About

Couch Wolf is an open love letter, in art form, to the Region and a celebration of life in Northwest Indiana, where I grew up with a passion for drawing. It started accidentally as a creative outlet while laid off from my soulless, corporate graphic design job. After a decade of living in Chicago, I'd recently moved back to NWI and, in doing so, rediscovered the boundless beauty of the Dunes, the joy of getting lost on scenic back roads, and the frustration of every 4 minute drive turning into 15 minutes...because non-stop Valpo trains. And yet, still preferable to 37 minute, 3 mile drives, while getting 7mph over speeding tickets from a camera.

Being compelled to create Region-inspired art pulled me out of an extended creative rut. Mixing local landmarks, legends, and lore with my childhood affinity for Mad Magazine, trading cards, and horror movies became the genesis for unbridled designs; wildly colorized film photographs of the Dunes Lakeshore, satirical drawings of mill rats smoking cigarettes, and t-shirts about (supposedly) haunted places I criminally trespassed as a kid. 

A friend encouraged me to list some of these personal passion projects on Etsy. Around the same time, word spread about numerous, supposedly not drunk drivers, crashing into a boulder-laden traffic median in the Valparaiso Strack's parking lot off of Route 30, now locally referred to as "Rock Island". I thought it might be humorous to commemorate the odd occasion by offering shirts and stickers celebrating "the Island", as well as the uniqueness that is Northwest Indiana, so I leased physical space at Alley Kat's Curiosity Shoppe (Valpo) and 3 Wicked Apples (Chesterton). I've been in over my head ever since, yet still constantly coming up with new art about life in the Region. 

Couch Wolf is a metaphor for what felt like an untamed, creative animal force inside of me, laying dormant, only able to be unleashed once in a blue moon, but it's on the loose now.