Season 1 Ep.1 - Megan Jefferson
First of all, thanks for joining me on this journey. Since getting laid off in January, I have been deeply passionate about seeking community connections and people who are actively working to build that here, in Indianapolis.
I'll have a basic format each time I write one of these.
Some learnings from the episode, primarily from a production standpoint
A quick background of how I came across the guest and why they interested me
A general outline of the show, what I really enjoyed chatting about, and some extra context where applicable about what we talked about (for example, Megan mentioned some artists I’d love to share with you.
Just a big, long transcript at the end
So let’s go ahead and start with the first reflections of the first episode of Third Space Indy…
Listen while you read.
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My wife, Anna, and I like to take walks. It’s a good way to get out of the house and most importantly learn about your lived environment. I promise you that you will learn so much more about where you live walking than you will driving around or even riding a bike.
So, we would walk around the Broad Ripple area. It’s an extremely old part of town, and if you walk south of 62nd Street, the houses are basically castles. Whether or not the people who live in them have money (many do), the places they live in look straight out of a fairy tale. While walking around, a lot of time is spent checking out these houses. I’m a deeply nosy person; it’s both a blessing and a curse.
While looking around in these neighborhoods, I noticed a large number of murals—some on walls, maybe a couple of mailboxes, but primarily on garages. I began to notice that many of these were clearly done in the same style by the same artist, but they were too far away for me to see any sort of signature or indicator of who did these murals. I said aloud to Anna as much, and I made a declaration. “I want to meet the person who is making these.”
And the answer fell luckily into my lap — sort of…
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Some Important Links and Mentions
Learnings from this episode
This was a high-intensity episode before the part where I recorded. Megan and I did not plan ahead of time, so the main lesson here is to always be prepared to pull the rip cord.
This episode is also the only episode that is not on video. I realized this was a mistake as soon as I told the first person that I had recorded with Megan. All future episodes are recorded on my phone at the time of writing, and regardless of the quality of that, I think it’s a valuable thing to have, especially for short social clips and marketing!
The audio on this episode is pretty good, especially for recording in an echoey study room at the library. Megan made a great suggestion!
But how did we meet in the first place?
Go to your neighborhood meetings
I decided that I am now an adult. As an adult it's my duty to attend the neighborhood meetings and understand what's going on where I live. The crime, the potholes, the random old people that complain about inane things but it's kinda funny and courteous so they let them keep talking. Super important stuff.
Two really good things came out of my Warfleigh Neighborhood meeting, in my opinion.
(1) One of the inane things the random old lady said was that she “wanted a podcast about local business owners, so she could learn more about people operating in the neighborhood” — I tucked that one away for later.
(2) Rachel Dickerson, the current CEO of Midtown Indy Inc., was present and looking for help. This led me to have a short meeting with her a couple of days later to learn about her function with the organization, and eventually to the name of the northside artist, Megan Jefferson.
Off to the races
Two weeks later, I was sitting at COHatch Broad Ripple, a local coworking space, ready to start the podcast. I looked up Megan on her website, emailed her, and included my phone number. Thirty minutes or so later, I got a text from her. I asked her for a quick call just to give her my spiel, and she said, “Let’s talk today.”
We decided to meet at the library around 1.5-2 hours later so I scrambled home to grab my microphone, drove to target to get a dongle so I could plug it into my laptop and went to the Glendale library as quickly as possible to see if I could get a study room.
So, Megan inspired me to create the podcast by creating beautiful art and forced my hand to start recording. It’s nice to get a little nudge sometimes, and for that, I’m eternally grateful.
Show Summary
Exploring Indianapolis Art with Megan Jefferson
In this episode of Third Space Indy, host Michael introduces the podcast and his objectives. The first guest, Megan Jefferson, a local Indianapolis artist, shares her journey, inspirations, and experiences as a mural artist and painter. Jefferson discusses her transition from Cincinnati to Indianapolis, her work in community art projects, and her involvement with local art organizations. The conversation also touches on the challenges and joys of large-scale mural projects, her favorite spots in Indianapolis, and her views on the importance of community and public spaces. The episode wraps up with insights into her artistic process and her participation in the local art scene.
00:00 Introduction and Podcast Journey
00:32 Meet Megan Jefferson: Local Artist
01:49 Megan's Artistic Journey
04:52 Community Impact and Murals
09:36 Artistic Inspirations and Collaborations
14:38 Exploring Depth in Art
16:22 Finding Community in Indianapolis
19:01 The Power of Community and Connection
20:21 The City's Artistic Growth
21:09 Supporting the Next Generation of Artists
22:30 Balancing Art and Personal Life
22:58 Favorite Books and Shows
23:44 Inspiring Figures in Indianapolis
28:39 The Importance of Third Spaces
34:44 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Show Transcript
Episode 1: Megan Jefferson
[00:00:00] Michael Zarick: Hey there, Michael here. Thanks so much for listening to Third Space Indy. It's been a huge journey getting to the point where I feel comfortable releasing these. But I had a wonderful experience and will continue to do so as I meet more people all across Indianapolis.
This has been a huge learning experience. So, forgive any sort of technical difficulties. I'm very aware of them, but.
Feel free to share any feedback you have about the podcast, how to improve it. Thoughts on anything related to it. I would love to hear from you, especially if you have guest ideas. The first guest today is Megan Jefferson. She is a local north side artist. She is all over town. The story of how I sort of came across her is that Anna and I would go on walks, , all across Broad Ripple, just through the neighborhoods and I would see these flowers and bees and just all sorts of art on people's garages at their house.
And I started to recognize that. A lot of these were done by the same person, and I went to myself like, I really wanna meet that person. So in a lot of ways, Megan was one of the two main inspirations for this podcast. I'm really lucky that she followed up on the email I sent her initially within 30 minutes.
,, And we sat down at the library like an hour and a half later. So she is both the inspiration for starting the podcast, but also. The person who kickstarted it, , sent it into high gear, if you will. And that was all the way back, in late March. And here we are. Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy.
[00:01:49] Megan Jefferson: My name is Megan Jefferson and I'm a painter, so I'm an oil painter and a mural artist. I do watercolors too. I have been painting, gosh, since graduating from university and I've lived in Indianapolis for over 20 years.
[00:02:07] Michael Zarick: Have you always lived in Indianapolis?
No. Like where you, you weren't born here? Where were you born? No,
[00:02:10] Megan Jefferson: I was born in Ohio. I grew up in a small town in northwestern Ohio, and then my family moved to a town outside of Cleveland, Ohio when I was in high school. And then I went to. Miami University, which is in Oxford, Ohio. Mm-hmm. I applied there actually.
Oh, nice.
[00:02:27] Michael Zarick: It, I was, it was a little like twilight zoney for me, so I didn't go, but
[00:02:32] Megan Jefferson: Oh yeah, I had a great experience there. I loved Miami. It was wonderful. In fact, the art school was so awesome because the school itself has a lot of money and the art school is pretty small. But because. It did have the funding, they were able to bring in amazing artists.
And so I got to meet and work with even some of the most amazing artists. And then the actual program was pretty small, and so you got a lot of individualized attention from the professors. So that was, you have
[00:03:03] Michael Zarick: Salvador Dali walking through the door, and you're like, hello, sir.
[00:03:06] Megan Jefferson: And then, moved out to California just for a short stint.
And then my husband got into graduate school at the University of Cincinnati. And then he took a job here at Heron School of Art and Design. He's a ceramic artist and so he has been teaching there in the ceramics department for over 20 years, which is what brought us to Indianapolis. We thought it was gonna be temporary.
We were thinking that we would be here for about two years and we have been here ever since.
[00:03:33] Michael Zarick: So what. Is it just his job holding you here? Or what about Indianapolis is so compelling that you are stuck here now?
[00:03:41] Megan Jefferson: You know, I wouldn't call it stuck. I think stuck
[00:03:44] Michael Zarick: is maybe a negative connotation, but we, yeah, use it uh, you know, drawn in.
[00:03:50] Megan Jefferson: I would say that we, we choose to be here at this point. We have two boys and they are very much rooted here and. I didn't know what to expect when we had first moved here. We had neither one of us had ever been here, but I have been pleasantly surprised ever since moving here. And I would say my friends who have become like my family are one of the main reasons that I like being here.
I also feel really supported as an artist in this community, so I'm happy to be here. And it's I think. The cost of living is great in comparison to some other places around the country. So yeah, that's why we like it.
[00:04:35] Michael Zarick: Cool. And so you live. You don't have to give exact answers, but Yeah.
You live in Midtown Broad. Yeah. You live in Broad Ripple or?
[00:04:42] Megan Jefferson: So we, I do live in Midtown.
[00:04:44] Michael Zarick: Okay.
[00:04:44] Megan Jefferson: For 20 years. I lived in Meridian Kessler neighborhood and we just moved. But we still live in Midtown.
[00:04:51] Michael Zarick: Okay.
[00:04:51] Megan Jefferson: Yeah.
[00:04:52] Michael Zarick: And the reason I reached out to you is because. My wife and I go on walks, Uhhuh, and when we were walking through the neighborhoods I see on various garages and I guess like building, I don't know, mostly garages was what I was noticing.
Yeah. It was just like beautiful murals of butterflies and flowers and I said, I want to meet this person. For no particular reason other than I was really drawn in by your art. So could you tell me about like how you got started? Doing that? Was it just for friends? You said friends are what sort of drew you in?
Or is that just a paycheck or
[00:05:22] Megan Jefferson: no. I would say that friends are what, what, I think are one of the most important things to me in this community. But in terms of murals, I, when I lived in Cincinnati, I worked for an organization called Artworks and it was a job training program for youth through the arts.
And I directed a program there where I. Hired teaching artists and then also partnered with all of the major art institutions in the city to come up with meaningful projects. And then we hired art apprentices who were the youth, and they worked under lead and teaching artists on these projects. And they were really beautiful public art projects, meaningful work for.
The apprentices and some of those were murals. And so I saw the impact from, 20 some years ago, and it was powerful to me. When I moved here, my focus was really being with my kids, but I always created art in some capacity. So I set up a studio in my garage, I painted a lot. And then once my kids got older.
I wanted to venture out and get back into the world of nonprofits. And so I worked at a nonprofit called The Department of Public Words, which was an arts nonprofit that was wonderful and their aim was to, what was it?
Putting it was like art and education through positive words. So I worked there as the grants director and also, of course was so interested in doing some sort of community mural painting. And so I developed a program, with Dave and Holly Combs to create murals in the communities, and I started with some walls that were just around where I lived because I had been walking past them every day.
I saw the chipping paint, I saw the graffiti, I saw just things that could be, updated and made more bright and joyful. And so I found the funding to do those things. And I worked with the community to oftentimes paint these walls that were just around where I lived. And then that organization closed down, so I just continued to paint murals on my own.
[00:07:51] Michael Zarick: That's great. One of those is the, it's like the train car one.
[00:07:55] Megan Jefferson: I organized the completion of that. Yeah.
[00:07:58] Michael Zarick: That was not what the,
[00:07:59] Megan Jefferson: that was what? The Department of Public Words. Okay. Yeah, that's what I thought. Yep. And so the artist who designed that, his name is Peat Wollaeger, and he did, he does a lot of train.
Paintings, I love trains. I they're bring
[00:08:12] Michael Zarick: them back.
[00:08:13] Megan Jefferson: And so when he came, and then he walked along the Monon and realized that it used to be a train line, and then all of the spaces for the mural were just these boxes. And right away he was like, oh, they have to be train cars. And so we put positive messages on those as well.
And then worked with 300 community volunteers to complete that.
[00:08:37] Michael Zarick: That is a lot of people. That is,
[00:08:39] Megan Jefferson: yeah, a lot of people. It's a really long mural.
[00:08:43] Michael Zarick: it, what? It's a quarter mile or so
[00:08:45] Megan Jefferson: that's, I would say that's probably a good assessment. Yeah. It's 49 train cars and it's absurd. Yes.
It doesn't look as big as it is, but each one of those train cars we had, five, four by eight foot stencils that we used for all of the different components, like the black spray painted elements that are on there, and then some of the logos. But yeah, it was a big undertaking, but it's made a really great impact in the neighborhood.
[00:09:14] Michael Zarick: For people listening, if you are listening, that's, I don't know the roads, but it's like right next, the Half-Liter BBQ is the Yeah, it's
[00:09:21] Megan Jefferson: between 52nd and 54th.
[00:09:23] Michael Zarick: Perfect. I knew you would know. You are the, you're the expert here. You have done a lot yourself to support the community, like through whatever nonprofit you'd be working for or whatever contributions you make through mural creations or things like that.
But what in the reverse, like who has inspired you to like. Do that thing? Are there people locally who inspire you or push you forward? Anything like that?
[00:09:46] Megan Jefferson: I would say just other artists in Indianapolis inspire me. I would say the communities of Broad Ripple, Meridian Kessler, Bates, Hendricks, all of these places that have people who just wanna make their.
Part of the world a little brighter and a little more joyful. That's all so inspiring to me.
[00:10:08] Michael Zarick: Do you have any specific names that pop out? Your husband's name maybe? Yeah,
[00:10:13] Megan Jefferson: Cory's great. He has helped me with so many mural projects and last year together we took. Part in two giant murals, one being at Robert's camera.
Okay. And that's, I think I know where that is. Yeah, it's 40 The wall. That's the
[00:10:31] Michael Zarick: giant camera store. Yep. Okay. I need to go there 'cause I have a camera.
[00:10:35] Megan Jefferson: Yes. You would love it. Everyone in the community loves it. They've been around forever and they're amazing. But the wall is about 40 feet long and 20 feet tall.
And so he and I did that. And then Dan Thompson, he also helped with that. He's amazing. Mural artist. Spray paint artist. And then we also painted the Jimmy's nail salon, Corey and I last year, and that's about 30 feet by 24 feet. You are just like
[00:11:03] Michael Zarick: ripping giant walls. That is giant. They are giant. How long does it take you to let's say the, like the camera one.
How long does it take you to do a wall of that size? That's like what, 400 square feet or more? Yeah, more than that. Yeah. How about how long does it take to do mural?
[00:11:20] Megan Jefferson: So the full process. It's divided into parts. The first is the design process, and that takes some time just on its own.
So designing that digitally and then also working with the client to make any tweaks or make sure that it's perfect. And then. There is the securing of materials and then the logistics of planning it out. So in that case, of course, we needed to rent a lift so that we could reach all the parts we needed to figure out what the wall needed and it needed primed.
And so making sure that we're getting the right products and I use a lot of Sherwin Williams products, so they were great. And then of course. Getting the design onto the wall. Each of the walls is its own animal, and there's a different process that I use for each project. It just really depends on what the project is.
But from there, it's then painting the wall. So you know, it's not just showing up at a wall, getting out your paint and going to work. It's all of these things that take preparation, planning, and then execution.
[00:12:27] Michael Zarick: How often do you have to get like a. Heavy duty equipment, like an ex, like a scissor lift, or what are those called?
Yep, that's what that's called. Scissor lift. Yep. Is that like a common thing for
[00:12:36] Megan Jefferson: that size wall? Yes. Is that
[00:12:38] Michael Zarick: intimidating?
[00:12:39] Megan Jefferson: Yeah. Ah,
[00:12:39] Michael Zarick: it's just it's
[00:12:40] Megan Jefferson: very, it's intimidating and it can be very scary, but with all of the right safety precautions, it's fine and it allows me to do the work at that scale, which is exciting because seeing the work that big is very cool.
Yeah.
[00:12:55] Michael Zarick: Amazing. Great. So like in Indianapolis, I, your art is everywhere. It's at the airport. Which I haven't seen, or I don't, I've probably seen it, but I haven't recognized it 'cause I've only been here a couple months. So what's the next do you have, maybe you can reveal something.
What's your next big project or like where are you looking?
[00:13:14] Megan Jefferson: I. Currently because it's so nice outside is when exterior mural season really starts. So right now I have all kinds of residential projects and then a couple commercial projects that we'll see if they pan out. But I've got some really exciting projects that have designs that I'm excited about and looking forward to doing.
. And I think that's what is some of the most motivating. Part of it is just being really excited about the designs that I get to work on. Yeah. And working with clients who are kind and appreciative and wonderful and lucky for me, that happens to me all the time. I get to work and meet with, meet some amazing people.
[00:13:57] Michael Zarick: So you. Are mainly focused on murals now. Do you still do watercolor and, yeah. Okay.
[00:14:02] Megan Jefferson: Yeah, so I have a studio at the Harrison Center for the Arts. And we have over 30 artists there, five galleries. If you haven't been strongly, encourage you to go every first Friday of each month. It's open.
It's called First Friday, so you can just wander in and out of the art galleries, check out all the different shows in the galleries, and, each individual studio is so unique. So you gotta get a flavor of each artist's style and their space. Yeah. And people always comment on how cool that is. So yeah, I do oil painting commissions, I paint all the time.
My body of work right now, I'm really interested in exploring depth of the field, I'm doing a lot of florals there, but I also create a lot of landscapes with my oil paintings.
[00:14:49] Michael Zarick: So depth of field, meaning lots of layers in terms of here's a foreground, here's the mid-ground in the background.
Yeah.
[00:14:55] Megan Jefferson: And imagine looking at a photograph landscapes. That's great. Mostly, imagine a photograph that has a really blurred background and then there's a focal point in the foreground. Mm-hmm. The reason I got interested in this is because I listened to a podcast actually
And it was a Andrew Huberman, he's a neuroscientist, and he was talking about how you can do these different.
Exercises with your eyes that affect your parasympathetic nervous system. So a lot of them involve focusing on different different things. Like one of the things that you can do is focus really far away. And a huge, looking at a huge vista. So I do paint a lot of that as well. The other thing you can do is focus on one thing that's close to you and just have an awareness of how everything in the background is blurred and fades away.
So both of those exercises activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is where healing happens. Your heart rate slows, your breathing slows, and you enter into a state of calm or peace. And I've really wanted to create something on Canvas that allowed the viewer to experience that. So I've been working a lot on pieces.
That's nice. That have that as a focus. I've seen a
[00:16:02] Michael Zarick: little bit of your work, just what I looked up in the, you emailed me so quickly that I only had so much time or I guess you texted me, but I really enjoy like the color work that you have going on and the sort of. The landscapes that I saw were really impressive.
I would hang you up in my house if I had any money. So let's maybe zoom out a little bit Okay. To talk about Indianapolis. Yeah. You were drawn here, you mentioned having a sense of community, your friends how did you as an artist, get involved with your community or.
Even not as an artist, like how did you find a sense of place? So it all started actually because I had a son when we moved here, who was one at the time, and there was a forum back way back when we were still using dial-up internet. It was an online community for parents and I was connected to that same.
[00:16:58] Megan Jefferson: Forum in Ohio. And then when we moved here, there was a section that was called Find Your Tribe. And so one of the first events that was posted in the Indianapolis group in that section was a meetup at Broad Ripple Park. And we lived in Broad Ripple. It was like in the first week that we moved here that I, I went over there and.
The friends that I met then are still all of my friends. Of course, I have expanded my network. And I have more friends than just that now. But they were all people that I met there. And some of them are artists, some of them. Have always been artists and some are not. But yeah,
[00:17:41] Michael Zarick: it's such a simple thing to like, just show this is, I always tell people like, don't invite me to things because I'll show up.
That's how I made, I moved from Arkansas. I used to hang out at a pizza place a lot and one of the servers asked me to go to music Bingo. And I just showed up and he's I did not expect you to come. And then I became very good friends with him in the. So just like the danger of just like showing up to things is you will not get rid of me.
[00:18:02] Megan Jefferson: Showing up is the first step of everything, right? You hear that all the time. Just show up. Because a lot of people don't. Yeah, definitely. And especially in this day and age, when you can connect online so easily, it's so much easier to stay snuggled on the couch than actually get up and go out and do stuff.
But it really does make a big difference. Definitely.
[00:18:21] Michael Zarick: / So of. Since then. Yeah. How do you especially post covid mm-hmm. how do you maintain like, your friendships and just your sense of community, if you wanna think of it in that way?
[00:18:33] Megan Jefferson: I think just staying in touch, I.
With friends throughout the week is really important. And then I have also always organized a weekly ladies night with my closest friends. Yeah. And so that is actually been an amazing way to continue connecting with people and just seeing them weekly. First Fridays are also a really great way to meet new people
[00:19:00] Michael Zarick: at the museum or the art center.
Yep. Okay. Not the museum. So just like you said, just show up. My mom has a book club with her friends, and I think that's her, it's their excuse basically. Yeah. To get together. And I think that's really powerful. Just like it's, I think we really struggle with this is are so afraid of our neighbors and Yeah.
Even maybe potentially our friends. Like we need to really set aside time to get together and force it upon ourselves. Agree. What do you think is again, to zoom out even further What vibes are you feeling right now? Is that a way you, do you have a certain sense of the city's direction?
Obviously, like potholes are a thing. The state of the world is a thing. Is there a certain, shift in the air?
[00:19:39] Megan Jefferson: I don't know. I wouldn't, I wouldn't know how to describe such a shift at the moment. I would say, just affecting change on a micro level has ripple effects that change things on a macro level, and that's one thing that we could all take responsibility for.
Is just trying to. Impart connection and love, as, as small as as we need to, or as big as we can. But those small acts do have a huge ripple effect, and I think that is sometimes all we can really focus on. And just hope that it imparts the kind of world that we all wanna live in.
I think Indianapolis itself has grown over the past 20 years that I've been here. The neighborhoods are getting more diverse. Art is being really supported in a lot of ways through not only murals and neighborhoods and, these homeowners that have a desire to create beauty for.
Themselves and each other, but businesses are really awesomely supporting the arts right now. Organizations are working hard to make sure that our city has these pathways of expression. And so those are the things that I notice. And those have continued to grow, and I think that they will continue to grow.
[00:21:09] Michael Zarick: When you say the city's supporting art and artists are you seeing personally, is, I mean I'm sure you're connected with maybe younger artists reach out to you for advice and things like that. Yeah. What are you, what's your sort of sense of the next generation, if you will?
[00:21:23] Megan Jefferson: I think that they just, we all need opportunities. And so the Arts Council is amazing at. Putting out an email list of opportunities for novices and professionals. It's a great way to look for ways to try to be involved in projects or get different public arts projects. Under your belt, those kinds of things.
I have people reaching out to me all the time who want to just help so they can learn. I haven't had any huge projects that I needed to take anyone up on that, but I have taught some mural making workshops, so that's been on my mind to try to create something like that because there seems to be a big interest.
And I do want to offer the support to younger artists who are looking for ways to, to practice. Because the first step at being good at something is sucking at it.
[00:22:21] Michael Zarick: That's why I'm here.
[00:22:23] Megan Jefferson: So we've gotta be able to make mistakes and try things and experiment and just do it.
[00:22:29] Michael Zarick: Definitely. So outside of the art, what are you doing?
You're hanging out with the ladies? Yep. You there your ladies night? Yeah.
Are you watching movies? Are you doing book club? Sure. Are you. Are you always bunko as like the classic ladies excuse to get out? Yeah. Going out for beers,
[00:22:46] Megan Jefferson: I hang out a lot with my family.
Yeah. I have two boys and a husband and we do family dinners. My older son lives with his girlfriend. They come over and, we do the. I'll do the family dinner thing. I listen to a ton of audio books while I paint. Oh yeah? What's the most
[00:23:03] Michael Zarick: recent one?
[00:23:04] Megan Jefferson: I listen to so many. Alias Grace.
[00:23:07] Michael Zarick: Alias Grace. Yeah. What is that about?
[00:23:09] Megan Jefferson: It's this woman and it's a Netflix show as well. Oh,
[00:23:12] Michael Zarick: is that a fiction? Fiction? Okay.
[00:23:15] Megan Jefferson: I watch a lot of documentaries. I watch a lot of Netflix, especially in the winter as it's been cold. This was a long cold winter.
[00:23:21] Michael Zarick: It was. Yeah. I want the, it's given us a good spring so far. Yeah. I think the weather today even, it was a little chilly, but it's pleasant.
[00:23:28] Megan Jefferson: Yeah. I'm looking forward to some concerts. There's always good concerts in the summer. I have my tickets to go see Valerie June, the Hi-Fi and. I just do normal things.
[00:23:39] Michael Zarick: Just a normal kind of boring, normal, mid Midwest gal. Yeah.
Okay. And then, if there was someone in Indianapolis you could talk to just, and let you, think outside your friend group. Someone interesting who intrigues you. Who would it be?
Who's, Who's interest, who's interesting you, whose work is blowing your mind or inspiring you or anything like that.
[00:24:01] Megan Jefferson: Let me give that some thought.
[00:24:02] Michael Zarick: It's a really hard question.
[00:24:03] Megan Jefferson: I would say just like a lot of business small business owners as a small business owner myself, like we all need the support and we all need, a platform to talk about what we do.
Yeah. And there's so many great small businesses, especially in this area. So many bookshops are opening up.
[00:24:20] Michael Zarick: Where do you frequent?
[00:24:22] Megan Jefferson: So Golden Hour books is really cool. What is it that just moved in to on the corner of 52nd and College. Oh, she's got, it's really beautiful in there. I was just in there yesterday.
It's funny, I'm like having all these brain moments
[00:24:40] Michael Zarick: it's hard to think about you probably don't even remember what you ate for breakfast this morning. I hardly do. Yeah, it's true. You get in this sort of, and you're also in this sort of art mindset.
I yeah. I smashed you away from it. Yeah.
[00:24:51] Megan Jefferson: But even there's so many great restaurant owners like Eddie Sahm, he has a Half Liter. But he also owns a bunch of different restaurants around Indianapolis and they've been around forever. So he's just an interesting, has an interesting perspective.
My friend Jamie Locke is an amazing artist. You might want to reach out to her. What does she do? She is, she creates mandalas. Ooh. So she carves them. That's cool. Yeah. But then she also has a laser cutter cutting machine. Amazing.
[00:25:22] Michael Zarick: And unique,
[00:25:23] Megan Jefferson: very unique. And then my friend Anila Agha She is an amazing artist traveling all over the world right now, and her work is beautiful.
[00:25:36] Michael Zarick: I knew I could pull some names out of you. Oh
[00:25:38] Megan Jefferson: yeah.
[00:25:39] Michael Zarick: It seems like you live art, like truly, even though you claim to listen to a lot of audio books and watch Netflix, I feel like you. Or sucked in by your work. Yeah, in a lot of ways, which is true of many artists.
[00:25:49] Megan Jefferson: Yeah. Wow. We have absolutely no reception in here.
[00:25:55] Michael Zarick: There is wifi. It is free. Go to the library, everybody. Support your local libraries.
[00:26:00] Megan Jefferson: This is,
This is Anila work.
[00:26:02] Michael Zarick: Oh wow. That is crazy.
[00:26:04] Megan Jefferson: Yeah. So that's a sculpture. I
[00:26:07] Michael Zarick: need show notes.
[00:26:08] Megan Jefferson: Yes.
[00:26:09] Michael Zarick: Anila, how do you say this?
[00:26:10] Megan Jefferson: Agha
[00:26:11] Michael Zarick: Anila Agha.
[00:26:12] Megan Jefferson: But I would say reach out to her. She's, she won art prize years and years ago, which is a an art fair in Michigan. But since then, her work is collected by museums and she travels all over the world. So her perspective is pretty amazing.
But I think she would have, she would be the kind of person that you would want to talk to. And she is originally from Pakistan. And she also taught at Heron School of Art and Design. And just by being able to travel the world right now and have her work in such amazing locations, she's got a really great perspective on contemporary art
[00:26:57] Michael Zarick: Quick cut in here. Megan and I got a little off topic, but we refocused when talking about things that inspire us. I mentioned that I'm deeply passionate about public transit trains and pedestrian living that got her thinking about her time in Europe.
[00:27:13] Megan Jefferson: I traveled in Europe. So did the whole backpacking thing. Oh yeah.
[00:27:19] Michael Zarick: When did you go to Europe?
[00:27:20] Megan Jefferson: Have you
[00:27:21] Michael Zarick: gone, you've gone multiple times?
Maybe
[00:27:22] Megan Jefferson: just a couple times, but yeah. I did the backpacking thing in the nineties with my sister for eight weeks and it was so amazing traveling by train. And just how easy we could float between all of the countries and coming back to the states and realizing that is, that could be a possibility. And it would be really easy to travel from state to state if we had the infrastructure to do that.
So I would love to see more trains in this country as well. And actually, one of the things that really caught my attention. Were, was all of the painting that I saw all over Berlin, so there were so many amazing graffiti artists and they painted everything, the buildings, the trains. I was really drawn in by the amount of color and artwork that was everywhere.
[00:28:20] Michael Zarick: See, this is the real goal. That's po. It's called Third Space Indy. But the real goal is to do propaganda for public transit. So that's why we keep recording so I can get sound bites of people saying, I want trains, and then I just send it to the State House. I would
[00:28:33] Megan Jefferson: love a national train system.
I think that would be super cool.
[00:28:39] Michael Zarick: Actually that's, that actually leads me into a good, so are you familiar with the concept of a third space? Third space implies your first space is your home. Okay. Where you live, Uhhuh, your second space is where you work. So for you, it's a, your art studio or I guess outside.
Yeah. But a third space is where you go, that's not either of those places. So you got work home and then the third place. And you mentioned like. Really liking lots of local bookstores and local restaurants and things like that. Those all fit into that third space category.
Okay. But the manifesto as you will of this podcast is like third spaces in a lot of ways are dying off or not as common as they used to be. Things like churches also fit into like third space community centers, all those sort of common spaces where people would go to hang out.
Are there third spaces that maybe connect with you? So you have your ladies night every week? Yeah. Do you guys. Go to someone's house or do you go to a third space?
[00:29:39] Megan Jefferson: Yeah. Typically we'll meet up at somebody's house or go out to a restaurant. So I don't know if that really works, but I would say when my kids were younger, we would go to so many parks, which I think would qualify as a third space.
Absolutely. We would go into the nature centers and. We would meet up with homeschooling groups at churches. We would go to climbing gyms, we would go to gymnastics spaces. So all of those kinds of, we would go to community art spaces. So for me, I was really engaged in those kinds of places when I had younger kids.
[00:30:19] Michael Zarick: Do you feel like those things are still available and around? Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. Are there.
So the art center you go to, would you consider that it is a little closed off 'cause you have to pay to get in except on first Fridays, no. Or no, it's, you
[00:30:30] Megan Jefferson: don't have to pay. I'm
[00:30:31] Michael Zarick: just making things up.
[00:30:32] Megan Jefferson: So the Harrison Center is a nonprofit and as an artist you have access to your studio whenever you want, but the public and the public can show up and just. Be given a tour or wander around and see the work that's in the galleries. Because the galleries are all open. They operate open from nine to five, and then if you want to see any artist or coordinate a time to get into their studio to see their work, you can do that as well.
And it, but no, there's never a charge to go to the Harrison. Yeah. Okay. Amazing. Yeah. I think parks are a perfect third space. I was actually in the, at the Fashion Mall the other day. Yeah. Uhhuh and to me, like the Fashion Mall,, or not the Fashion Mall, , just malls in general. Uhhuh are like the premier third space that's died off.
[00:31:20] Michael Zarick: And I think the reason, the reasons for that are really complicated in terms of we've there's a expectation that if you're at the mall, you're purchasing something rather than you can just exist in the space. And that has that sort of rings true in a lot of these places.
You can't just go to a restaurant and sit. You can't. And I, you should go to a coffee shop and purchase coffee. Sure. It's the idea of there are, it's difficult to find a place, especially as a younger person mm-hmm. Um, or someone with no income. To like find a place to.
Seek community. Do you have you mentioned the art space. Again. Are there other places that sort of stand out to you as a good spot to, to do that?
[00:31:58] Megan Jefferson: I would say libraries. We're in a library now. Yeah,
[00:32:01] Michael Zarick: definitely.
[00:32:01] Megan Jefferson: It's been a great. Great use of space and it's free.
So that's exciting. What comes to mind too is the old Glendale Mall, which is before your time, but it used to be an indoor mall and the whole downstairs was dedicated to community spaces, so there were it, there was chess night, aerobic night, and there's the YMCA, which I've been a member of, and so that's a really good community space.
The Art center in Broad Ripple. Is another option. It's more for consuming classes, but the outdoor spaces are amazing. A hundred acre woods behind new fields. I go there all the time with my friends. I like to hike. And so visiting trails and parks is probably the highest on my list of third spaces that I can think of.
And it's not like you're really going there, to seek out community, but you could, there are hiking groups and things like that Yeah. That exist, that support that model.
[00:33:02] Michael Zarick: Yeah, definitely. One of my premier. Senses of community I've ever gotten was, actually a year and a half ago-ish at the Walton Art Center from Northwest Arkansas was funded by the Walton family Oh, of Walmart.
Okay. The Walton's Walmart. Yeah. So the Walton Art Center was where I paid for studio time to do pottery.
[00:33:22] Megan Jefferson: Okay.
[00:33:23] Michael Zarick: But it was wonderful because just everyone there. Has a sort of sense of purpose and they all sit there and learn from each other. They all chat. And I have met some really good friends at that place who I still talk to since moving away.
And I just, and that's one of the reasons I really appreciate you as an artist or any artist is that I think there, whether or not you are good at art there is a sense of community that comes with it.
[00:33:46] Megan Jefferson: It's true. Um, Yeah.
[00:33:48] Michael Zarick: And I think in a lot of ways it's sort of like going to the gym. There's a.
If you see a weak person at the gym, a lot of times it's appropriate to help them out or, offer some guidance. And the same thing is true of art. If someone's struggling with art, I feel like I have not ever met an artist who is not willing to give tips. Yeah.
But yeah, that's all I got.
[00:34:07] Megan Jefferson: Great.
[00:34:07] Michael Zarick: I'm gonna ask you two make your own question questions.
[00:34:11] Megan Jefferson: Okay.
[00:34:11] Michael Zarick: First one is, is there a question you wish I ask? I would ask.
Nope. Ah, I can't think of anything. That's okay. We'll skip that. The next question is I would like to start this because I think it's fun. It doesn't matter what you ask, ask a question of the next guest, whoever it is.
[00:34:28] Megan Jefferson: Oh, okay.
[00:34:29] Michael Zarick: I don't care what the question is.
[00:34:30] Megan Jefferson: I would like to know what they like most about Indianapolis.
That, or what they feel gives you. Indianapolis. Its unique flavor in comparison to other places that they may have been recently.
[00:34:43] Michael Zarick: Definitely.
Michael here, hopping out again. Megan was a joy to talk to. If you're interested in checking out Megan's Art, you can find her website at jeffersonartstudio.com. Her Instagram is megsj1art. That's M-E-G-S-J-1-A-R-T. On Instagram, and of course you can visit her art studio on First Fridays at the Harrison Center in Indianapolis.
Thank you so much for listening to Third Space Indy, and I look forward to sharing my next conversation with you.