The world is your oyster. It’s also your canvas.
The impetus of art surrounds us—in mattresses and fingernails; in cookies and mobility aids.
Here are the Midwest artists proving creativity starts not just with a pen and paper, but with the unexpected inspiration of everyday life.
A Handful of Tiny Canvases
Licensed nail technician Fox Nguyen, a self-described “nail freak,” makes visual magic happen. Based in Portsmouth, Ohio, the award-winning artist started drawing at age 3.
“Foxes,” their nail persona, calls glitter a nail tech’s best friend and loves anything from “colorful and trippy” to “vintage and medieval.” It takes Foxes upwards of three hours for some pieces.
“It’s easier for me to adapt to smaller canvas. It’s easier to navigate a design on a smaller surface. And with a steady hand, and tiny brushes, anything is possible,” Foxes says.
Beds Are for Painting!
Over the last eight years, “Triangulador” has spray painted over 300 pieces on—get this — mattresses.
Creating in Madison, Wisconsin. Triangulador’s experimental works are “spontaneous and abstract,” done on what the artist calls “unconventional found objects” (we think mattresses and old sofas fit the description). The mattresses are propped up in public spaces for passersby to wonder at.
“I paint because I enjoy it. It’s part of who I am and what I do. I don’t need any other reason,” Triangulador says.
‘Feel More Like Themselves’
Jules and Kei of Sad Clown Club create mobility aid accessories—cutely. The two Midwest-raised, disabled artists have been customizing accessories like charms, wrist straps, and “stick stacks” (often with colorful beads) since 2020 to personalize folks’ extensions of their personalities and their bodies.
“Nobody does exactly what we do in the way that we do, and we often receive messages from people about how they never even thought of having cute mobility aids or customizing them to feel more like themselves when they use it,” the duo says.
Sad Clown Club was recently commissioned to customize forearm crutches. The ask: a pastel pink and purple sky “with dreamy clouds and stars” about.
“The idea would be to document this whole process and share in the joy we feel helping people feel more at home in their bodies, mobility aids and all,” the artists say.
Icing on the Cookie
By day, North Dakotan Haley Nelson designs software. After clocking out, Nelson’s all about designing sugar cookies. She documents the process and teaches others—for free—how to make said “killer cookies,” too.
“I think art should be accessible to everyone, whether it’s edible or to be observed,” Nelson says. From tiny astronauts to photorealistic northern lights, the icing at Gray Duck Bakes are never boring and always impressive (especially for a self-proclaimed hobbyist).
