Milwaukee artist Reginald Baylor shifts from painting to home goods at redeveloping Walker's Point site

People enjoy beautiful objects, especially when they're affordable.

That insight led veteran Milwaukee artist Reginald Baylor to shift from his traditional medium to instead putting images he creates on coffee mugs, pillows, counter tops, rugs and other household goods — a business that's helping revive a historic Walker's Point building.

Baylor, one of Wisconsin's best-known artists, has stopped painting. He's leasing the first floor of a renovated building for a store to sell his new wares, which could expand to include similar items made by other local artists.

"I'm moving from fine arts to the design world," Baylor said. "That's a good approach when you're looking at people interested in buying beautiful things." 

Baylor's journey as an artist and his use of vintage Walker's Point space coincide with the revival of the formerly industrial neighborhood as a creative hub.

And, while he's excited about his new endeavor, eventually reaching that point from his decision to stop painting wasn't easy, Baylor said.

"You just didn't interview me when I was depressed," he said, with a laugh.

Other well-known artists have a powerful connection to mainstream culture that allows their work to be emblazoned on T-shirts, coffee mugs and other mass-produced objects.

Think of Roy Lichtenstein, whose pop art includes the recognizable 1964 work "Crying Girl."  Or the work of '80s New York street artist Keith Haring.

Still, it's unusual for a local artist, such as Baylor, to attempt that leap.

Baylor's shop will use around 2,200 square feet at 211 W. Florida St. New owners Ryan Pattee and Dieter Wegner are redeveloping the building, which includes upgrading a pair of apartments on the second floor.

Their group, 211 Florida LLC, bought the building in July for $195,000, according to city assessment records.

Pattee and Wegner are adding new heating, electrical and plumbing fixtures; removing brown paint from the exterior brick; and taking other steps to bring the 152-year-old building back to life.

Wegner, who has restored other Walker's Point buildings into restaurants, a jazz club and other new uses, extols the Florida St. building's original craftsmen.

Said Wegner: "We're just letting what they did..."

"Shine," interjected Pattee, whose projects include a recently restored art studio with two upstairs apartments at 2433-2435 W. National Ave., in the Clarke Square neighborhood.

The Florida St. apartments will include one unit for short-term stays by professionals. The other will be marketed on Airbnb.com as an apartment mainly for leisure travelers. Both should be ready within a month or so.

The neighborhood includes such office buildings as the Global Water Center, and destinations for vacationers such as the Harley-Davidson Museum.

The building's first floor originally housed a supply store for Great Lakes ships docking at the Port of Milwaukee. It most recently was an aquarium supplies store, but has been vacant for two years.

Baylor is receiving city grants totaling $25,500 to help pay for the $56,600 cost of renovating the space into his new store, according to the Department of City Development.

Attracting Baylor as a tenant is part of Pattee and Wegner's development strategy in Walker's Point and other Milwaukee neighborhoods.

"If you're bringing culture and artistic people into an area, then like-minded people will come," Wegner said.

Baylor plans to open the store in March. It also might eventually include a coffee shop, he said.

But the focus will be the new line of items embossed with Baylor's artistry. He also will sell limited edition prints of his work.

Baylor, 51, was a sculptor while a University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh student and later began painting with acrylics. He lived and worked in the Los Angeles area and Chicago before returning to Milwaukee in 1998.

He was a truck driver to help support his family before devoting himself full-time to art around 10 years ago. He drew recognition, including a Joyce Foundation Award in 2007 and again in 2013.

"His canvases sell and seduce — intentionally or not, a perfect survival strategy for the visual tumult of today’s art world," Mary Louise Schumacher, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's art critic, wrote in a 2010 article.

"He uses the crisp lines, geometry and high-keyed colors typical of cereal cartons and potato chip packaging to create artworks that are fundamentally about the American dream — what it was, what it’s become," Schumacher wrote.

But painting proved to be economically unsustainable for Baylor.

Baylor said the three months of work to produce a single big acrylic on canvas painting often wasn't bringing enough money to compensate him for his time and expenses.

His costs included hiring two to three assistants and renting space to show his work. What was left would help pay daily living expenses, while he tried to set aside money for retirement. 

People often said they loved his work, but couldn't afford spending $55,000 to $60,000 for a large-scale painting.

"You hear that 20 times a day, and you say, 'Why am I not making my work more affordable?'" Baylor said.

It came to a head when Baylor was working on a very large, complex piece.

"That was going to be my most beautiful painting yet," he said.

After sporadic drawing and other preparation work for years while doing additional projects, he realized the painting would have to eventually sell for around $150,000 to justify the time and expense. And Baylor knew he was unlikely to get that price.

So, Baylor sold the unfinished work to a local art patron.

And he has embraced technology such as computer-controlled cutting machines and 3-D printing to emboss images on a variety of items — a process that is much faster and less costly than creating a painting.

"I started being more attracted to technology, and less attracted to technique," Baylor said.

The printed objects of art can be small, such as towels, that will sell for up to $150, along with higher-end items, such as decorative mirrors, selling for around $1,000. Most of the work he produces will sell for under $900.

For those pricier objects, including his prints, Baylor wants to "create a scene that's like Best Buy."

"I feel like I'm competing for the same wall space as a flat screen TV," he said.

He's involved in other projects, including Baylor Productions LLC, a new marketing/media firm aimed at Milwaukee's creative class.

Baylor is at peace with his new approach. But he said that wasn't the case roughly 18 months ago, when he decided he could no longer afford to be a painter.

"That was my dream, to be a painter. It's all I ever thought about," he said. "I thought it was the end of the world."

But Baylor gradually recognized that his new approach is embracing "all these other things I ignored because I was painting."

"Now, I'm inspired by the materials," he said.

And, there's something special about being included in the continuing transition of Walker's Point from an industrial area to a neighborhood with new entrepreneurs and residents.

"Now I get to be part of that growth," Baylor said.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com, and followed on Twitter and Facebook.