Pankratz, who studied zoology at UW-Madison, worked at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo for four years before combining his passion for animals and art.
Adam Pankratz loved to draw when he was a child, but as he got older he drifted away from the hobby. He recalls being frustrated looking at pieces by professional artists and thinking, “I’m never going to be able to do that.” By his 20s, he gave up art altogether and found a different calling — caring for the animals at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo.
A UW-Madison graduate with a degree in zoology, Pankratz started as a conservation instructor and eventually made his way up the zookeeper ladder, working with primates, birds, small mammals and reptiles. He didn’t know it at the time, but the animals he encountered would eventually become his subjects when he rediscovered his passion for art.
The creative impulse stemmed from perhaps an unlikely source — Lin-Manuel Miranda’s wildly popular musical Hamilton. Pankratz and one of his friends were both big fans of the production, and it got them thinking about nurturing their own artistic pursuits. “At his 30th birthday party, he came out with a blank canvas and said, ‘We gotta get back to doing something creative,” Pankratz recalls. The friend, himself an out-of-practice writer, penned a short story while Pankratz sketched an architectural feature. “I went home and found an old paint set and told myself, ‘I’m going to work at this,’” Pankratz says.
On July 14, Pankratz will make his debut at this year’s Art Fair on the Square as one of about a dozen early-career artists selected to exhibit in the “Emerging Artist” category. An initiative launched in 2016, it gives promising newcomers an opportunity to break into the art fair, which is one of the biggest and most competitive in the Midwest. “It’s such an honor to have been accepted,” Pankratz says. “This is a really desirable event to be at.”
This will be Pankratz’s first public exhibition of any kind, and he’s excited to showcase his work alongside other artists and see how the public will respond. He’s just now getting to the point where he’s starting to sell his work — he’s done a few commissions and sold a few pieces online under the moniker Krinklebearcat — but he thinks that the old-fashioned art fair is still a important avenue for artists to gain recognition and revenue. “We [artists] have to take any opportunity to get our work out there,” he says. “The Art Fair on the Square is a tremendous event, and it’s great to meet potential clients and other artists face-to-face. Plus I think there’s no substitute for seeing artwork in person.”
Showing at art fairs requires a financial commitment from artists. Beyond the time spent creating the artwork and such expenses as paint, canvases and prints, artists are also responsible for providing their own tent, tables, signage and display materials. Some people rent equipment, but Pankratz opted to buy his own setup. “I see it as an investment in myself,” he says. “I’m confident that I’m going to be around for a while.”
Pankratz says the biggest challenge in preparing for the art fair was deciding how to price his paintings. He researched how other artists approached the issue and decided to charge $1.50 per square inch. One of his largest works, a dramatic portrait of an elephant, is priced at $1,800; his smallest paintings go for around $25. “I wanted [a pricing model] I could be consistent with,” he says. Prints of his works are priced based on the cost of production — a high-quality inkjet style called giclée — and range from $15 to $60 depending on size. On all his sales, Pankratz donates at least a quarter of the proceeds to conservation organizations including the Wisconsin Bird Protection Fund, the Rainforest Trust and Partners in Reptile and Amphibian Conservation.
“Being able to promote the greater good with my art is a great motivator to keep working,” he says. “At the end of the day, if I can donate to these causes, I’ll consider it a success.”
This story is part of a series on the 60th anniversary of the Art Fair on the Square. You can access the full series here.