Charlie Mylie

Illustrator

Meet Charlie Mylie, the humorist, performer, father, and wizard illustrator, who seeks not only to engage your imagination but to capture your heart.

Charlie is largely known around Kansas City as “Pop-up Charlie,” the for-hire, performing illustrator who, ‘yes it’s true, can draw anything for you!’ In recent years however, Charlie’s career has shifted from live interactions to quieter realms, authoring and illustrating children’s books while simultaneously becoming a father. The need to draw, coupled with the desire to follow his heart, has led him on wild adventures across the country and, no less notably, into his own untamed backyard.  

As a child, Charlie drew all the time, but when he got to college, drawing didn’t seem “serious enough,” so he began studying sound art, video art, sculpture, and interactive media at the Kansas City Art Institute, none of which he loved. He was not accepted into the painting program and failed his first interview for the Interdisciplinary Program. Discouraged and on the verge of quitting art school, he applied again a year later and was accepted. Under the tutelage of Julia Cole, thus began his real arts education. “I didn’t learn anything about drawing in school, but I did learn from her, just to think more broadly about what art can do and where it can live, and that it doesn’t have to live in a gallery context or museum context, that the whole world needs art.”

Charlie details graphite drawings exploring ideas of what a treehouse could be.

Heeding Cole’s instruction, Charlie decided to take his art to the masses, selling hand-painted, hand-drawn postcards on the street at First Fridays “when that was still happening and art-centric,” for a mere $3 each or two for $5. Charlie quickly discovered that people were willing to pay for his art, and that he could have fun making it. He began collaborating with fellow artist Lindsey Griffith, who would tell a customer their bleak future while Charlie would draw an ugly portrait of them, transcribing a notable portion of the fake fortune onto the portrait as a keepsake. “It went really well,” Charlie emphasized, “We did so many things like that.” For example, at the height of airport body scan controversy, Griffith dressed as a TSA agent and Charlie, in a cardboard box with a peephole, would draw an uncanny cartoon of people naked as they were “scanned.” His absurd, humor-based art-making was a success and his quick, on-the-spot, live sketch act evolved into “Pop-up Charlie,” where Charlie dressed in a gold suit and cone hat and drew pictures per customer’s requests. “I got to flex and train as a draftsperson because I had to draw things that I had never even considered drawing, like a breakdancing giraffe.” Charlie was not as thrilled about drawing portraits of babies from a photo or romantic caricatures. “When it worked for me was when we could make a joke together. They’d give me a request and I’d give them something that fulfilled their request but also subverted it...it was always this process of trying to get people to be imaginative with me. It was the most fun when I wasn’t having to be the only creative person in the situation.” Expressing himself, his point of view, and his sense of humor while working with customers and giving them what they want was a win-win; Charlie thrives on collaboration.

Charlie debuted his first children’s book, Something for You, in the fall of 2019, with a follow up in the same series, Anything with You, being released this November. As solo author and illustrator, these were largely isolating projects. In addition to feeling lonely, Charlie missed the audience feedback. “The thing that was special about “Pop-up Charlie” was that it was good because of the interaction and that it was for somebody. It didn’t even have to look that good to be good because all the meaning was outside of the picture image itself. Also, the cycle of creation, which is ideation, creation, appreciation – what I’d say is kind of like a complete circle for a work of art – was 15 minutes.”

Going from performative drawing with a live audience to writing and drawing in seclusion has been a challenge for him. Perhaps due to the innate need for socialization or perhaps inherent to Charlie’s inspired process of creating art in relation to others, he naturally leans towards collaboration, even in book making. In fact, Charlie has several such collaborative works in progress. The first, Out on a Limb, is a children’s book which he is illustrating in partnership with friend Jordan Morris (fellow co-worker at the Rabbit Hole). The story is about a girl healing from a broken leg and the wordless journey of a letter that gets lost in the mail, inspired by real life events involving Jordan’s daughter and a letter Charlie sent to her when she broke her leg.

Charlie experimented with markers on transparency film in illustrations for Out on a Limb, a collaboration with friend and author, Jordan Morris, releasing fall 2021.

The second collaboration is a project with the working name Treehouse Town, for which Charlie has been thinking a lot about treehouses with author Giddeon Sterer. Although they don’t have a clear vision yet of the deliverable, they have a billion ideas, and are inspired by the very notion of what a treehouse means to people. “Treehouses hold a promise in some way of being whatever you want and where you can make the rules, and I think that’s why they are still appealing to adults. It’s like a new perspective or a dream come true.”

In his current drawings, Charlie imagines a land free from the concerns of constructability and logic; it is all about fun. Specifically, what is fun to a kid. And rather than rely solely on his own preconception of fun, Charlie is making 40 treehouse design kits to send to kids for their input. “I want this thing to be authentic, in that it speaks to or from a kid’s perspective.”

Graphite illustration by Charlie Mylie

As for authenticity, Charlie is nothing, if not authentic. He approaches his life and his relationships in the same manner as his art: with creativity, variety, and heart. For example, in his marriage, he and his wife Sondy create their own version of an Advent calendar for one month out of the year in preparation of a big trip, life event, or just with the goal of being creative, having fun, and making an effort to deviate from their typical routines. They come up with a wide range of actionable tasks ranging from “Build a Fort” to “Get Married, ” write them on a piece of paper, flip the paper over, shuffle them around, and place them at random on each day of the month. This is indeed how they got married. In a similar, improvisational manner, he toured the country as Pop-up Charlie without his own mode of transportation, hitching rides along the way, with the goal of drawing in all 50 states. He made it a little over halfway in three months before returning home to his newlywed wife. Charlie’s approach to life is holistic. He doesn’t compartmentalize or only apply creativity to his work; he puts his heart, and humor, into everything he does.

High contrast, seek-and-find compositions that Charlie has been developing for a board book concept.

Charlie, his wife Sondy, and their son Misha live in a 130-year-old east Kansas City Victorian home: “I feel more like a steward than an owner. I didn’t make this thing and I’ve only been with it for a very small portion of its life. It’s like an old turtle. I just need to do what I can to keep this turtle alive until I move on, and it’s hopefully still there and can be taken care of by somebody else.” His romantic version of homeownership is similar to how he thinks of the books he creates: “It has a life of its own, and I’m just part of it right now,” a selfless perspective for the sole creator of these works. His heart seems two sizes too big for business, but the beauty of his work will no doubt endear him to readers and yield success for his books.

Charlie’s work space is abundant with natural light and garden views.

As Charlie ruminates, gazing out the picture window, pencil in hand, sunlight dancing before him in the overgrown shrubs and trees, a butterfly catches his attention; after a moment of admiration he is swiftly back on task, disciplined and devoted to his work. “I know things are going well when I forget to drink water” he jests. He tenderly calls his workspace “The Shack;” his one room backyard cabin without internet or running water. He keeps it as simple as possible, reminiscent of Thoreau’s Walden Pond, with the comfort of home and loved ones just across the lawn. His quiet space is designed to minimize distractions and encourage expansive thought, providing the space and time he needs to “come make something, recharge, and feel like myself again,” a refuge from the other hats he wears out in the world, gold cone or otherwise. Whether performing as “Pop-up Charlie,” collaborating on books, or writing and illustrating his own stories, Charlie Mylie is an illustrator with heart, talent, and the gift of a great imagination. He will never be bored.

A quiet space for reading, writing or coffee with a visitor at “The Shack”.