Inside The Mind of Angel Horn
Angel's aura is laid back, yet the drive behind her passion is fierce. SAWDUST & SOLIDARITY is her philosophy, "Full creative expression and intersectionality are super important from my identity as a whole to even the things I create for myself."
From her painstakingly small carvings and etchings, to works that swallow you in their sheer scale, Angel Horn's craftsmanship is awe-inspiring as both a woodworker and muralist. And if you have seen her towering wolf piece at YART, then you know I mean that literally.
"Anything that you want to learn how to do, you can do. It's just how much dedication and time you want to put into it," Angel reflected. She's a rebellious and determined spirit, a self taught creative whose well-traveled journey has led her to different artistic mediums. "I'm super ambitious, I'm a hustler at heart."
At the woodworking studios of Make South Bend we got a chance to sit down together and step Inside the Mind behind the work.
SOURCE: What kind of artist would you describe yourself as?
Angel: Tangible, anything that I can physically get my hands on. Malleable art is my favorite, so anything from clay, sculpting, installation artwork. Creating something physically out of nothing brings me the most joy.
SOURCE: How did growing up as a military kid shape you?
Angel: Oof, too many ways. It made me really adaptable, which I think comes into my artwork. And like my attention to detail because of my mother, and just the way we did everyday normal things makes me like fine-tune what I do better and the detail in my woodworking, I think it helps a lot.
SOURCE: What would you say is your very first creative memory?
Angel: Probably being in the kitchen with my grandmother and cooking and finding ways to be creative that way. Before I knew anything about my love for artwork I wanted to cook, and I wanted to be selective and creative with the ingredients and the flavors and how they mix together.
SOURCE: How far did you go with culinary arts?
Angel: I wanted to go to school, I didn't pursue it officially, but in high school I was on the chef's team and we traveled around parts of Arizona, New Mexico, California, doing cooking competitions. So I was pretty serious about it for a while. And in the Southwest, I didn't go to school out here in the Midwest, but that is one of those high school electives that you could do, but it was almost like a sport.
SOURCE: Would you say the pandemic influenced you to take a leap of faith in your art?
Angel: Oh, 1000%. It was one of those like, "Oh, the world is burning anyway, you're broke anyway, you might as well follow your dreams, you might as well do that thing that you were too afraid to do before." So yeah, it definitely catapulted my decision to change my career path.
"I want to continue to push myself, and I want to be able to do things that are really hard and that seem impossible so that my own ego gets a little shifted."
SOURCE: You said before you've never taken an art class, what was that commitment like to teaching yourself something like tattoo art?
Angel: Someone said the phrase to me that like no one is born a Picasso. Like anything that you want to learn how to do, you can do. It's just how much dedication and time you want to put into it. Like if I want to switch tomorrow and become a mechanic and I know nothing about cars, I can get there in a couple of year, it's just how much time you want to devote. So that was like my driving factor. Like, well, I have all of this time.
I just spent all of COVID teaching myself from scratch, like how to draw from a stick figure to like something that resembled a good tattoo. And then that transcribed to, okay, now I have to learn how to paint. And then I learned very quickly that I kind of hate painting, it's boring. So then I started building my own canvas. Working with wood and working with tools and building something was a lot more enjoyable than actually painting on the canvas that I was building. So then that led to how can I work more with these materials? And then slowly started integrating the wood and that's how it started. Pretty quickly in like a year span of being comfortable painting to now I'm devoting myself to this wood stuff.
SOURCE: What about woodworking captured your imagination so much?
Angel: At first it was truly just that it happened to be there and happened to be something that I needed to learn how to do. So I taught myself, and the more I did it it became more of like a rebellious thing in my head because there's not a lot of women that do what I do. Then it became like, oh fuck you, this is exactly what I'm going to do. Because that's kind of what the patriarchy tells you, that women can't pursue in their creative endeavors.
SOURCE: Take me through the meaning of your phrase SAWDUST & SOLIDARITY?
Angel: Full creative expression and intersectionality are super important from my identity as a whole to even the things I create for myself and what I want those things to say. So it's just using this already kind of rebellious form of creative expression paired with like intersectionality. So that's kind of the best way I can explain it into words.
SOURCE: Take me through that moment you decided to pursue art full-time as a career?
Angel: I don't know if there was ever a moment, I'm super persistent and it's hard for me to give up something. I think it was just I want to theoretically accomplish this, and then I get to that point like how much harder can I make this? So for a solid two years every time I created something it was vastly different and more complex than the thing before it. Just because I want to continue to push myself and I want to be able to do things that are really hard and that seem impossible, so that my own ego gets a little shifted.
SOURCE: As an artist juggling so many projects, what are your keys to avoiding burnout?
Angel: Listen to yourself, listen to your body. Your body will tell you when you need to slow down. And for a long time I guess I thought I was tough like oh yeah I'm really tired, but I'm going to push through and keep doing this. Maybe it's the old age, maybe I'm just getting up there, but just listening to yourself when you're tired or when you're mentally drained to just do whatever you need to do, whether it's just 30 minutes or an hour of like self soothing in whatever way that looks like for you. Or, hey, I'm going to take the next week off and just do nothing.
"I enjoy it because of how intentional you have to be and the amount of work that goes into making the smallest detail." - Angel, on woodworking
SOURCE: Would you say woodworking is becoming a lost art?
Angel: Kind of, yeah. Wood itself is just expensive, it's hard for people to pursue this because the dedication that you have to have to allot this amount of money for this tool that's really, really expensive. It's almost like watchmaking, these tactile, really precise types of art. It's not something that's super accessible because it takes so much money to do it. Looking at my QuickBooks with the amount of money that I spend on material the amount of money that I make goes right back into my business because of the tools or the wood that I need is ridiculous.
And also the time. I do enjoy it because of how intentional you have to be and the amount of work that goes into making the smallest detail. So I'm just trying to add this little rose here, but just that one rose might take me 12 hours to make. I think that in a world that we live in where everything is so fast paced, even some of the artwork that people are pushing out with no shade to them, but it's all like how quickly you can make it and how quickly you can flip it and make money. And this is not one of those things, so it does make it harder and it does make it like more expensive. Like this thing took me two months to make it and I'm super proud of how much work that you didn't see and how much love I poured into it.
SOURCE: Take me through the process of networking with businesses to do murals for them, who is contacting who?
Angel: I think it's kind of 50-50. I still see myself as a super beginner in the mural world. When you're first getting started it's a lot of hey here's some things I've done, trust me enough to let me paint on your wall for like a crazy discount or for free just to build a portfolio. And then it's kind of like a 50-50 amount of word of mouth or they see your project somewhere and find a way to get in contact with you. (But for me it's a lot of door knocking. I'm super ambitious, I'm a hustler at heart. So I straight up just go to businesses and go to people that I think could use could benefit from a mural and just talk to them about what that can do for their business. A lot of times you'll get a "no" but sometimes you'll get a "yes."
SOURCE: How do you marry your creative vision with what a client wants for their business?
Angel: Each project is completely different, but even still it's a mixture of both. It's a mixture of as an artist, this is the design style or this is the color palette I think would work best with what you have here. What is this mural? What do you want this mural to say to the people that are coming into this space? How do you want this to be impactful? Is it to drive business? Are you trying to personally say something? Do you not want it to say anything? Do you just want a piece of artwork? So start with those questions and then dwindle down to the design, concepts, and the colors.
SOURCE: What is the most hours you've clocked on a mural?
Angel: Probably the one I did at Monterey. It's a massive like 70-foot mural and it was my first big outdoor mural. I want to say that one took me about three weeks of solid 8 to 12 hour days. When you're doing something for the first time you're going to have a lot more time figuring out specifics on how to roll this paint this way and tackling different obstacles that come your way as you're painting it. I'm sure that won't be the situation the next time I get a 70-foot wall, but first times are always kind of hard.
SOURCE: What is your favorite piece of yours?
Angel: Probably the one I did for Counterspell Cafe. My most recent wood piece so far is my favorite wood piece I've ever done. I have a thing for birds and wings, I don't know what it is. I think there is some symbolic things for me personally with that. But they were just fully like, "Hey whatever you want to do, we trust your vision. Make something cool. This is our price range." And just let me have full creative freedom, so maybe that was part of it as well. But it's super my style, some of my favorite colors and imagery. And there was no rush on time limit, so what artist can be mad about that, you know?
SOURCE: If you could only keep one tattoo, which one would it be?
Angel: I would say probably my hummingbird on my neck. There's not a lot of tattoos I have that have meaning, most of my tattoos are just like, hey that's cool. Or hey I went and visited this place in New Mexico and we got a tattoo to remember it. But that's one of the tattoos that have meaning and so that's why it's right there at a pivotal point. And I love it, she's cute, she's a little cutie bird.
SOURCE: How important is music to your process and workflow?
Angel: It's a necessity, I don't think I could create if I didn't have music. I have insane ADHD so it's hard for me to focus even when I'm doing something that I love. My brain is going a million miles a minute all the time. So like having something in the background that my brain's little ping pong situation can kind of focus on while I'm focusing on this helps a lot. And it just gets the vibes going, so whether I'm feeling like I want a slow morning to really hyper focus or I need something to really pump me up to get through something that's hard.
SOURCE: In your workplace or your studio, what is the one album you can't live without while creating?
Angel: Right now it might be blkswn by Smino.
SOURCE: In all of your travels growing up as a military kid, what would you say would be your preferred destination to retire off into the sunset? Or what was your favorite spot to live in?
Angel: Unfortunately I think a lot of people's American dream now is to leave America, so I would say like Spain or something. But my favorite place I've ever lived was probably Arizona, there's just something beautiful about the mountains and the sunsets and sunrises there that's unlike anywhere else in the country that I've seen, so gorgeous. I love the dry heat. I do not like the wintertime, I hate shoveling snow, me and winter are not friends. So put me in the desert, please.
SOURCE: What about South Bend made you settle down in this community?
Angel: I kind of got picked up and plopped down here when my mom got stationed overseas again. And when I first moved here I was like, "Where the heck am I?" But the longer I stayed here and actually got involved in the community it made me love it that much more because it is unlike a lot of places I've been where the inclusion is really beautiful here. Especially the art scene, everyone is there for everyone. If you know where to go, the vibes are always immaculate. Everyone feels pretty welcoming and I love that a lot, it's hard to walk away from that.
I've been here about 10 to 12 years. I came here from Arizona, that's where I graduated high school from, so it was it was a shock. I didn't have a winter coat when I first moved here, so that was hard to get used to. And driving in the snow, holy cow.
SOURCE: What is the one movie you can't live without?
Angel: Four Brothers is so good. I think it's nostalgia from my first time watching that movie. Holidays just weren't a huge thing for my family growing up, so one year I was by myself on Thanksgiving and we didn't have a TV in my house, but there was one in my grandmother's room. And my grandma just kind of felt bad for me because she could tell I was kind of down and out, so she let me watch TV in the room and I put on that. That movie just happened to be on TV or whatever and I watched it and fell in love with. It was just such a beautiful movie, and every year I watched it on Thanksgiving.
SOURCE: What advice would you give to your younger self or any other young artists out there?
Angel: Nothing is impossible. You can quite literally do anything if you just dedicate your time. The amount of people like, "Oh, I wish I could do that, I wish I was as talented as you."
Man, four years ago I couldn't draw a stick figure either, so just keep with it. Any woman that wants to get into this field and is scared or nervous or doesn't know where to start, hit me up. We can have that conversation. I would love nothing more than to teach more people how to get started.
The Shout Outs
Angel: Shout out Make South Bend, they have this amazing space. Whatever you want to do they pretty much offer it here. Shout out Lauren Steinhofer, we're deep in the YART season right now so that's going to be really cool, hoping to build something crazy for this year. Shout out Alex Ann Alex doing all the murals around town. Shout out the Rocki Button, shout out Jeff.
You heard it here, straight from The Source.
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