St. Louis Artist's Space, Cranky Yellow, Is Actually Quite Pleasant

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David Wolk (at right, dancing) and Angelo Stege (at left, busy)
are the proprietors of this here artist's co-op.

In the middle of the burgeoning Cherokee arts district, between Jefferson and Nebraska, sits the new home of Cranky Yellow. After calling a small space in the middle of antique row home for a while, David Wolk and Angelo Stege (Cranky Yellow's main proprietors), packed up shop and moved down the street towards the center of what is quickly becoming the place in St. Louis for independent artists, music and food.

Cranky Yellow's new digs is at least three times as big as their first, humble spot, and with the expansion of space has come an explosion of inventory. What used to be a merely a rack of "zines" (independently published magazines, comics and books), a small collection of art for sale and a few pieces of handmade clothing has become a full-fledged store filled with hundreds of vintage books, racks of vintage and unique clothing and display cases filled with quirky antiques and crafts.

Unlike a typical retail store that purchases mass-produced products to mark-up and resell, the inventory at Cranky Yellow is sold direct from the artist. David and Angelo opened Cranky Yellow because they saw that there were so many people making great things and there weren't outlets in our city for them to get their stuff in the hands of folks who wanted it. They explained that a lot of artists, collectors and crafters dream of starting their own stores, but getting into retail is a daunting, and often difficult, thing to do. "We are just a venue and outlet for things people want to do," David said.

They opened up their doors at the perfect time, too. There has been a tidal wave of people looking for handcrafted and unique items, and the movement away from corporately produced items is growing. Angelo said, "It is good to put the money to people who need it, which are the artists and not the big, out of town corporations." The handmade trend is also growing because many artisian products are green, "It's something artists have been doing forever," David added.

The down economy and the handicraft movement have helped Cranky Yellow and Cherokee Street take of rapidly. David told us, "Cherokee Street, despite the economic nosedive, is just exploding." They explained that since the area was previously sparsely populated and abandoned, artists saw an opportunity to move in to renovate and reinvigorate. "This city is a fixer-upper's dream," Angelo said, "Everyone is inspiring each other." David added that the city is, "A blank palette to fill in and artists were the first to realize that potential."

The store and the district work very closely together to support each other's businesses and the street has a close-knit community feel that is often lacking in suburbs even. That community, cooperative feeling permeates even through the individual businesses. David said they are even working with businesses along the street for a "collaborative security effort." Cranky Yellow is one of many businesses along the vast stretch of the street that will be participating in the Cherokee Street Open House on April 4th that Firecracker Press organized to spotlight the individual businesses and vibrancy of the street.

They are all working together to bring the community back into locally owned businesses and help each other grow the district and their shops. Cranky Yellow is planning to continue to grow as well. David explained that they will eventually have the ability to have bands play in their store, and their unique merchandise will continue to constantly grow and change, just like the street it calls home.

Among the cool and unique items that fill the store sits a genuine Rainbow Brite Sprite, "It a real one, not like they are selling at Hot Topic," David beamed.

Cranky Yellow is located at 2847 Cherokee Street. They are open Tuesday through Friday from 12pm until 6pm.