Inside The Mind of Chloe Teall
"Made for artists, dreamers, + doers"
"Great things start in little rooms." These are words Chloe never forgets. Her creative eye is always open, ready to interpret life's enigmatic message and portray it onto her work. When she's not watching her Oklahoma City Thunder tear through the league or listening to Mac Miller in her studio, you can find her on the prowl at thrift markets searching for that next hidden gem that will find new life in her art.
"How can I turn this into something that somebody else can not only wear to get a couple more uses, but love and cherish?", Chloe said as she reflected on her love for upcycled clothing.
As Professor Teall you can catch her encouraging her art students with sage wisdom from a place of passion and understanding. After pursuing her master's degree in fine arts she has used her experience to help cultivate the knowledge of others. It's an experience that has continued to enrich her own understanding of art, "I'm constantly learning from my students", she said glowingly.
A multidisciplinary artist, Chloe's work spans custom printed, painted, airbrushed, and sewn upcycled clothing, with all designs crafted in her vision. Outside of the classroom she routinely mans her ever-growing booth at events like Michigan's premiere vintage clothing market, Mitten Vintage.
We sat down in her stomping grounds, the print making studio in the fine arts building of IUSB, to step Inside The Mind behind Teall Studios.
SOURCE: How would you describe yourself as an artist?
Chloe: Kind of a hard question, because I feel like I go through phases with so many different modes of art. Right now I'm super interested in clothes, I have been interested in clothes for a long time. But I would say I always have the same idea, which is just trying to make sense of my mind and the human experience. And then the way that I do that shifts a little. So right now it's clothes, a few years ago it was painting, sometimes it's ceramics, sometimes it's printmaking. But the through line is always just making sense of this thing called humanity and trying to have people see themselves.
SOURCE: What was your very first creative memory you could possibly recount?
Chloe: It's so funny that you ask this, because I actually was asking my mom this a few months ago. When I was really little, like probably three-four years old, I would pick out my dad's tie every day. He was a paper salesman, so he would wear like like a dress shirt and a tie every day. And so I would pick out these color combinations, and I had asked my mom like, "How did that start?" And she said she thinks it started because one day he was wearing his outfit for the day and I was like, "That shirt does not match that tie, you could do better. And so from then on out we just have been picking out these outfits.
And that also evolved into me always asking my dad to draw horses for me. I was a horse girl, still am deep down. And my dad can't draw for shit, but in my five year old mind he's like, the best. And eventually he's like, "We need to start drawing horses because this is not even my thing." So those are the earliest expressions of trying to create a thing.
SOURCE: A fashion curator from the start. So are you a 574 native?
Chloe: Absolutely, born in South Bend, lived in South Bend up until I was 21. And even then I've moved to a couple of places, but I'm never that far.
"There's something about a girl and a horse. They're just so free and peaceful, and aesthetically weird looking, yet graceful animals. I love like using the horse motif because they look so uninhibited."
SOURCE: What kind of student are you?
Chloe: Good student. Really wanted to please the teachers, really wanted to make good work, but easily distracted. Really chatty. I definitely loved art class and trying to find any extracurricular in art.
SOURCE: What made you want to pursue your master's?
Chloe: I totally fumbled into it. I wish I could speak with more intentionality to it. Sometimes things just show up in your life and they just kind of happen before you realize they're happening, and my MFA was definitely one of those. So I did my undergrad at IUSB right where we are now in this exact studio. It just took me a long time to mature with my art practice. Like I had always made art, but never knew what I wanted to be making.
It all kind of clicked for me my senior year, but at that point it's like I'm about to be graduating and I don't feel like I'm ready to graduate. I feel like I just figured it out. My peers had maybe figured it out before they even got to college, and so I just started looking into MFA programs and got in. I was totally unprepared, but it just worked.
SOURCE: What did you get your undergraduate degree in?
Chloe: It was a general arts study and then I minored in printmaking. So mostly focused in printmaking and painting. My master's is in what's called an integrative studio practice, which basically means multidisciplinary. I was really glad that the program I went to didn't silo you into just one particular thing. So when I was doing my master's I was mostly involved with painting and ceramics.
SOURCE: What was the experience like getting your master's? Was it daunting/challenging?
Chloe: Yeah, I describe it as a pressure cooker, which is like a really good thing.
You have a really short period of time, my program is two years. And in that short window of time you have to make a lot of work— really good work. And you have a thesis committee and their whole job is to push you. I was really glad that my program had shows constantly, so that gave me more opportunities to put together a body of work and show it to an audience, which is amazing.
But that also meant that I had constant deadlines to meet, like OK, I got to put together a body of work, show it, and then be able to justify it, and be like, "I made this because of this." I'm referencing these historical things, I'm hoping that it pushes the zeitgeist forward in this way. And sometimes as an artist you're making things intuitively and you don't always have those answers in the moment. So I think that that was challenging for me at times to figure out— why am I doing what I'm doing and how do I translate this impulse into academia and academic language?
Challenging, but also just so vital for me. I matured exponentially going in and coming out, and I definitely would not be the artist that I am today without that experience, it was amazing.
SOURCE: What is an adjunct professor?
Chloe: So an adjunct professor in like regular terms is basically part-time. So I'm not teaching a full-time course load, I'm not on salary, I get paid per credit hour, essentially.
And it's usually like a one year contract. So right now I teach two classes which is six credit hours. So that's what an adjunct is. To be like a lecturer professor or tenured professor usually you have to be teaching for a really long time and establish a pretty good reputation within your university, and also just have really profound work. That's the research experience.
SOURCE: What led you to teaching?
Chloe: It's another freak thing, like in the best possible way. Just the opportunity showed up and I took it. As part of my MFA program they don't force you to teach, but you get paid to teach. You take this course that teaches you how to be a professor and what that entails. I first started just TA'ing (teaching assistant) when I was in my first year, and then my second year I was teaching on my own. I didn't go into grad school wanting to be a professor, again I just stumbled into it. But then once I had the experience of TA'ing and working with students, I found it to be super rewarding. I learned so much about art and how people make art by working with students.
SOURCE: What have you learned from teaching others?
Chloe: Oh my gosh, everything I'm saying, it's just everything all the time. I feel like I understand how art works because I'm watching so many people do it all day and they all have a different experience. And right now I feel like I deeply understand the psychology of drawing, because I've seen hundreds of students so far try to tackle a problem and I've seen all the ways that they've tried to do it, and how they get through it and solve it.
I feel like I just know what art is now better after teaching. I'm constantly learning from my students, too. They'll be like, "Hey, I saw this TikTok of this guy doing this method, what do you know about it?" I go, "Oh, I've never seen that person do that ever. But I'm here to like help you figure it out or here's what I can tell you about it." It can become like a collaborative thing if they have an idea and I have a certain skill set, and we can kind of meet in the middle, which is just amazing.
SOURCE: Would you go the tenured professor route?
Chloe: I think that I'll always teach. There's a lot of responsibilities being tenured and sometimes those responsibilities can take away from the teaching component. You have to serve on committees, there's research qualifications— which means work. And really what I love about teaching is teaching the students. So right now I'm not trying to pursue the tenure track or even a lecture track. But who's to say five years from now that I won't want that stability of income or health insurance or whatever. So I'm open, but leaning more towards
no.
SOURCE: What art medium came first for you?
Chloe: 1000% painting.
SOURCE: I've seen you do both abstract and more realist works; how would you describe your style?
Chloe: I personally most identify with my abstract, text-based works. That's what I mostly pursued in grad school, that's what my thesis was in. But I also love a good food painting. There's something to be said for understanding what has commercial value, and I think the abstract work might be less accessible to people and harder to understand or relate with. But like a beautiful painting of an egg or some oranges is really everyday and common, and beautiful in its own simple way. So I think people can find a way and relate with that, maybe you want to buy it. [laughs]
SOURCE: How does the process of printmaking differ in difficulty and time compared to painting?
Chloe: They're just kind of different because the end goal with oil painting is to make like one really beautiful thing that's maybe for one person or just for me or whatever.
But with printmaking it's really communal, you know, so you're going to make 50 things and you hope 50 people have it, which I think is just a really special feeling. And so yes, the process of like actually making the print is faster sometimes, but it has a different life after you, which is kind of exciting.
SOURCE: How did you transition int0 fashion?
Chloe: Man I've always loved fashion, and actually like back in 2018 was when I first started making jeans and painting jeans and was obsessed with it. I went into grad school actually making jeans, but your thesis committee is meant to push you and challenge you. And they didn't really understand the jeans in a fine art context, and I didn't understand how to justify it in that lens.
To me, the jeans and the clothes and is fine art and not necessarily commercial, but they didn't see it that way. So I started doing it like years and years ago and then kind of took a break as I was trying to really find my identity as an abstract painter, but was always doing commissions on the side. And then when I got out of grad school I was like, I want to make jeans again. That never went away. And by that point I had kind of developed the language for why these matter, why these could go in a gallery. They don't have to just be fashion, it can be both. I've always loved it.
"I really care about my art being accessible. I respect the gallery space and what that means for it to be there, but I don't want there to be excessive hurdles to getting to my work either. So I feel clothes are a way to give fine art to people who maybe can't afford a $1400 painting."
SOURCE: How is it being a clothing vendor at in-person events? Any learning curves?
Chloe: Yes, definitely. My first show was a $65 vending fee, which is common, they have to get the space and whatever. And I think I made like $85 or something so I barely broke even, and I drove like an hour to go. Honestly I felt like such an idiot, just because I was new and it was my first time. I was like, okay, I tried it. It didn't work. But I kind of know why it didn't work. I'm going to do this other event and tweak some things and see if I can at least make my money back, right? And then the next event went much better, like exponentially better. I nearly sold out of everything I had made, which I still am not over that.
And it was great to just have people engage with your work so intimately, like they're feeling the fabric, they're holding it up to their bodies.
They're like, "Oh my gosh, your cousin would love this." And "How did you make this? You make this yourself?" Having one on one interactions with people as opposed to posting it into the ether and getting 10 likes— what even is a like? What does that even mean?— feels really great.
SOURCE: So you are a big thrifter?
Chloe: Oh yeah. I'm probably doing this so I have more excuses to go thrifting. [laughs] I'm probably going to butcher the stat on the spot, but I think there's like 92 million tons of clothing waste every year, which is horrifying to think about, especially with a lot of fabrics being made of polyester and plastic material that's not going to decompose.
I love the idea of going to a thrift store, picking out a shirt that maybe has pit stains, eee!, maybe is torn, or just nobody else is going to buy it. And then be like, how can I transform this? How can I hide the pit stains? How can I turn this into something that somebody else can not only wear to get a couple more uses, but love and cherish and hopefully make that less likely to end up back in a thrift store, aka landfill. So it's super important to me. And it also makes the pieces one of a kind, you can't find another shirt like that.
SOURCE: What do these mean to you: Godspeed, Blessed, Lucky Me, Never Better, Fuck AI, Great Things Start in Little Rooms. I know I'm missing even more.
Chloe: Those first few come from a self care/ self appreciation perspective. I'm honestly a pessimist, or at least I was. I've always had to have a lot of effort to be like, no, lucky me, like good things are happening all the time. And sometimes I miss it because I'm too busy being negative. And I think I've changed and like embracing those things. Like, I really am never better. And I love that and I'm proud of that.
Godspeed, I just think that sounds dope. [laughs] And I have like two songs that I love called Godspeed.
Great Things Start in Little Rooms, wearing it on my shirt. Kind of a long story so I'll try to condense it. Essentially this is actually a quote that I stole from Andre 3000, and he kind of stole it from Jack White. But Jack White has this song, it's only like a 40 second song, something to the effect of making something great in your little room. And if it's really good, you're gonna need a bigger room, and then when you're in your bigger room, you're not gonna know what to do. And you're gonna try to think of how you got started in your little room. I have goosebumps even thinking about it.
Andre 3000 was being accepted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, And his speech was about that song and how Outkast started in the little room. And now Outkast is this huge thing, right? But it all started from this like really pure place of just loving making something. Not because it's gonna make you famous, not because it's gonna make you rich, but because I love to make this.
And so I love that reminder, especially now that my income is from art, which is a privilege in itself. When you have that pressure on you it's easy to forget why you're doing this, where this comes from, and how much you love this. I also want my students to feel that. I want them to feel like the stuff they do in class is important, and it matters, and it starts here. There's maybe gonna be a time where you are rich and famous and you wouldn't be there without fucking around in the studio when you were 16 or whatever. So I just love that quote. I live by it. I cried when I first watched the video of Andre 3000 talking about it. [laughs]
SOURCE: How do you juggle all of these ventures while avoiding burnout?
Chloe: Well, I'm definitely burnt out. I think it goes back to the quote I just said, which is like, where is the play? Where can I be a little bit less hard on myself? A little bit less serious.? What work do I want to make? Not what work sells. So I don't make fruit paintings all the time because I know that I can sell those but that doesn't feel true to me.
Now not having deadlines of school, not having so much pressure on the work to be perfect or critiqued makes it more fun too. Now I just make what I want and I don't let opinions get in the way. Sometimes people don't get it at school, but you don't have to get it because I love it. I made this shirt because I want to wear this shirt. So I think that having kind of like a have fun mindset really helps you avoid burnout.
And also sometimes just take a day off, dude. Come back if it's frustrating you. If you're pissed off at the art like, yo, go for a walk. Seriously, I have to have that conversation with myself all the time because you're not going to be creating from a good place.
SOURCE: What are some of your biggest artistic influences?
Chloe: With visual art: Sister Corita Kent was making amazing things. Mark Bradford, Adam Pendleton, Mel Bochner, Tracey Emin; really inspired by all their works, approach, process or material use. But honestly I feel my work is more influenced by music. I'll listen to an album and say, okay that person is an excellent communicator, and they're taking a feeling that I have felt and expressing it so clearly I can like taste it, you know? When that happens, I want to give someone that same feeling visually.
Huge Mac Miller fan, I relate to him deeply and Isaiah Rashad too. I feel like the work that I'm trying to make is, in my mind, like no one may see this but me, but I'm making the work that I think they're making. Like we're talking about the same thing just through our own media or modality.
SOURCE: What's the one album you can't live without?
Chloe: Ooo I hate this. GO:OD AM by Mac Miller, or Faces. Mac Miller feels like a cousin to me. [laughs] There's definitely some parasocial, like I see so much of me in Mac Miller that I just love his lyricism.
SOURCE: What would you say it is about hip hop that you connect so personally with?
Chloe: Rappers are excellent communicators. I actually talked a lot about hip hop in my thesis because it feels so closely related to my work, even though content, context, everything is different. Kendrick Lamar made a song called "FEEL" on the album DAMN. and I remember I would listen to that song on repeat and be like, how do I make a painting that feels how this song sounds? A few months passed and I made a painting and was looking at it like, this painting looks like how "FEEL" feels to me. Perfectly redundant [laughs]. It has such an influence on my practice.
SOURCE: If Tyrese Haliburton doesn't tear his achilles in game 7, do your OKC still take the chip? The floor is yours.
Chloe: I feel like you're throwing me into the lion's den in the South Bend. I don't know, to be honest, yeah, I think that OKC would. I'm sorry, I love Tyrese Halliburton, I love the Pacers, I really do. I went to Pacers games all the time in grad school. I love that team. But J Dub in particular was just so impactful and I feel like even if Tyrese were there, it would have been close. They had a crazy season.
Editor's note: Pacers in 7
SOURCE: What advice would you give to your younger self?
Chloe: I'm going to aim this at other young artists, because I had to just go through whatever I went through. I think the most underrated part of an art practice is professionalism. I feel like we're always talking about all these other things, and they're important, make work that feels true to you and just keep going. But honestly, showing up to something on time, doing your homework, making a good impression on your professors or your boss or whatever. Honestly I can't even overstate how important that is.
There's been times where I wasn't the best artist for the job, I might not have been the most talented or maybe it was not in my field, but I got the job because they knew that I was going to get it to them on time. When you're dealing with executives or people who aren't artists and they have to hire an artist for something, sometimes they don't even know what the best art looks like, but they know that you can't fuck up their budget. They know that this can't be late.
And on the other side of that I've definitely missed opportunities because I just didn't show up how I should have been, didn't put my best foot forward, didn't just like act right. So I would say don't underestimate the professionalism because it can get you pretty far.
The Shout outs
Chloe: Shout out to my students. Thank you for everything, teaching me all the time, putting up with me. Shout out to Gio, aka Gio Gomez Beats, aka CHOPDASOUL. Long time partner. If you are a producer, go get your sample chops from him. Never AI, always royalty free. Shout out to my brother, Andrew Teal, he's the sommelier at Rose Lilly. So go get a good wine pairing from them and some good food. Shout out everyone who I've ever known and loved.
You heard it here; straight from The Source and Chloe Teall (and Peanut).
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