Featured Artist: Peter Gaona / ReformedSchool

Featured Artist: Peter Gaona / ReformedSchool

Peter Gaona / ReformedSchool
Live & Performing Arts Management, 2014
Reformed-School.com

What do you currently sell at ShopColumbia?
I currently sell bow ties and lapel pins made from repurposed and new materials and just added my line of enamel pins. 

What inspired you to create this series of work?  


I created the ties and pins initially for myself because I wanted a denim tie. While at Columbia College I took an entrepreneurship, class which helped me take the leap from creating items for myself to starting a business. My new works, the enamel pins are designed to educate, inform, and create social change using fashion and accessories. 

In what ways do you think you have benefited from being a ShopColumbia artist? 
ShopColumbia was my very first stockist! The feedback I received after my initial meeting helped me to refine my product and think about things like branding and merchandising.

Give us an update about recent projects/artistic life events; what’s next for you?
I have a few collaborations in the works using my designs for a coloring book and t-shirts. ReformedSchool continues to participate in pop up shops locally/nationally and will have a month long residency this June with BoomBox at their new location at Randolph and Halsted in the West Loop!