Featured Artist: Megan Chartier of Inkermezzo
Megan Chartier, a classical cellist, creates musical illustrations between performances under the name Inkermezzo. This creative alias combines the words ink, her favored medium, and intermezzo, a short musical movement inserted between acts of a larger work. Searching for identity when performances halted in the early pandemic, Megan embraced musical artwork; she was still a cellist, even without a stage. Her illustrations focus on classical music education, awareness, and activism through realistic portraiture and detailed anatomical works. Notable collaborations include pieces with Hilary Hahn, CelloBello, the American Viola Society, and Strings of Latin America. Her most recent work is a collection of fifty-four portraits of classical composers, completing an entirely hand-drawn deck of playing cards. Megan lives and performs in the San Francisco Bay Area and holds positions as Principal Cellist of Opera San Luis Obispo and Cello Lecturer at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
Check out her Featured Artist Page!
Can you share the story behind the creation of Inkermezzo?
Inkermezzo started with a sticker design lifted from an old recital poster I drew for myself with Brahms and Shostakovich. Friends and family were interested in buying stickers, so I decided to go for it and launch my Etsy shop in 2017. It was a hodgepodge of random art prints until 2020, when I relaunched with specifically classical music artwork; searching for identity when performances halted in the early pandemic, I was still a cellist, even without a stage. The name reflects the balance I eventually found — a fusion of ink, my favored medium, and intermezzo, a short musical movement inserted between acts of a larger work.
How did your musical background influence your journey?
I had a complicated relationship with my art for many years before launching Inkermezzo. I couldn’t decide between music and art school - and ultimately went with my true passion over true talent. For the most part, I kept my artwork a secret because I feared that my art would make me appear less serious as a musician. The pandemic resolved this struggle for me; classical music can’t just live on stage and we need a better marketing strategy to attract new audiences. My art could bring a unique and fresh style to music education, advocacy, and advertising.
What are some parallels you've found between music and designing?
I recently did an interview that sent me on an interesting thought about the parallel. The question compared creating art to the process of learning a new piece of music. This was a particularly interesting question having just completed a two-year-long journey with the Classical Card Collection. Learning a difficult concerto *well* could easily take a year or two. At the end of both, you realize that you are a different and new person and you often need to return to the details to blend who you are now with who you were. Before this thought, the most immediate parallel is how I practice and draw day-to-day. When I think I’ve perfected the phrase or a section of the drawing, I tell myself that it’s now just the starting point. I layer detail on detail until it’s probably too much — so that’s what erasers are for me!
How do you balance multiple creative outlets?
I’m still figuring that one out - if you have any advice, let me know! Joking aside, the balance emerges in unexpected ways. I used to think balance was giving appropriate times to each outlet in a day or week. I’ve realized that balance is dynamic and malleable to whatever my brain needs in that moment or season. I tend to get obsessive about one creative outlet at a time; every time I practice, all I can think about is drawing, and the other way around. Of course, that’s incredibly difficult when one creative outlet, my music, is also my career. When all is nice and perfect, I only draw when I hit the proper number of practice hours in a day. But the older I get, the more I realize that sometimes leaning a little heavier into art makes my music more detailed. Sometimes practicing too much helps me eventually problem solve better out of an internal design conflict. Balance between the two creative outlets comes more from finding a way for both expressions to speak to one another without one fighting the other.
Has your creative style evolved over time?
It definitely has with an increase in confidence in my design work. My portfolio leans heavily in black and white because it’s easy to transport to rehearsals or on tour (although I have a new color medium idea for that!). I used to stick to realistic reproductions in my signature style, but especially with the back of the card deck, I’ve enjoyed playing with clever design drawing on my interests. The next piece, Curse of the Ninth, for instance, draws on Victorian elements inspired by my time in San Francisco combined with vintage sheet music covers.
Can you highlight a favorite project of yours?
My forever favorite project is the Bow Hold Series. For each string instrument, I drew six bow holds of prominent twentieth century musicians. Each reference was carefully studied and selected based on string and bow placement for uniformity (although that became more impossible with the violists and bassists because of limited references). It was the first time I wasn’t drawing to just improve my own skill; I was curating a collection of educational references that made a statement. Because of this, they became an interesting conversational topic online. My initial intention was to show the various schools of right hand technique paired with differences in players’ anatomy. It was particularly important for me to reflect on the physical qualities of Jacqueline du Pre’s bow hold because my hand was more similar to hers than, let’s say, Rostropovich's, despite my preference for his right hand technique.
What was the inspiration behind the Classical Composers Playing Cards?
I actually began this project because my busy performance schedule created a bit of an artistic writers block with new concepts. I thought, hey, I can do the exact same thing 54 times and still end up with a cool product. It ended up blooming into a more thoughtful project quickly after its conception. I had been opposed to drawing a bunch of old white guys (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms) because I felt a sense of responsibility to push the representation in classical music. The cards were a perfect vehicle to do both thoughtfully - I could reimagine the canon to be more inclusive while still celebrating the greats.
Looking back, what advice would you give to your younger self?
Balance is hard, but if you can make it work, you don’t need to be only one thing. Your life will never be fulfilled by your time in a practice room, no matter the successes that come from it. Music doesn’t happen in a vacuum, it’s a communal celebration and expression of shared experiences. Even in isolation, you are never truly lonely in music.
Do you have any upcoming projects or goals you are excited about and want to share?
The next Inkermezzo piece, Curse of the Ninth, is a big exciting piece for me. If you’re unfamiliar, the curse of the ninth is a musical superstition that threatens death after a composer’s ninth symphony. It supposedly started with Mahler, fearing fated death after Beethoven and Schubert’s lead. A number of composers died with this haunting timing and some of their preceding works were dedicated to resisting this fate. The piece is a death-themed clock design, modeled after vintage sheet music, and engraves the portraits of some of the most famous victims of the curse into the structure. There are many little music history nuggets to uncover. The design was started 2 years ago, but halted when I doubted my design ability. The back of the Classical Card Collection helped dig me out of that rut and I’m so excited to complete this large ballpoint masterpiece.
What is your favorite song/composer/play/show?
My favorite composer is Shostakovich. I listen to a variety of different genres and I grew up as an emo kid obsessed with screamo music. Shostakovich is essentially that to me; he’s the heavy metal composer. He’s my go-to recommendation for people wanting to explore classical music for the first time — recommending Mozart and Bach, while great, is just a great way to keep that gray-haired stereotype in classical music.
