met back in the pandemic. We took a class together taught by artist Lynn Basa, who's our friend, and it was about sustaining your practice.

And one of the things that really stood out to me about your work was how lovable it was. It was so colorful and squishy. And I feel one of the things I'm always trying to, like, work on is how I describe work.

So I'm going to describe your work as squishy, colorful towers. What do you think about that?

Bobbi Meier: 00:02:12

. Gosh, was that: 2023

And I had this goal of making really bright, colorful work that related back to paintings I used to make as a reaction to being cloistered. And in this kind of situation where we felt, I don't know, so confined. And it was like a way to be joyful.

Because the work previously, just before that, not back to painting, that was a while ago, but just before that, I had been making work that was mostly gray and black and was a reaction to being a caregiver for a very dear friend who passed away and became memorials to her, but not intentionally so. Then there was moving from that darker time, personally, to into the pandemic and then moving out and, like, making this burst of joyful.

I called them Sentinels for innocence, meaning like innocent people, innocent children, innocent adults that they would be protectors, but playful ones.

And the titles, even though their innocence for sentinels with each had their own unique name, like Candyland or Coco, which referred to a poodle I used to have, and Misty, which really was about a horse named Misty of Chincoteague that I used to read that story as a kid. So it all kind of related back to childhood memories and moments when I felt innocent and playful. So I'll go with the squishy and colorful.

Stephanie Graham: 00:04:16

I love that. Moments of innocent and playful. And I feel like now everybody's trying to be more playful. That's like.

That's a word that people are just trying to always infuse in the work that they're doing. I've noticed a lot, regardless of if they're an artist or not. It's like, how can we be more playful?

And I don't know what it was about the pandemic that shifted folks to that, but, yeah, I'm glad that it's like that now.

Bobbi Meier: 00:04:53

Yeah, it feels good. I mean, now we're react. Okay, I'll just. I'm reacting, and I feel most of my friends are to our political situation.

Not that I want to go down that path, but I feel like the work that I make, and I feel this is probably true for a lot of artists, is definitely influenced by what's going on in the world around us. So the pandemic, that was a big global thing that came down to a personal situation, and that's pretty much with our politics.

It's kind of the same idea where it's this global situation that impacts, on a personal level. And how I deal with it is through my artwork. And I can make it.

That can be a cathartic, cathartic reaction to all that, where I can play, make play personally, but also engage other people in that action, because that's been lately with work and things like that. Or even. Let's just. Yeah. Various talks on zoom and people that I'm engaged with.

So playfulness has come out of this, dealing with the political climate over time. I mean, it happened during Pandemic. It's happening now.

in graduate school, which was: 2011

It seems like there's a tra, Not a. Well, yeah, a tragedy, I suppose, in a way.

My mother had just passed away when I was entered into that program, so that definitely influenced my work. There's a lot of personal domestic imagery and objects in the work.

And then I started doing this thing where the actual physicality of twisting, binding, stretching, moving object, you know, like fabric or. What's that stuff? Sculpey. You know, things play. And that's a play material. Right.

So I'm playing around with that and almost as a meditation as I'm taking the train or things like that. And my mother. I could ponder these things that, you know, loss and things like that. And art in itself can be just an act of play too. That's okay.

And I think sometimes we get hung up as professional artists. Like, it's gotta be. Have a really serious, deep meaning, which I think that happens intuitively.

And what happened for me is I went from being pretty much an artist who worked with two dimensional materials, painting, drawing, and then starting to work with wood, plywood, and cutting it out in shapes that were reminiscent of William Morris and those people back. Those craftsman type people back in the 19th century. And some of that also alluded to patterns I'd see in my own home growing up.

My mom was really traditional in her decor and, you know, flowers on the sofa and stuff like that. And I started making work with literally some of the scraps of that upholstery fabric. And. And it gradually became 3D. I would take bed sheets.

And this was still. What happened in graduate school is that's a time where you're encouraged as an artist to play.

And so I started using materials I had never used before. And then I started using bed sheets. And they were kids bed sheets, because I have three kids and that's been a huge part of my life.

And then I could start with those bed sheets I was wrapping them around. I don't know how I did this first, but pantyhose stuffed with fiberfill. And sometimes I'd cover it, sometimes I wouldn't.

And I was also involved with photography at the time.

And I would take the camera and zoom in on some of these sculptures that were so tiny, they were like the size of my hand, but maybe there was a tuft of fiberfill sticking out of something. And I zoom in with a macro lens and Then it became otherworldly or became part of the body, or it looked like a naughty thing you shouldn't look at.

And I was really intrigued with that.

So that experience has filtered into the larger three dimensional work I make now, where I'm twisting and binding pantyhose into contorted shapes that I can upholster over to and then almost sculpt it. Well, it is sculpting.

It's sculpting with a staple gun and pushing the spandex fabric, that's the upholstery fabric over the pantyhose and pushing it into make a crease or a fold. That's provocative. So I'm searching for that provocation. I want the viewer to feel.

Well, to question, to be curious, first of all, to think, this is a strange thing I'm looking at. It alludes to maybe a part of the body that's a little bit naughty or someplace I shouldn't be thinking about.

And it's playful too, and it's awkward, and it's all those things that we as humans, I feel, especially women. But I am a woman, so I can't speak for a man. I just feel like there's a lot of body issues for women. And I'm playing.

I'm kind of riffing on that through these bulbous sculptures that I make.

Stephanie Graham: 00:11:14

So, yes. You had an exhibition at Epiphany at the Epiphany Center. It is. Is that what it's called? Epiphany center for the Arts.

It's a art space here in Chicago. When your exhibition was there, I remember going and looking, and there was a woman that saw your works that were on the wall.

You had these framed, smaller works with like, there was like wallpaper with the bulbous sculptures. And she was like, oh, these look like my knees under a desk. Oh. Because it's like the filling.

And it was so funny because, you know, it was like you said you would have, like this squishy material in the pantyhose, right? And then it would be like they're like warped. There's folded and all this kind of stuff.

And I don't know what she had just said there just made me laugh because it was like, maybe just like if you put your fist like, like the curve, you know, like, it could have been like a kneecap.

Bobbi Meier: 00:12:17

Yep, yep, Absolutely.

Stephanie Graham: 00:12:21

And I'm like, okay.

Bobbi Meier: 00:12:26

I recently had an experience at the Driehaus Museum, where I'm showing work currently in a group show called Materialities. And there's a large White sculpture that is simulating marble. It's based on materials that are in the mansion.

And this piece has lots of inundate, you know, folds and creases. And it looks like bodies, a tower of bodies that are struggling, and they're covered with white fabric. And to me.

And I intentionally do this when I'm folding, putting the pantyhose onto an armature, and then I know it's going to get covered up. I want to make sure there's bumps and texture showing through.

So I intentionally will tie off the pantyhose so that it'll make a little bump that looks like a nipple or something like that. To me, they're very much about the human body. So this woman comes in, and she's just looking at it.

She's like, first of all, she said, well, what am I supposed to think? I said, well, I can't really tell you what to think. What do you. What do you see?

And she said, well, I see an elephant trunk over here, and I see a teddy bear down here. Do you see that? Like, well, no, but if you do, that's okay.

And I felt like I got the sense from the way she was looking at the work that she was too embarrassed to say what she really saw, that it was more like, oh, I'll go to the safe place, and that's okay. I'm perfectly fine with that. I think part of this, for me, making work like this has been a little bit of a social experiment.

Stephanie Graham: 00:14:10

Yeah.

Bobbi Meier: 00:14:10

You know, to see how people. I'm curious how people will react to it. And there's that end.

And then there's the mat, who came in, like, a few minutes later and said, hey, I need to tell you something. I'm like, oh, what's. He said, your work makes me happy, makes me feel happy. And that's great.

I want people to have a feeling when they look at the work.

Stephanie Graham: 00:14:35

Yeah.

Bobbi Meier: 00:14:36

And that's important to me because I like to look at work like that. Work that makes me think, that's not just a one off that. Oh, that's a pretty picture. And then walk away, you know?

Stephanie Graham: 00:14:50

Right. Yeah. And I think I totally, you know, feel exactly how that gentleman felt, you know, that your work makes him feel happy.

Cause I feel happy when I look at your work. It is a happy place.

Bobbi Meier: 00:15:02

Oh, good. I think that's so interesting, too, because some of it comes from a really sad place.

a black chair that I made in: 2017

And I felt like I needed a chaise lounge to start with. So I've been working with furniture now for a while where I take the furniture and engulf it in these forms that I'm. Soft forms that I make.

And my friend really best. If there's a best friend as a grownup, she was a best friend. So she was sick.

And I mean, I knew that she knew that we didn't know what was going to happen, but she was always a huge supporter of my work.

And she happened to be going for a walk slowly outside with her husband and she happened to see her neighbor walking out of the house with a child's green upholstered blind. Green upholstered chaise lounge. And she texted me this picture and she's like, hey, do you want this? And I said, how much? She said, it's free.

My neighbor's getting rid of it. So Sandy is her name. And she. She turned me on to this chaise lounge that ended up.

Over the course of a year, as Sandy was getting more and more sick and I was going back and forth between Hyde park at the art center and way out in the western suburbs to where she was, that piece started to emerge. It sat in the studio for a long time, just as this green sofa that my dog would lie on.

And then over time, I had a student intern for a couple of weeks and I said, here's what you need to do. Strip off all the upholstery and get everything off of it. So then it was the springs and the form and it just. It was bare.

So it removed that previous history and now it's. I started building this form that turned into a muscular looking pleather covered. It's not really pleather, but it looks like it. Black sofa or chair?

Basically it looks like a chair. The springs are revealed.

There's pantyhose stuffed into that, there's pantyhose around it, but it's covered with this amazing spandex that looks like leather. And I learned how to tuft. So. Okay, tufting is. Yeah, it's putting those using a needle that's about 8 to 12 inches long. And it was a very.

It was a wonderful experience in hindsight, you know, the whole making of it over time and. And then giving a talk in the Hyde Park Art center like three days after Sandy died.

And that's when it was revealed to me what that piece was about, because prior to that, it was just the making, the caregiving, and then here it is. This thing has become a memorial to that experience and to that friend. So the work, I think, does definitely.

I want there to be humor in it and this playful nature. And then a lot of times, it comes from a deep, a darker place.

Stephanie Graham: 00:18:39

Yeah. It reminds me of comedy in a way.

You know, like, comedians, like, they'll tell these wonderful stories and these jokes, and then sometimes when you, like, in an interview with them, they'll tell you where the story originated. And it's, you know, sometimes. Oftentimes, like sad beginnings, you know, or like a sad story that they've ended up finding humor in.

Bobbi Meier: 00:19:03

Right, right. Yeah. There's a background that we don't know unless they share it with us. So Felix Gonzalez Torres, his work.

I forget the title of that piece with the candy in the corner. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Stephanie Graham: 00:19:19

Oh, I do know.

Bobbi Meier: 00:19:22

It was that. It's the body weight of his partner.

Stephanie Graham: 00:19:25

Yeah. Let me actually look it up.

Bobbi Meier: 00:19:29

Yeah.

Stephanie Graham: 00:19:31

Oh, it's called Untitled Portrait of Ross in la. Wow.

Bobbi Meier: 00:19:36

Oh, yeah. Okay. So I want to. Can we talk about that for a minute?

Stephanie Graham: 00:19:42

Yeah, yeah, let's talk about that. That's a really, really moving piece.

Bobbi Meier: 00:19:49

It. I know. Even thinking about it makes me want to cry.

Stephanie Graham: 00:19:54

Yeah.

Bobbi Meier: 00:19:55

But also in a happy way. So, Felix Gonzalez Torres, untitled Portrait of Ross in la. The first time I saw that piece was when I was still teaching high school.

I brought my kids. It was at the mca, I think. Yeah, it was at the mca. And.

And we're walking by this piece, and the kids are all excited because it's candy and they can take a piece. And then we talked about it, and that's all they saw at first. And so we had to talk about it and the title of the work and what?

Every time they were taking a piece, they were taking a piece of his partner, basically, because they refill it every day so that it's always the same weight and then it's removed over the course of the day. And the kids, I mean, they were kind of freaked out that art can be like that. Do you know what I mean?

And for me, that work is so deep and meaningful in a seemingly simple way that that's what I aspire to, even though I'm making things that look like these crazy nouveau baroque objects. Yeah, but he has. He's been an inspiration, for sure.

Stephanie Graham: 00:21:25

Yeah. Yeah. His work.

Bobbi Meier: 00:21:28

His work.

Stephanie Graham: 00:21:29

That piece. I remember myself talking with friends, being younger, just eating the candy. Off of that.

And then one day we looked at what that piece was, and it does stop you in your tracks. Yeah, yeah, it is. Yeah, it is the most. Mm. It's just very, very. It's just something where you're going, like, so casual talking. Oh, yeah, let me get.

Cause, you know, for the listener who haven't seen it, it's, you know, candy that's in the corner, and it's just a bunch. A bunch. It's almost as if like a dump truck just poured a bunch of like, cinnamon disc candy, peppermint candy into the corner.

And so you just get it and you're like, oh, yeah, I'll take a blue one. I'll take a pink one. You're just picking your colors. And then you read about it and you're just like, man, that is terrible. This is terrible.

You're like, we're just casually eating this candy. Also, it made me sad that Felix lost his partner. You know, it made me sad about aids. You know, all of these things. It's just like, dang.

Bobbi Meier: 00:22:42

Right.

Stephanie Graham: 00:22:44

Artist Victoria Fuller at her. She has a show up at Governor State.

Bobbi Meier: 00:22:55

Yeah.

Stephanie Graham: 00:22:55

Yeah. And have you been. Have you seen that work?

Bobbi Meier: 00:22:59

Not. Well, some of it I've seen in person. I did not make it down to the show.

Stephanie Graham: 00:23:04

Okay. Well, there was you. Maybe you've seen this work. But she has this rhinoceros piece.

Bobbi Meier: 00:23:10

Yeah.

Stephanie Graham: 00:23:11

And it is a piece where you go in for the listener, you go into the gallery and it is this life size rhinoceros and you see it, but it takes you a minute before you get there because there's a bunch of other artwork to see. So as I'm browsing around at the artwork, the rhinoceros falls over. And me and this other gentleman stopped and looked and it just folded over.

And so when I get to. Is about the last standing rhinoceros of this particular rhinoceros species and him passing away and how now the. That rhinoceros species is extinct.

Bobbi Meier: 00:23:59

Yeah.

Stephanie Graham: 00:24:00

And it's like. It's just. It just. I just sat there and just stood at it and I'm just like, dang. You know?

Bobbi Meier: 00:24:11

Right.

Stephanie Graham: 00:24:11

So, yeah, moving pieces like that just. It just stops you in your tracks.

Bobbi Meier: 00:24:17

It does. I had a show at North Park University about a year, a little over a year ago, and the work was all these. I call them portraits.

They're tapestries or actually needle points that are repurposed that originally this ties back into partially into the black chair I just described. Because when I went to learn how to do the tufting I went to.

Stephanie Graham: 00:24:54

See.

Bobbi Meier: 00:24:56

Upholsterer in Berwyn who Sabina Ott was using, and her. This is kind of a convoluted story, but her mother's chairs were there to be reupholstered dining room chairs.

And so the dining room, the vintage cloth had been removed and was kind of tossed aside. And I'm talking to Mario, the shop owner, and he's the one that told me, oh, these belong to your friend, who. She recommended that I go to him.

Anyway, I see those pieces of fabric, and I said, are you gonna just toss those? Oh, no, she wants them back. So the long story short is I asked Sabina if I could have those if she wasn't gonna use em.

And at first she said, no, no, I think I'm gonna keep them. And then within a month, she said, you know what? You can have those. Those chair backs in the bottom. She was sick. And she was.

She knew she wasn't long for this world, so. And we. We were just. Our friendship was at that blossoming stage. So it was, yeah, really sad that we lost her for sure.

She was an amazing, amazing force in Chicago. So I felt privileged that she gave me these chair backs and seats, and they sat in my studio for a long time, and I finally.

I took them to the cleaners because they were, like, kind of full of cat hair and stuff like that. So I got them clean, brought them back, and happened to have a. An oval. What do you call it? No, it was a stretcher for a painting.

You know, instead of a rectangle, I had these ovals that I collected, and I took the piece, which was an oval, and turned it upside down so that the. The back structure of the needle point was showing. So. So it became more abstract.

Stephanie Graham: 00:26:57

Oop. So sorry to interrupt, but we have to take a quick break, and we will be right back with our conversation with Bobbi Meyer.

The journey towards liberation is messy af. And honestly, we're here for it. Hi, I'm Tina Brown, a feminist life coach.

Bobbi Meier: 00:27:15

And I'm Becky Mollenkamp, a feminist business.

Stephanie Graham: 00:27:18

Coach, and we're your hosts for Messy Liberation.

Join us for conversations about current events, politics, pop culture, and, of course, business, always with our eye on liberation from oppressive systems.

Bobbi Meier: 00:27:28

If you're like us and want to create a more equitable world, subscribe to.

Stephanie Graham: 00:27:32

Messy Liberation, available wherever you listen to podcasts, including the biggies, Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. We are back, and let's continue our conversation with Bobbi Meyer.

Bobbi Meier: 00:27:45

And then that turned into a whole series from that moment of me Searching for using first the materials that Sabina so generously gave to me. So that's. That was so moving because her mother's passed. Her mother had passed away. She was sick. I. We're the same age. We were exactly the same age.

We grew up on different sides of the country. But it just made me think a lot about similar circumstances of growing up, what that would have been like. The world was like.

Stuff like that anyway, to have those works. It took me on this trajectory of making these.

A whole series of 12 ovals that aren't referencing specific people, but they feel like they're guests at a dinner table and they have a human. They have a story to tell. So there's. The titles are something like Girly Girl and Punk Rocker and Church Lady. Just.

They each have their own unique personality. And then there are people. The reason I bring it up is because at north park, they.

I had the opportunity to show all that work together with a table that I made from work that I made at the Kohler residency to sinks that also. Those were referencing my own grandmother's matriarch centerpieces for matriarchs. Is that work? And there was an artist talk, and I gave a talk.

It was mostly to students, but there were about five or six older adults that were present. And a woman who I didn't know at all, she said to me, did you lose a child? And my husband happened to be there, too.

And we both looked at one another like, is she clairvoyant? So this is something. I mean, I don't have a problem sharing it.

I just was shocked that she understood something in my work, told her that there was something deeper there. And the work. We did indeed lose a baby when I was seven months pregnant. Whoa. Yeah. She was born prematurely and lived for two days.

And listeria was the cause, so she wasn't. She was fine until I contracted listeria, which is a type of food poisoning you've probably heard of. It affects people that have.

Stephanie Graham: 00:30:26

I'm sorry.

Bobbi Meier: 00:30:27

Yeah. Thank you. So that was, you know, the power of art to move people. Because she picked that up.

I did not say anything about that in my statement or in my talk. And it was shocking and amazing, too, you know, And I think it came from part of that work. And I don't think I use this term, but maybe I did.

It had a. A pantyhose frame around it, and some of it stitched in such a way that people have called those little. These little nubs baby toes.

And they do kind of look like that.

Stephanie Graham: 00:31:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bobbi Meier: 00:31:06

Even though that work sounds tragic, it's really. It's. It's got humor in it too. And. Yeah, yeah.

Stephanie Graham: 00:31:14

It's just like, wow, I'm so happy that you're actually speaking more about your work in this way because. Excuse. Excuse you, Stephanie and that gentleman at Driehaus. This is not happy work. This is personal and, you know, very.

Yeah, it's really deeply personal and about friendships and relationships.

Bobbi Meier: 00:31:40

Yes.

Stephanie Graham: 00:31:40

And it's cool to see, like, how connected to your work you are. You must be, like the bomb friend to have. You're like a really good friend.

Bobbi Meier: 00:31:53

That's true. But you know that.

Stephanie Graham: 00:31:56

Yes, I do.

Bobbi Meier: 00:31:58

You are, too. There's people that you just feel an instant connection to. I do, anyway. I mean, you were a person like that for me.

And, you know, just people that are genuine, they. You know, that they're not giving you. They're not hiding, really. I mean, we all have certain things we keep to ourselves.

Like, I don't go around telling that story I just told, but I'm not afraid to tell it. It's a reality.

Stephanie Graham: 00:32:26

Yeah. Yeah. And thank you. Thank you for sharing it.

Bobbi Meier: 00:32:30

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Stephanie Graham: 00:32:31

With us. Yeah.

Bobbi Meier: 00:32:33

Like I. I said, I had three children. They're all well into adulthood.

And the little baby, Rachel, who died, she was the second of my three children, of my four children, actually. So I don't know, the children in grad school, there was talk about, well, what influences you?

And I'm like, I thought, well, my family's super important to my art making. And the advisor was a guy, and I don't think he got it.

He didn't have kids, and he wasn't mean about it or anything, but he was just like, oh, well, I don't see how your family could be that influential in your work. And I thought, well, they're not making the work, but they're certainly influencing the things that I make.

Stephanie Graham: 00:33:30

Yeah.

Bobbi Meier: 00:33:31

When the kids were.

When their toys were all over the house and my husband was gone a lot, and I was working full time and trying to still make art and making deals with myself to make a drawing a day. And I did that for two years that picked up on drawing. Like, oh, there's this crazy toys that the kids had that look like aliens and stuff like that.

I had two boys and a girl, so we had all kinds of gendered toys around the house.

Stephanie Graham: 00:34:01

Yeah.

Bobbi Meier: 00:34:02

And that really started off making. I was making work that was more. Well, it was definitely personal and also, well, I don't know, more important in A way.

But they were paintings of like Pokemon on my bed sheets. So. Yeah. I mean, life is sad and hard and it's also funny.

Stephanie Graham: 00:34:26

Yeah.

Bobbi Meier: 00:34:27

So, yeah, I try not to lose sight of that in the work that I make. It's gotta have some quirkiness, you know?

Stephanie Graham: 00:34:36

Absolutely. Yeah.

But also like, I think too, it sort of plays into, you know, you, you always greatly identify and not that you shouldn't, but yet you're like an artist mother, you know, and that's a, that's a big thing too, is like being an artist's mother and sometimes folks even, because now your kids are adults, but you still are a mother. Right. And so. And you still are active in those spaces.

But I just feel like it all makes sense because of hearing you speak about your work and how it all ties into the work that you're making, the relationships and experiences that you've had, it just all. It's all coming together. I like that.

Bobbi Meier: 00:35:22

Yeah, thanks. I do too. I feel, well, now I don't have to do the full time teaching gig, so that gives me more freedom to make work. And it's almost a little bit.

I'm at a point at the moment where this big show at Driehaus is coming to a close and like, what's next is. Yeah, I'm just thinking, well, get back to the studio and start just drawing. Don't freak yourself out about it.

Stephanie Graham: 00:35:54

So speaking of your work at the Driehaus that is currently showing, you have had your work shown in a lot of respected venues such as the John Michael Kohler Arts center. And it's been at Miami Basel Art Week, currently at the Drie House.

I'm just curious, what's it like, you know, what's it like to have your work at all these fun, respected places?

Bobbi Meier: 00:36:22

Well, it's great. It feels. Yeah, it feels really good. And I keep reminding myself, don't fall into that imposter syndrome trap.

Yeah, I've worked a long time to make something happen and this is the type of thing I want to happen, to be in respected places and I don't know, a professional. Right. Recently I went back to the old school where I was teaching as a visiting artist where I used to teach in high school.

And my former department chair, she said, oh, what are you doing? Because. What are you doing now? Because I'm, quote, retired from that job. I said, I'm a professional artist. And I've. It just popped out of my mouth.

It's like, I don't want that.

There's specific People that I've worked with in the past that think you know art, even if you're a teacher, if you're a teacher of art in a high school especially, you're not really treated as an artist. You're a teacher and you know how to make some things, but you're not considered an artist in that world.

And I always felt that I'm an artist educator, not an art teacher, which is semantics, I know, but it felt like I'm educating these kids about art. I'm an artist.

And that was always really important to me when I was teaching high school that kids would come in and I'd say, this is your studio, you need to treat this place with respect. You're in here to make your work.

And we could, sure, we can have some chit chat back and forth, but this is, I don't know that I use the term serious business, but I wanted them to treat the space with respect. Now, with a 14 year old boy, maybe they're not gonna do that so much.

But by the time they were 18, the kids that really wanted to be there were there. So I'm not quite sure how I went down this path. But how did I know we were.

Stephanie Graham: 00:38:36

Talking about being a professional? About how you've had your work in respected venues.

Bobbi Meier: 00:38:42

Oh, right.

Stephanie Graham: 00:38:43

Which makes me, which makes me think you know the term professional artist.

And I asked, I'm gonna ask this question because I know that there are listeners that will want to know if you, if you're an artist, what makes you professional? Like I think I would call myself professional artist as well.

You know, like, is it just the, you think, just the way you carry yourself, the way that you focus on your work, is it that you're trying to exhibit your work? I don't think there's a wrong answer.

I just wondered, you know, for the person who's like driving, maybe they have their job and they have, you know, they have their art practice. How would, what would you define as someone being a professional artist?

Bobbi Meier: 00:39:31

Well, I think there's two layers here.

The first thing for me, and I've noticed this for some other folks I know that are artists, is to get to that point where you call yourself an artist. Because I think it takes a long time to kind of, oh, I'm an artist, that's what I do. That's. I don't know, it's a, it's different than being.

Well even than being a teacher. The teacher. Oh, I don't, I, I don't know. I just. For me it Was like when I could call myself an artist, I, it felt like an elevation in a way.

And the pro part, maybe that refers to like you're a pro. That means you're an expert at it, which we all know. I mean, when are you an expert?

But I think to the outside world, to say I'm a professional artist takes you outside of the Sunday painter realm. Like, I'm not a hobbyist. This isn't a hobby for me. And that happens even now. People, they know I'm the work I'm making and all that.

But it's hard for some laypeople to get out of that notion of the Sunday painter, the craft person, that kind of thing. And I'm not dissing that role. It's just, I think, no, not at all. I guess that's where I'm coming from.

Maybe that's an antiquated term, professional artist, you know.

Stephanie Graham: 00:40:59

No, I think sometimes it depends, I think, you know, I feel like if I'm at like a family party and someone asks like, oh, are you? What do you do? And I say, I'm an artist.

And they, they might take it to thinking that I'm just like sketching in my notepad while I'm getting my hair braided. And I'm like, no, no, no, I like, no, I'm professional. I'm like serious about this. Okay, so maybe it's like professional slash serious.

Yes, I might sketch while I'm getting my hair braided, but it just doesn't stop there, you know? So I like how you said that. How you just simply said it's not a hobby for you.

So look, if art is not a hobby for you, then just say professional artists or don't say professional artist. I was just curious about that. I have because I'm so into art and film and culture.

I had a mentor who's like, you need to find a hobby, this art outside of this, outside of this find like a non art hobby. And so I took up flying little planes, the planes you take out into the field, Radio planes.

Bobbi Meier: 00:42:08

Oh, cool. I've done that years ago with my dad. That's so great.

Stephanie Graham: 00:42:15

Yeah, and it was funny because, you know, speaking about like relationships and people moving you, a woman from my Bible study, you know, unfortunately her husband passed and he used to fly radio planes. And I was like, I need a hobby. And I was thinking about this and she's like, great, you can have his planes. He has so many.

And she didn't give me all of them, but she gave me the plane. That I use, you know?

Cause she's like, well, he has, like, had, like, a community and stuff like that that would love to have his planes and, you know. But she gave me a good beginner plane. And at the field, there's a man who is he?

I would call a professional radio plane pilot, because he knows all about it. He, you know, shows you the ropes. If something happens, he's there, you know, like, he breathes this stuff, right? Versus I am the Sunday radio.

I'm the Sunday radio plane.

Bobbi Meier: 00:43:15

It's your hobby, girl.

Stephanie Graham: 00:43:17

Yeah, it's my hobby. So, yeah. Where he's like. But he's there to share and be kind. But, like, when I see him, I'm like, oh, yeah. No, he's serious.

He travels, you know, has his friends he meets up with.

Bobbi Meier: 00:43:30

He knows what he.

Stephanie Graham: 00:43:31

Y' all are. Yeah. I was like, oh, you're a professional. And he might not want to be called professional, so. Yeah, maybe. But I'm like, no, you are.

You, like, are pro at this stuff, you know?

Bobbi Meier: 00:43:44

Yeah. You really know what you're doing. Well, I do have a secret hobby. I don't know if it's a secret.

Stephanie Graham: 00:43:49

Oh, you do?

Bobbi Meier: 00:43:50

I do. I grow African violets. Like, I have.

Stephanie Graham: 00:43:55

Oh, no way. Oh, wow.

Bobbi Meier: 00:43:59

I have, like, my house. My house in Miller. I've got so many. I've got a great porch for growing plants, period. But the violets love it. And I just.

It goes back to my grandmother because she grew African violets, and she grew so many. She had this table. I was so. To me, it was huge. I don't know. Probably wasn't.

I was little, she had a whole table with pebbles all over it because she had all these plants, and she would actually sell them to the flower shop down the street because her violets were so beautiful. So that's. It's kind of an inherited thing. Hobby.

Stephanie Graham: 00:44:39

Yeah.

Bobbi Meier: 00:44:41

Yeah.

Stephanie Graham: 00:44:41

I love. I think about, you know, Charlotte, who's the woman from my Bible study. I think about her and her, you know, and her late husband.

Like, I've, like, she's passed his hobby down to me, you know?

Bobbi Meier: 00:44:54

Yeah. I think that's great in a way.

Stephanie Graham: 00:44:56

So I think that that's really cool, you know?

Bobbi Meier: 00:44:59

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I know. I keep thinking I should have a show. I don't. Somehow I could integrate violets into.

I have a solo show coming up, and I'm like, how can I incorporate violets into that? I don't know. I've been photographing them with a macro lens. I mean, it gets. I Don't want to be trite. You know, flowers are.

They're so easy because they're so beautiful. I don't know. It's a question.

Stephanie Graham: 00:45:35

We can make a parking in the parking lot of the show. I can be out there with my fanny pack on, selling African violets like your grandma would when she sell it to the store.

Bobbi Meier: 00:45:49

Cool. Okay. There we go. It'll be a summertime activity.

Stephanie Graham: 00:45:55

Yeah, that would be great.

Bobbi Meier: 00:45:58

That's funny.

Stephanie Graham: 00:45:59

Oh, my gosh.

Well, Bobbi, this has been great learning about you and your work, but before we go, I wanted to see if I can just ask you a couple of little quick, corny fire round questions. These are little yes or no questions, and I just.

Bobbi Meier: 00:46:19

Okay.

Stephanie Graham: 00:46:20

So are you down to have a little nosy round with me?

Bobbi Meier: 00:46:24

I'm totally down.

Stephanie Graham: 00:46:26

Okay. So do you have pets?

Bobbi Meier: 00:46:30

Yes.

Stephanie Graham: 00:46:31

And then would you ever be a housewife on a reality show?

Bobbi Meier: 00:46:36

Probably not, but I don't know. It would take me out of my comfort zone, that's for sure.

Stephanie Graham: 00:46:42

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. There should be, like, a real. That would be a fun, like, real artist housewife show somehow. Like, my gosh. And then last two questions.

Have you ever won a contest?

Bobbi Meier: 00:46:55

Oh, you mean like a. Give me an example. Anything, I guess.

Stephanie Graham: 00:47:03

Like, if you've won, like, a raffle, like, say, put your name on a hat and win a raffle.

Bobbi Meier: 00:47:08

No, not really. I mean, I feel like going to color was winning. Oh, I've won that kind of thing. A residency spot. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Stephanie Graham: 00:47:23

Yeah. That's interesting to think about residencies as raffles. Yeah, kind of.

Bobbi Meier: 00:47:29

I mean, I hope it's not a total crapshoot, but.

Stephanie Graham: 00:47:33

Yeah. Yeah. And my last question is, have you ever or would you ever skydive?

Bobbi Meier: 00:47:41

Never.

Stephanie Graham: 00:47:43

Never. Okay, that's.

Bobbi Meier: 00:47:45

That. No, I don't like that.

Stephanie Graham: 00:47:48

That's not a comfort zone.

Bobbi Meier: 00:47:50

Not at all.

Stephanie Graham: 00:47:51

So maybe you'll. So maybe you'll be a housewife, but you definitely won't skydive, right?

Bobbi Meier: 00:48:01

That's true. Yeah. I didn't even like being lifted up like kid dads do or parents do with their kids. They throw the baby up in the air.

I would if you ever seen that, you know, and I would.

Stephanie Graham: 00:48:15

Yeah, I've seen that. Yeah.

Bobbi Meier: 00:48:16

I would scream. I did not like it, even as a baby. So I don't like. I know. I don't know what it is. I don't like Ferris wheels.

And what's the other one that goes, you know?

Stephanie Graham: 00:48:33

Oh, yeah, I know. Like the. There's, like, that carnival swings ride that just like.

Bobbi Meier: 00:48:37

Yeah. Any of those carnival rides. Yeah, I. Yeah. I don't know. It's. And I'm at an age where I'm like, I don't care. I don't need to like that.

You know, I don't want to jump out of a plane. Right.

Stephanie Graham: 00:48:54

I get it.

Bobbi Meier: 00:48:55

Yeah.

Stephanie Graham: 00:48:56

Well, hey, before we close down, is there anything else that you think we should touch on or anything you want to tell the.

Bobbi Meier: 00:49:02

The.

Stephanie Graham: 00:49:02

The world here?

Bobbi Meier: 00:49:05

I feel. I don't. I just feel really honored to be part of the Chicago art community.

I just feel like this has been a wonderful year for me personally, and I'm happy that I live here.

Stephanie Graham: 00:49:24

Yeah.

Bobbi Meier: 00:49:25

There's just supportive people. A lot of supportive people, and that's felt. Yeah, that feels really good. And I do have a solo show coming up in the fall that'll be at Wabachi.

Stephanie Graham: 00:49:38

Oh, yes. Okay.

Bobbi Meier: 00:49:39

College. Yeah. So I know there's wonderful. Yeah. I think that's what I'm thinking about. What am I going to show there?

So maybe it'll be African violets blown up. I don't know.

Stephanie Graham: 00:49:51

Maybe.

Bobbi Meier: 00:49:52

Who knows?

Stephanie Graham: 00:49:53

That would be fun. Wow. Oh, my gosh. I love it. Well, you know, on behalf of the Chicago arts community, we are so glad that you live here.

Bobbi Meier: 00:50:03

Oh, thank you very much.

Stephanie Graham: 00:50:07

Yeah.

Bobbi Meier: 00:50:08

Stephanie, you've been great. I'm really excited to do this, and I don't know. I didn't know what to expect, and it's been fun. I did expect fun.

Stephanie Graham: 00:50:18

Oh, good.

Bobbi Meier: 00:50:18

I'm so happy. I expected fun and laughter from you, for sure.

Stephanie Graham: 00:50:24

Oh, that's great. That's good to know. Thank you. Thank you all so much for tuning in to Nosy AF on Lumpin Radio.

I am Stephanie Graham, and if you are interested in Bobbi's work, you can find more information about her at her website@bobbimyer.com please stop by Lumpin radio. Check out nosy AF there, as well as all of the other sister and brother and friend shows.

And I hope you guys enjoy today, and I hope you are doing something restful and enjoyable, playful even, dare I say it. Hopefully you guys have a great rest of the.

Bobbi Meier: 00:51:02

The day.

Stephanie Graham: 00:51:02

How many times can I say that? And yeah, see you guys in a few weeks. Bye.