ART: NO LONGER A HOBBY

3 ARTISTS TALK ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR PASSIONS
WRITTEN BY MAYA SWAN
DESIGNED BY ARIANA CAMILLE
PHOTOGRAPHED BY MAYA SWAN & TAYLOR PRIOLA

Marc Jaksuwijitkorn

Photographer + Psychology Student

Before his interview, Marc Jaksuwijitkorn, 25, from Bangkok, Thailand, and a student at Roosevelt University, began showing how he develops film in his 400-square-foot apartment. As he loaded a roll onto a reel using a changing bag, a black fabric pouch designed to keep any light out, he jokingly said that people always ask him to show them how he develops their film, and then he has to show them a mundane process like this one. After finishing the reel on his sage green bedspread, he moved the process into his kitchen, where he began filling up the film tank with developing chemicals. He then set a timer and periodically agitated the canister before hanging the roll up with a clothespin in his closet, where another one is already hanging dry, ready to be scanned. 


According to Jaksuwijitkorn, apart from playing guitar, cooking, and running, he considers photography his main hobby, and developing film is almost exclusively the only way he makes money off it. “I don't think photography is something that I could do every day for the rest of my life to feed myself,” Jaksuwijitkorn said.

Jaksuwijitkorn added, “Photography is so much about myself; it’s so much about what I want to do. I'm being selfish when I'm taking photos because I want to do my style.” He added that he enjoys taking photos that are blend between street photography and landscape. He says the main comment he gets when others critique his photos is that they feel a bit lonely. “I like to take photos of people when they are focusing on something, you know, like reading books, playing on a phone or playing with a kid, playing with a dog, or just like gazing at a distance. When they are focusing on something, you know, they're in the moment,” he said. 

 

Jaksuwijitkorn wasn’t always planning on studying clinical psychology. He originally had a soccer scholarship during his freshman year of college, but due to an injury was unable to continue. He soon began looking into other areas of interest, and that’s how his bachelor’s degree in psychology set him up to now study clinical psychology in the master’s program at Roosevelt. “It's always been a part of me, you know, being someone that your family, your friend turn to when they need advice, that kind of thing,” he said.

"A hobby and what I want to pursue as a career are separate because I don't want to mix those up."

According to Jaksuwijitkorn he loves psychology and photography equally and simply gets two different things out of them. “Art is very selfish. Art is very, you know, egocentric,” he said. He added that psychology is doing for others and thus doesn’t allow him to do that. “It's like a hobby, and what I want to pursue as a career are separate because I don't want to mix it up. I don't know; maybe I don't know how, maybe somebody can, but I personally I cannot,” Jaksuwijitkorn said. 

Check out Marc’s work:
Instagram
Research Publication

Devin Collins

Musician + Creative Writing Student

“I feel like my dream job would be…whatever job has to do with impacting people, expressing myself, making some sort of real change in my lifetime. I feel like that that would probably be the criteria,” said Devin Collins, 20, from North Point, Alabama, and a student at Columbia College Chicago. Collins defines a hobby as “something that I do that passes time and I don't realize how much time has passed,” he said. And for him, the line between the two can be blurred at times, and that’s okay with him. “I feel like they can coexist. I don't feel like they have to be separated,” he said. 


Collins attributes the start of his writing journey to the day his sixth-grade teacher wrote “no such thing as a life that’s better than yours” on the board of their classroom; lyrics from J. Cole’s song “Love Yours.” Collin soon became hooked and said he started thinking, “it’s interesting how I can bend words and tell stories and convey emotions in this medium.” On his laptop, he began putting poems over beats on GarageBand. “Then I started rapping. And that's kind of how that came,” he said.  

"Words are powerful—cheat codes"

Before majoring in creative writing and putting out, music Collins said he had never shared any of his work or taken it very seriously before. “My persona back home was basketball. ‘He plays basketball.’ People didn't know me. A lot of people didn't know I made music. A lot of people didn't know I wrote anything,” he said. “I would write poetry here and there, but it wasn't something I was doing.”

In a collection of his poems titled time moves slow, Collins puts to pages words that express everything from inner dialogue and childhood memories to the things that motivate him. Music is an obvious inspiration throughout. “Words are powerful, cheat codes,” he says in a poem titled desire to try twenty times. A common theme in Collin's poetry and music is honest remarks about life's nuance and the things he grapples with. The collection itself shows Collins's experimentation, with each poem testing a new tone. In one titled, they pt. 1, at first glance, looks like a playlist; it lists songs and describes his associations with each one. Later in the collection, he takes a copy of the same poem and blacks out words with a pen, giving it a whole new meaning.

Since having required writing for school, Collins said it helps because it forces him to write more. “That poem ended up turning into a collection of like 12 poems. I would have never done it if it wasn't for that class,” he said. Later adding, “that was the catalyst for me to end up writing more because I knew that I got to share with people that cared. And so that made it a safe space for me to write freely.” 


When discussing the potential difficulties of pursuing an art form as a career, Collins mentioned that sometimes it could be hard; he said that sometimes he can get stuck staring at a blank page for hours. And other times, he said the “whole process of making music from the start of writing the first lyric or working on the beat, or, again, stuck at a point and having to push through, it's just very therapeutic. I feel very at ease…the feeling that I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't know the word for that.”

Check out Devin’s work:
Instagram
Spotify

jess depaul

Designer + Chainstitch Embroiderer

The first time Jess DePaul, 28, from Fox River Grove, Illinois, saw a chain stitch machine was after the 2016 Manifest show at Columbia College Chicago. “It kind of switched my whole mindset because I've always loved clothes. I've always altered my clothes. I've always thought I was going to be some sort of fashion designer, but I was too scared to be a fashion student,” she said. At her booth at the festival, she had a few jackets she had altered and embroidered with a sewing machine, all of which encapsulated music and movies she was interested in at the time. One black leather jacket, in particular, was hung in the corner with the words “Mister Baby” spelled out in red on the back; a design idea she got from the 80’s movie Mystery Train, and would later become the name of her brand.  
 

When walking into DePaul’s apartment, there's a spiral staircase in front of two vintage pink couches. A little to your right and you’ll enter a studio filled with colored thread, racks of bright colored clothing, embroidery tools pinned to the walls, and apparel hung high to the ceiling with “Mister Baby” chain-stitched into the fabric. Tons of supplies, and yet, the way it’s organized, everything seems to have a home.

 DePaul works in her studio whenever she has spare time away from her day job. She is currently doing some freelancing designs, and since 2020 she began doing pop-up shops, bringing along her array of curated clothes, the ones in her studio currently being full of bright colored pastels and neons and loud patterns, a style she has always encompassed herself. “I’m a summer girl,” she said. While it’s obvious DePaul is drawn to bright colors, she always seems to balance her outfits with contrasting pieces. On the day of the interview, she wore a white 70’s orange and white button-up shirt with two symmetrical flower designs chain stitched to the shoulders; a design she embroidered herself. She paired the top with brown low waisted Dickies pants. “I feel like I can be so feminine, but also masculine at the same time,” she said.  

“It was that life push thing that was like, you have to do this.”

DePaul graduated from Columbia College Chicago back in 2016 with a graphic design degree. At the time, she worked in the Career Center, where she helped students design their resumes and create custom logos for their projects. Design was always something within her. As a child, she spent a lot of time in her mom's scrapbooking store. “I grew up around paper and stickers and supplies so the way this room looks right now. I feel like it looks like this because I grew up in a sticker store,” she said. An element of her childhood that has continued to show up in her creative life as an adult. “I think I've always been on this journey of, where does my creativity actually come out in the way that I want it to?” she said. 
 

Almost immediately after becoming in awe of chain stitching, DePaul went on eBay to find a chain stitch machine of her own— finding one that she had spent almost all her money on at the time. “It was that life push thing that was like, you have to do this,” she said. Even after that realization, fresh out of college, DePaul didn’t jump into chain stitching right away. “I didn't touch my machine at all because I was like, I don't know what to make,” she said. She worked many different graphic design jobs as a freelancer. Working at one point for a woman who had her designing a math textbook. “It was very boring, but that’s just how I was making my money,” she said. At the time, she navigated the business, figuring out how much money to ask for as a designer. A starting point she finds herself in now, but as a chain stitch embroiderer and vintage clothing curator. 
 

She still works full-time for a real estate company as a graphic designer; she designs their business cards, does branding, and helps with their marketing. A job that, when she first started, filled the creative void in her and now has simply become a way she makes most of her money. The end game for DePaul is to curate vintage clothing and chain stitch full time, “I've been able to mix chain stitching with my love of vintage and my love of clothing and fashion. I like finding ways that graphic design kind of works itself into this,” she said. 

As of recent, she has done work for tequila brands, Illegal Mezcal, and Patagonia, chain stitching logos at their events. When doing pop-up markets of her own, she brings along her chain stitch machine; she lives stitches designs for customers, providing flash sheets for people to choose from and allowing people the option to request a custom design or phrase. A business model she hopes to be permanent soon. A one-stop shop for people to buy clothing and make walk-in embroidery requests. Her major goal is to have a store slash studio. DePaul said the long hours and stress that have come with this transition are all a “stepping stone to the magical vision.” 

Check out Jess’s work:
Instagram
Website