Philadelphia-based artist Nicole Krecicki is on a mission to help spread social change through wearable art.
Krecicki creates original T-shirts and apparel using hand-drawn, hand-cut stencils and good old-fashioned spray paint. “I never really planned for it to be more than a hobby, but after going to countless LGBT Pride events and seeing the same “slap-a-rainbow-on-it-and-they-will-come” T-shirt stands, I wanted to create a line that was unlike anything else out there: Something original and stylish, that people would want to wear, anywhere. My frustration and inspiration fell in love, and my company, Rainbow Alternative, was born.”
PGN: You are a Philadelphia-based company. But where are you from? NK: I was born in Trenton, N.J., and grew up in Ewing, which is in the suburbs of Trenton. I lived in that area for a while and did a brief stint in Ashville, N.C., which I hated! I lived there for a short period of time and then ran back to Philly.
PGN: What took you to Ashville? NK: My girlfriend at the time took a job there. I visited her and, at first I really liked it, so I thought I’d give it a go. But living there, I felt like I was suffocating. It was a very artsy little town with galleries and restaurants, surrounded by nothing. Once you’d been to the restaurants and handful of galleries and walked the length of the city, that was about it. It was nice for a weekend visit, but living there felt like being in the middle of nowhere.
PGN: Tell me about your family. NK: I was raised pretty much by my grandparents. My parents were around, but I lived with my grandparents since I was a baby. My mother worked in a doctor’s office and my dad was a cop.
PGN: Are you mixed? NK: Yes, my dad’s black and my mom’s white.
PGN: I’m mixed too. It takes one to know one. I used to have a whole zebra club. NK: When I was little, I used to call us swirl babies!
PGN: Did you have difficulties with it growing up? NK: Not really; we lived in a really mixed neighborhood. It never even registered until high school, which is the time when you’re trying to figure out where you fit in anyway. People kind of want to know where you stand: Do you wear Vans or do you wear Nikes? But even then my friends were varied, so it wasn’t an issue with them, but it was kind of out there with other people.
PGN: What did you like to do as a kid? NK: I really liked music and I had a little brown-and-tan Fisher-Price tape recorder that I used to tape everything around me — mostly music off the radio. I also watched entirely too much television. Which, in a way, was a good thing because I believe I learned a lot of life lessons from shows like “The Brady Bunch.” You can ask my mom: I was a really good kid. I never got into trouble, or went through any of the typical teenage trials and troubles and I owe it to 30-minute sitcom lessons! I would think to myself, You know what, I’m not going to sneak out or do this or that because I saw what happened to Jan Brady! But what I was really into — and they may take away my lesbian membership for this — is that I was obsessed with teen magazines. [Laughs.] I had pin-ups all over my room. [Laughs.] I went through a Jonathan Brandis phase and was really into Joey and the Lawrence brothers and I had every New Kids on the Block accessory you could imagine.
PGN: Favorite piece of clothing? NK: I had a Michael Jackson “Thriller” shirt when I was really little that I wore all the time. I loved, loved, loved Michael Jackson. The first tape I ever had was a Jackson 5 greatest-hits tape and I carried that and the tape recorder everywhere, even in the car, which already had a tape player. Last year, I got a tattoo of the album-cover artwork, which I’m proud of!
PGN: Favorite class in school? NK: I loved to draw, but outside of art, I wasn’t all that into academics. I did well, but I really didn’t give two shits about it.
PGN: Any early signs that you were gay? NK: I remember watching “The Real World” season six and there was a girl on the show, Genesis, who was openly gay. She had a lot of problems and I remember wanting to go to Boston to hug and comfort her. I was young so I don’t know if it was sexual, but it was the first time I knew my feelings toward women were different.
PGN: And you’re now in a relationship. Tell me about it. NK: My girlfriend’s name is Nicole as well. She’s also a businessperson: She makes jewelry and housewares and we vend at a lot of events together. We met at a craft show last December. I love ’80s pop culture and one of my favorite movies is “Pretty in Pink.” She had these Andie and Duckie earrings that were fabulous. I asked her if she could make me a necklace and we exchanged information. One thing led to another and we’ve been together ever since.
PGN: Tell me about the art you do. NK: I’ve always loved art. I was involved in a mural program in Trenton when I was young. Later, I went to art school for graphic design and it was a terrible, terrible experience. Their whole focus was on the corporate design world and they took all the heart out of the artistic side. It really turned me off doing art for a while. Then when I was in Ashville, which was only nine months though it felt like fucking forever, I made a T-shirt for my then-girlfriend of the Philadelphia skyline. I was bored out of my mind and missing Philly, so I went online and looked up different techniques of shirt printing. I really liked the stenciling process and it’s what I do to this day.
PGN: And what does that consist of? NK: I hand-cut the stencils and apply the designs with spray paint.
PGN: How did you get started as a business? NK: I had a lot of friends who liked the shirts I’d made for myself and they always asked if they could buy them. So I decided to make up a bunch of shirts and things for SundayOut and see how they would go over. I came up with the name Rainbow Alternative because I thought it was time to have something else out there that represented pride without having to have rainbows plastered all over them. It was time for a little variety. I guess it worked because I did well and have been doing shows ever since. I also started an online shop at Etsy, which is a really cool online site where you can buy handmade goods from around the world. I also use a Facebook page and Twitter to market my products. Nicole was really a motivator in getting me to expand as a business. I hope to eventually be able to quit my day job and do nothing but work on Rainbow Alternative. I completely love it.
PGN: And what’s your day job? NK: I work at the Northern Home for Children. It’s a behavioral and mental-health facility for children. I’m the access coordinator, which is basically a glorified receptionist.
PGN: What traits make you a good businessperson? NK: I’ll take a step back and say that when I was in school for graphic design, it was like pulling teeth to get me to do anything. In school in general, I never found anything that I was passionate about, so I got things done but always half-assed or at the last minute. But this is something that a) I really believe in and b) I really enjoy and get satisfaction from. Once I find something I like, I’m very good at getting tasks done and this really drives me to work hard. I love it.
PGN: When did you come out? NK: I was 22 and I was living with this guy I was dating. He was a very nice guy and I kind of knew a few years prior to that. There was a girl that I worked with that I had a crush on, but I just sort of suppressed it. Then I started hanging around this girl at school and, oh God, this is so cliché, but she gave me a copy of the first season of “The L Word” that she’d taped off the TV. I watched that and started hanging out with her and her friends. She was openly gay and, by the time we got to the second season, I started to come out. I’d been aware of the gay community, I’d had gay friends and family and my parents had gay friends, so it wasn’t a foreign world to me, but once I’d immersed myself in it, it gave me that final push to come out. At first I told my boyfriend I was bisexual. That lasted about a week because he got all excited and wanted to run with it! I had to tell him, “No, no, this is not a time for you to be high-fiving.” It wasn’t about making his fantasy come true. Once he got it, I had to move out. I stayed with my father for a month and, at first, he kept asking me what happened, if I’d found another guy or something. When I said it definitely wasn’t another guy, wink, wink, he got it. I wasn’t nervous because he had a good friend who was a lesbian and my parents were friends with her and her partner. He was fine and I was very fortunate that no one in the family had any problems with it.
PGN: I think that’s one of the benefits of being biracial: People tend to be a bit more progressive and understanding. NK: Exactly.
PGN: Back to your business, what’s one of your favorite designs? NK: It always changes. I love the design of the two girls kissing. It’s one I’ve had from the beginning but I’ve changed and tweaked it along the way. The Ellen shirt has special meaning to me because it’s one of the first really detailed faces I’ve done. When you stencil, you’re making a negative, so when I first did it, the negative didn’t look like Ellen at all. It looked scary and creepy and I was really discouraged that I’d done all the work for nothing and then I sprayed it on a shirt and it looked great. One of the best sellers is the “Don’t block the box” shirts, which has the design from the traffic signs. It’s kind of an inside joke.
PGN: What’s your most and least expensive item? NK: My T-shirts may run up to $20-$25 and I have buttons and pins that sell for a dollar. I also do custom orders, so that might run a little higher for a hoodie or bag or if someone wants a piece done that requires me making a new stencil.
PGN: What’s your most unusual possession? NK: I don’t know that it’s unusual, but when I tell most people about it they raise an eyebrow. My dad was a gadget guy so along with my Fisher Price recorder, I got a Betamax VCR and I still use it.
PGN: If you could visit any place, where would you go? NK: Australia. I love the beach; I’m obsessed with it. It’s my favorite place to be, it’s where I feel calm. When I first met Nicole, one of the ways we bonded, other than the Duckie necklace, was over a movie called “Airborne.” It’s a film about a surfer kid and no one I know has ever heard of it. I happened to randomly mention it and she knew all about it! I would love to spend time on the beaches of Australia hanging out on Bondi Beach or exploring the Barrier Reefs.
To suggest a community member for “Professional Portraits,” write to: Professional Portraits, 505 S. Fourth St., Philadelphia, PA 19147 or [email protected].