Episode 139: Art, Autism, Activism – with Margaux Wosk

Margaux Wosk is a non-binary, autistic artist residing in Canada, and the owner of Retrophiliac, their own art business. They are bridging the gap between activism, advocacy and art to bring a message of acceptance to the world.

During this episode, you will hear Margaux talk about:

• What led them to create their art business, Retrophiliac, after many years of being a self-taught artist
• The story behind the Neurodiversity Pride Infinity Rainbow pin – the first pin design they created
• How their art has helped amplify their advocacy for disabled small business owners

To find out more about Margaux and their work, you can find them on the following links down below:
Navigating Life website
Retrophiliac Etsy store
Retrophiliac on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

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*Disclaimer: The views, guidance, opinions, and thoughts expressed in Beyond 6 Seconds episodes are solely mine and/or those of my guests, and do not represent those of my employer or other organizations.*

The episode transcript is below.

Carolyn Kiel: Hello, and welcome to the Beyond 6 Seconds podcast. I’m your host, Carolyn Kiel. And on today’s episode, I’m really excited to be speaking with Margaux Wosk. Margaux is a nonbinary autistic artist residing in Canada. They are bridging the gap between activism, advocacy, and art to bring a message of acceptance to the world. Margaux, welcome to the podcast.

Margaux Wosk: Thank you so much for having me.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. I’m so excited to learn more about your art. I think we connected a little while ago on Instagram, where I got to see a lot of the great art pieces that you’re working on and I’m just really interested to learn more about how it all started and how it’s evolved.

You’ve been an artist your entire life, but you started focusing on your art business, Retrophiliac, about 10 or 12 years ago. So what initially inspired you to start Retrophiliac?

Margaux Wosk: Well prior to using Retrophiliac as a terminology for like my art and my artist pseudonym, I was actually selling vintage clothing on eBay, probably around the age of like 14, 13. I was doing a good thrifting resale thing, which is so popular now. But at the time it was not, it was literally, eBay was like the only platform.

My mom is a really amazing visual artist. So I grew up seeing her do calligraphy and watercolor and acrylic and baking and doing all kinds of creative things. So my mom is really my biggest inspiration. And from there, it’s just like, I always did creative things as a child. I was doing a lot of creative writing. I wrote for Vancouver’s main newspaper, the Vancouver Province, when I was like 13, I did a feature movie review article on Lindsay Lohan’s Freaky Friday. So that was in there. So I’ve done a lot of writing and my art is just something, you know, I always doodled, I always drew in elementary school. I’d draw on the margins of my page. Having my AD, ADD diagnosis as a kid, that’s kind of, I was just always drawing and it’s just something that has never stopped.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. And are there sort of any particular types of artistic media that you like to work with now? Whether it’s colors or different, you know, drawing or other textures, things like that?

Margaux Wosk: Yeah. So I primarily use paint markers and acrylic paint on canvas board or wood or stretched canvas. I don’t know, my, my art kind of transforms. For a while, years back, I was selling art supplies. So my knowledge of that is quite vast. And I dabbled in mixed media, never really gone to oil paint, but like printmaking. And I liked to build things with my hands, like clay, just kind of all over the place, but I’m a very colorful person in terms of, of my artwork and my design.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. Yeah. You use a lot of bold color in the designs that I’ve seen on Instagram and it’s, it’s really happy and bright. Where do you get the inspiration for your designs?

Margaux Wosk: So it’s kind of interesting because the way that I interpret music, I don’t have, I think it’s called synesthesia or I might’ve pronounced that wrong. I don’t have that, but kind of how it goes is, I have a very strong fascination with pop culture from the 1960s and 1970s. So because of that, I’m very much, and I always have been into television shows like The Monkees, The Partridge Family, The Brady Bunch, and all the music and soundtracks that come along with that.

So it’s kind of like, I take this in, and then my art is kind of like the mood that I get into and how I am that comes back out as my art. So that music is happy. It’s jovial, it’s playful, it’s fun. And I feel like that’s kind of what my art is like, and it’s just like, it’s just the mood that it puts me in is a good mood.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, I definitely see that, especially with the 1960s, that sort of, you know, colorful, I don’t know if it’s, if it’s called pop art or exactly what that is, but yeah, that, it’s a lot of that, that fun design and bright and happy. That’s really, really nice.

When you started Retrophiliac Art, like how did it start out initially? Cause I know you’re active in a lot of different platforms and really have grown your art practice since then. But how did you decide to start out with it?

Margaux Wosk: So I made my Etsy store, I think in 2011 and maybe like five or so years ago, I started posting some cute little cats that I was drawing in cat Facebook groups. And then from there people were like, well, I want to buy your art. And I was like, okay, like, that’s not why I was sharing it. I wasn’t sharing my art with the intention of making sales. I just wanted to show it off. I just wanted people to see what I was making and I love cats so deeply that I have kind of expanded from there.

And I felt fortunate too, because some of the original pieces of art that I would do, I actually donated quite a bit to cat charities so that they can auction or sell them and retain a hundred percent of the costs to help the cats. So it kind of started from that. And I just have like, you know, working at an art supply store ages ago, I had discounted art supplies.

And even earlier than that, I was just, I got a canvas one day when I was living with my family. And I just painted something on it. And then I needed another canvas and I painted something on it and I’ve done hundreds of pieces of art since then. So it just was like, I think just a natural progression for me.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. And you’ve got your own website now that you sell on as well, in addition to the Etsy store. And you mentioned eBay before, so you know, on a lot of different platforms.

Margaux Wosk: Yeah. So my website navigatingjourney.com is more, I do talk about my art on there, but a lot of it is the activism work that I do, which kind of is totally intertwined with my artwork. So it’s kind of become almost one in the same.

Carolyn Kiel: All right. Very cool. And I know one of the collections that you have on your Etsy site of art is the Neurodiversity Pride collection. I actually got a couple of your pins. I don’t think my video is good enough to really show that I’m wearing the mini neurodiversity infinity pin. I’ll describe it. I’m not quite sure that it comes out of my video, but you know, basically it’s an infinity symbol and it has like little squares that are very bright, different colors of the rainbow that go along with this. So yeah, that’s, that’s one of the many that you have around the Neurodiversity Pride collection. Yeah, I would love to learn more about, you know, what inspired you to do a specific collection around Neurodiversity Pride?

Margaux Wosk: So the symbol exists already, but because the way that it is, it’s a gradient. And when you’re working with enamel pins, you can’t do gradients. Every color has to be separated. So what I ended up doing was coming up with my own interpretation. Autism speaks has a puzzle piece and autism speaks is really not a very good organization for many reasons. So mine is kind of what I say is an endless game board that’s vibrant and colorful and showing that life is a journey and, and you never know where it’s going to take you, but we’re on this colorful path trying to figure out, you know, where we’re going in life. And it’s supposed to be positive because neurodiversity is not a bad thing, and we need to embrace it. So for me, I came up with this idea and it was my first enamel pin that I ever got made. And I was able to kind of figure out, okay, how am I going to get this funded? So I applied for some British Columbia Arts Council grants. The first one I ever applied for, I got, so I was able to, I didn’t know what I was doing either.

It’s a form. I filled it out. I said, okay, this is what I’m doing. I got approved. And then I figured out, how do I order these? How do I do this whole process? And I’ve learned so much. Being autistic, being ADD or ADHD and OCD myself, a lot of people would kind of weaponize that against me and think that it’s a bad thing, and it’s certainly not. So it was important for me to put something positive out in the world so that other people can celebrate that with me or support their loved ones and celebrate them.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. That’s awesome. And that’s such a great imagery that the, the whole concept behind the design. So was that your first, your first sets of pins that you worked on or? Wow. Oh, cool.

Margaux Wosk: Yeah. I didn’t know what I was doing. I had to figure out how to outsource and how to do the digital mock-ups. So my roommate is incredible in Photoshop. I’m not. So I handed her a physical drawing and said, this is what I’m thinking. And she was able to take that and whip up a digital design that was perfect. So, you know, I’m so fortunate for that and it just, it came out perfect. And I’ve done so many pins since. This is also one of my new ones, so little flower power pin, and I just, I have lots more designs in my head that I hope to, to work on soon.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. That’s great. Yeah. And that’s great. Once you figure out the process behind how to make the pin, and it’s natural to be able to, you know, design or translate specifically for that medium. And that’s really, really cool.

Yeah. And I’ve got an another pin, which I know is a pretty famous or award-winning pin o r feature pin is the Love Grows pin. And I know there’s a great story behind that as well. And I’ll just describe it in case anyone’s not looking at the video or, or just listening to the podcast here, but it is a heart that is sort of in the bloom of a flower. So there’s two sort of green leaves with a pink heart above it. And then it is on a background of a pastel rainbow type design on the bottom and then around it is yellow and blue rays coming out of the back. So it’s just really nice, happy and hopeful design and definitely spreading the concepts of love and, and growth around it. So, yeah, I’d love to hear the story behind that pin and that design.

Margaux Wosk: Yeah. So when I was like, gosh, maybe like 10 or so years ago, maybe longer when I was like in my late teen years, I had drawn this heart with these leaves at the bottom and the rays coming out on the rainbow hill. And it was something that I always kind of like would draw. And it just would keep happening and I could see it in my head and I’m like, that would make a really good pin.

So eventually I was able to find some graphic designers to work with and go back and forth until it came out exactly what I saw in my head. And I was fortunate enough that I was a consultant on York University’s Autism Mental Health Literacy project. And they licensed that for me for the cover.

Carolyn Kiel: That is really cool. So you have a lot of different pin designs and then a lot of other designs that are through other media as well. Do you have particular designs, whether they’re pins or other types of media that are sort of like your best sellers or your most popular that you’re noticing right now?

Margaux Wosk: The Neurodiversity Pride is the most popular. I’ve had 200 and then I reordered 200. Now I have 10 left. So I have almost gone through 400. So I just ordered some more. So we’ll get those in the next weeks, but it’s been incredible. Some people have bought bulk orders from me. I have around 10 retailers. Most retailers, that’s what they want to order for their shops. So, I mean, there’s a store in Pennsylvania that just ordered from me. There’s a store in San Francisco that has them. I mean, they’re, they’re making their way around the world, so it’s pretty cool.

Carolyn Kiel: That is really awesome. Yeah. To not only, you know, you have your online storefronts, but that you have other, actual physical stores that request it and sell these as well. And then I think you go out and sell them yourself at booths and, and things like that sometimes. Is that right?

Margaux Wosk: I’ve done that once so far. I hope to do that more because I love connecting with people and it was really cool. Because somebody who came up to me seeing me sell it said, oh, I saw, I saw your stuff at one of your retailers. And I recognize it. And I was like, this is awesome. I’ve also been fortunate enough with my advocacy work to be on, you know, covers of local newspapers or different articles written about me online. So it’s a really cool thing because that Neurodiversity Pride pin has pretty much changed my life in so many ways.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow, that’s awesome. Has the pin helped you give a wider platform for your advocacy or was the advocacy pulling in after the pins and the designs, or I guess does it kind of all work together?

Margaux Wosk: Yeah, so the advocacy work was definitely a thing before the pin, but the pin helped amplify my message. Because my message right now and what I’ve been working so hard on is trying to get better supports and funding implemented for people locally who are disabled, who have their own small business or are self-employed.

Last month was BC Disability Employment Month, and instead of focusing on us and what we’re doing, like other disabled people working for themselves or being self-employed, they focused on people who are not disabled hiring disabled people. We were actually completely left of the narrative. We weren’t even included in the press release. So it’s something that I’ve been fighting for.

I actually just spoke on the 30th at our British Columbia provincial budget meeting with our MLA’s who sit on the legislative, like they’re part of our legislative team and I addressed them and I had everybody’s attention listening to me speak. And one of the politicians admitted that he didn’t know anything about disabled small business owners. He didn’t know that we were a thing and he didn’t know that we existed basically. And he wanted to know what supports we required. So yesterday I furiously typed some important letters and sent it, and I’ve been told it’s been received. If these implicate, like if they do not implement some of my suggestions, then I’m going to find alternative routes to get a grant created so other people have the opportunity to thrive as a disabled small business person. And we require, we require respect and visibility because currently the people they’re showcasing have a lot of funding behind them. And we are encouraged to actually take out debt with the couple of programs that exist.

And one of the programs that exists actually has so many different barriers that most people wouldn’t even be able to get the money, because if you have a pre-existing business, you can’t get the money. And they also expect for both programs that you have to have a business plan. I never had a business plan. I just had an idea. And from that idea, it snowballed into something pretty amazing. And they need to understand that people who are disabled or neurodiverse are not necessarily going to do things by the book and having that plan isn’t necessarily an indication of somebody’s success or an accurate projection of how their business is going to go.

So my whole thing is if the Art Council has this infrastructure set up to be able to provide grants for artistic projects, they need to do the same thing for disabled small business owners. Even if they’re just funding a project versus the entire business. So, this is what I am fighting for. I have been spending so much time on it and it becomes kind of exhausting at times when you write emails to important people and they ignore you, but they’ll give the attention to organizations that could self-fund and are getting the, the financial backing, resources and basically tax free money they don’t have to pay back when, again, that program that is around expects us to take out debt. And that’s very backwards to expect at-risk people who are in a fairly low income bracket to have to, you know, have that. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. So I’m trying very hard to change things.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. And that’s fantastic. And yeah, I feel like a lot with these processes, it’s just like a lot of persistence and a lot of very basic education. Like it, it, you know, it kind of blows my mind that people wouldn’t realize that disabled, small business ownership was a thing, but I guess, you know, if you live in a certain bubble or a world, maybe you wouldn’t know, so I guess you have to start at the very, very basics, and then work people up and just stay persistent. So it sounds like that’s exactly what you’re doing and and that’s great and great that you’re seeing at least some traction towards that.

So that is really cool. Wow. So I guess what kind of recognition has Retrophiliac received over the years? I mean, I know you have a web page with like a whole list of recognition, so I couldn’t possibly name them all, but are there sort of other like big awards or ways that you’ve been recognized that are kind of like your favorite ways?

Margaux Wosk: So I entered a art show pre-COVID for disabled artists, and they picked one of my designs to be on their greeting card for that year, for the theme of “home.” So it got printed on a bunch of cards. I kickstart-funded, I think, five or six holiday cat cards. I think I raised $800 in four days.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow!

Margaux Wosk: Which was incredible. And then a lot of people got really lovely Christmas cards, holiday cards. So that was awesome. It was amazing. I still have those to sell, so it really helped me along. And I was able to donate a bunch of those cards for cat charities, because I was able to raise some money to get them produced. So it was just, it was really incredible.

What else? I’ve been, you know, on newspapers, on the radio, on TV with different activism or art related things. So it’s just, it’s just kind of endless at this point. And yeah, the list is really long. I almost keep it more for myself to just kind of keep track of everything.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. That’s really cool. No, that’s so exciting that you’re getting so much recognition for, for your art and and that it’s just kind of getting out into the world and, and all these different places, just even beyond the internet. That is awesome. Yeah. And you also, in addition to the website and Etsy and eBay and all the physical store sales, you also run a Facebook group as well of autistic artists, a community of autistic people. Tell me more about that.

Margaux Wosk: Sure. So I have Made by Autistics Community and Made By Autistics Marketplace. In Made By Autistics Community I think we have about 3.4 K members. So I could not find a place for myself a few years ago to share my art with other autistic people, because I know there’s so many creative autistic people. It sometimes goes hand in hand.

So I created this Facebook group and I was the first to do it. There’s been a lot of people attempting to, I guess, create groups alongside the same idea, which don’t necessarily seem to get as much traction, but the fact that there’s options out there for people is amazing. I love to see people sharing with each other, seeing what people create, and then the marketplace aspect is so people can buy and sell.

It’s been great. I think a lot of my sales come from that group and I also see the success of other people. And I offer myself as a resource. If anybody has any questions in regards to, you know, selling, expanding, you know, their product or print on demand, media coverage, just even art supplies, if they need any advice on that kind of thing. I just, I want to make myself available to people and I want, I want other people to experience the same successes that I’ve been so fortunate to experience.

Carolyn Kiel: That’s great. And do you have members in that group from outside of Canada?

Margaux Wosk: Oh, it’s worldwide. Absolutely.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow yeah. That’s great. That’s such a great resource because, you know, we need to, it, it’s a, you know, you’ve, you’ve had so much success and I think it’s really generous and great that you’re willing to share your experience and what you’ve learned and kind of help people become successful with their own art. And I think that that’s really amazing.

Margaux Wosk: I think it’s really important for people to see what autistic people are capable of. And if there’s a visual representation of that, or if somebody sees somebody’s art and, you know, maybe wants to open up the conversation about it and the other person is willing, I think that that’s really the way that we’re going to end the stigma that exists is, you know, finding commonalities to discuss our differences.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Wow. What a great resource and a great, a great part of your advocacy that you’re doing as well. Very cool. Yeah. So, you know, you’ve, you’ve done so much with Retrophiliac over the years. What would you say would be your biggest challenge that you faced in either launching it or just running it on a regular basis and how do you address that or how do you manage through that challenge?

Margaux Wosk: So a lot of it is like paperwork and taxes and legal stuff, which I am, again, that’s one of the things I’m fighting for is to make this easier for people to access. So that if they’re in my position, that it’s not like reading legalease, that you’re just like this reading English, but it feels like it’s in a language you can’t understand.

And I think it’s so important to make those resources accessible for people and not have, you know, call the tax line and have them be a complete jerk on the other side. Because a lot of the time when you’re dealing with government officials, they’re really not super friendly and it needs to be better because we’re trying to access information so we do things correctly. And how are we supposed to do that if the information is so hard to find? So that’s definitely a big challenge.

I think figuring out funding has been a big challenge and also teaching myself, how to just kind of be a squeaky wheel and reach out to retailers without really knowing what I’m doing. I’m just like, Hey, I have this stuff, you have a storefront. This is my story. Like, this is what I do. And being given the opportunity to have some shelf space. I mean, it can be really challenging at times. And also keeping up with my inventory, like understanding all that. I need to figure out a better way to do it, but, you know, just learning, it’s kind of like a crash course in business when you really don’t know what you’re doing, but you have to learn because you know, things, things are good.

My sales are pretty steady. I almost have a sale every single day, if not multiple sales. So, like this past year alone, I’ve done over 500 sales and reached over a thousand sales in my shop. Yeah. So it’s been, it’s been very steady and I enjoy it because it gives me a reason to go outside every day, take a walk to the mailbox.

Yeah. So there’s a lot of challenges, but it’s cool because I’m learning and I’m overcoming, and I’m able to share that with other people and, and fight for hopefully more resources and more help.

Carolyn Kiel: That’s awesome. Yeah. I guess that’s just a lot of the universal challenges of being an entrepreneur is figuring out all that stuff. Very, very cool. What are your long-term goals for Retrophiliac Art?

Margaux Wosk: So I would love to somehow design some kind of like maybe apparel or something like that. And ultimately my biggest goal is to open up a storefront that is entirely disabled-run, selling art by disabled art and wares and things by disabled people, a hundred percent. And integrate that into the community and being able to give back so that, you know, portion of the proceeds can go back to different disabled charities or be able to buy art supplies and, and give that back to people. Like, just, that ultimately is my biggest dream. That would be amazing.

Because there’s so many businesses that are out there where it’s a non-disabled person, sometimes tokenizing their child’s diagnosis to get empathy or sympathy from people and to get tax breaks. And I speak up about that because I understand that they’re trying to do something good, but at the same time, a lot of the time they use ableist language, harmful imagery and dismiss disabled people when we tell them to not do those things. And that has happened to me. And this, they get the spotlight and they get the attention and they get the tax breaks and I’m sitting here like, well, what about me? What about us? Why are we being pushed to the wayside and not even acknowledged?

So I really want to be that person or be on a team of people to get ourselves to that point where we can have a storefront or we can have a gathering space or give the opportunities back to people so I can help other people design enamel pins, design stickers, design patches, accessories, you know, just make it something very impactful that can really help push further change and help kind of get the message out there of inclusivity and, you know, have the government recognize that we’re here and we need their help, but we also really want to do big things.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, that’d be awesome. Yeah, I think that’s so important. And you know, there are so many disabled entrepreneurs and artists and creators who are doing amazing work and it’s really just a matter of, of amplifying and, and getting that attention and those resources that that you’re helping to fight for. And that would be amazing, that storefront would be so awesome.

Margaux Wosk: It would be the best because you could just imagine people for different holidays and stuff, you know, not only are they buying something for their loved ones, but like, it has a bunch of meaning behind it. And from there, you know, you never know who’s going to pick it up and who’s going to want to get involved or going to want to continue to patronize a place like that. Positive spaces in communities where people are worried about all kinds of different things, you know, like it just, it needs to happen. And I really, I really want to meet other people who are trying to do the same thing as me so that we can all uplift each other and truly make a transformative change.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. That’s wonderful. Yeah. Well, that’s so exciting! Wow!

Margaux, how can people get in touch with you if they want to learn more about your art or the work that you do? What’s the best place to find you online?

Margaux Wosk: Sure. So my website is navigatingjourney.com, which pretty much has everything on there. And then my Etsy is retrophiliac.etsy.com. So both of those places you can find me and my social media is pretty much kind of sprinkled throughout there. I’m on all kinds of other places like TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, you can look up Retrophiliac. Yeah, it’s all kind of integrated with each other.

Carolyn Kiel: Okay, cool. Yeah. And I’ll put links to your website and your Etsy shop in the show notes so that people can just click on that and and see all your, your great designs and all the great work that you’re doing.

Very cool. So, yeah, Margaux, thank you so much for being on the show. As we close out, is there anything else that you’d like our listeners to know or anything specific that they can help or support you with?

Margaux Wosk: You know, I think just visiting my website, reading through it, seeing kind of the different things I’m fighting for, and also understanding that, you know, disability is not a dirty word. It’s not a bad thing. And if people, you know, hopefully they can become more comfortable with the word, because if I didn’t identify as disabled and other people didn’t, we may not be entitled to the supports that are created for disabled people. And we don’t want to reduce our need by saying differently-abled, because it’s not a bad thing to require help or to require places to be accessible.

Carolyn Kiel: Absolutely. Yeah. That’s so important. Wow, thank you, Margaux. Thanks again for being on my podcast.

Margaux Wosk: Thank you so much for having me.

Carolyn Kiel: Thanks for listening to Beyond 6 Seconds. Please help us spread the word about this podcast. Share it with a friend. Give us a shoutout on your social media or write a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player. You can find all of our episodes on our website and sign up for our free newsletter at www.beyond6seconds.com. Until next time.