Check out Wolftree online at wolftree.co and their magazine the launch party on at 7 p.m., Saturday May 25th at Ecce Art Gallery. There will be food and live music.
The four best friends started a new magazine called Wolftree.
A new publication is entering the print world of Fargo-Moorhead.
It started as a joke to ease the career questions of Noah Kupcho, an MSUM alumnus who graduated with an art and photography degree in December 2012.
Brooke Kupcho, Noah Kupcho’s wife and an elementary and special education junior, said that Noah found no pleasure in typical photography jobs, such as wedding and portrait photography.
“It doesn’t make him happy,” Brooke Kupcho said. “So we said, let’s just start a magazine. We pretended we were making a magazine for a month saying things like ‘Cool story, you get on that or you should you write that.’”
Brooke and Noah Kupcho take photos for the
magazine at the couple’s art studio. SUBMITTED PHOTO
The joke was between the Kupchos and their two best friends: Dustin Snyder, an MSUM alumnus with a geography degree and Sarah Faith Strong, a sustainability junior. Snyder initially called it “Wolftree,” and the name stuck.
During a road trip over New Year’s, the group discussed making the magazine happen. They wanted it to showcase local artists, musicians and entrepreneurs. Looking up the actual definition of wolftree left them surprised and laughing.
“It’s a big tree that takes all the nutrients out of the soil and kills all the little trees around it,” Brooke Kupcho said. “The magazine is opposite of that. It is for telling and sharing about others and celebrating the people in it, not celebrating the magazine itself.”
The four redefined Wolftree and inserted the new definition in the front of the magazine. It reads: a very small tree that has a narrow-spreading crown and promotes and advances the growth of larger trees around it.
Since January, the team has written articles on people, projects and recipes and collected pieces of art to display in the magazine. Noah designed the layout, and Brooke has been the advertiser, running social media and telling everyone she knows.
Dustin Snyder and Noah Kupcho set up their studio for a photo shoot.
“You could call me the Wolftree cheerleader,” Brooke Kupcho said.
The MSUM student said her favorite part is meeting new artists. One artist that will publish in volume two said he had never showcased his work publically before.
“To see his passion for art come alive was cool. We were able to see what Wolftree can do,” Brooke Kupcho said.
The group desires to produce a high quality magazine with heavier stock paper. They hope that it becomes sustainable as a quarterly publication.
“When artists put stuff in it, it helps us out,” Brooke Kupcho said. “But I want it to get to a point where the favor flips; where if we put artists in it, it helps them. Where readers will see their art and want to contact them.”
The printing costs for durable paper was daunting to the team. One way they were able to support the start up was through a fundraising site called Kickstarter. They posted information and videos about their project and in three weeks were able to surpass their goal of $2,000 by raising $2,458. The extra money will be used to produce future issues.
For the four dreamers, seeing Wolftree actualized has been a lesson in itself.
“There’s been so many times in the past where I’ve wanted to do things, but I let it fade,” Brooke Kupcho said. “There’s no way we could’ve done it by ourselves, but it’s cool that we can actually do it. I honestly don’t know how it’s working. I’m just going with it.”
Wolftree will be hosting a magazine launch party at 7 p.m. May 25 at Ecce Art Gallery. Open to the public, there will be live music, free food and coffee. The magazine will cost $22 and can also be purchased at Zandbroz Variety and Ecce or on the publication’s website, wolftree.co.
BY MEGAN HAVIG
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