July 22, 2019

This was the day, Brent Plooster told himself.

It was this past Saturday, July 20, when he rolled out of bed, walked a matter of feet in the room that doubles as his office and got to work.

“I just started a quick cartoony sketch,” said Plooster, the owner of Brentiis Design.

The idea had been rolling around in the artist’s mind for “a long time,” he said. In January, he started asking for input on social media.

“I said I want to do this Sioux Falls legends line of shirts or posters and tried to get an idea from people of what they thought of that is Sioux Falls. Not like the falls or The Empire Mall but the kind of things that only we would know.”

So when Plooster, a Sioux Falls native, finally sat down to draw, the images came fairly easily. There was Mr. Bendo, towering above an image of Wilbur the coyote from Gigglebee’s. Behind them was an image of a well-recognized woman known for walking around town while reading. They’re all set against the Sioux Falls flag.

“I just kind of spit it out and threw it up on Facebook. And I was expecting maybe 100 likes from my close friends and family.”

Not even close. By the end of Sunday, his post had been shared hundreds of times.

“It was just share, share, share,” Plooster said Sunday. “I’m still dumbfounded. I hadn’t even had breakfast yet. I don’t think I’ve eaten since.”

Plooster was first inspired to draw when he was 5 years old. But art took a backseat to other things. He was a musician for about a decade but couldn’t make a living with it. Then he ran the Best Buy Mobile location at The Empire Mall. When it closed last year, he decided to focus on designs, artwork and illustrations. His wife bought him the right computer and software for it for Father’s Day.

“My main staple is portrait work,” he said. “I usually draw families.”

But he hasn’t been able to get any traction in Sioux Falls until now. Most of his work comes from people who find him through Reddit from all over the world and hire him to draw them in a cartoon-style portrait.

“I’ve done people in New Zealand, the UK, Switzerland,” he said. “But I love Sioux Falls. And I’m super jazzed to be able to walk outside and see something I made. I don’t ever get to see something I made.”

To capitalize on the quick response to his Sioux Falls legends design, he set up a website that will manufacture and ship the image on everything from a shirt to a mug, pillow or poster. It’s not an ideal setup, though, because he receives only a small portion of the sale. Because he lacks the capital to fund a large print order locally, he’s hoping to potentially partner with a business to share the revenue and keep whatever he makes local.

“If anyone local wants to provide printing, I would happily support local businesses. I would much rather share (with them),” he said.

He’s also planning to allow his children to select a children’s charity that will receive a portion of anything he sells.

“It was a legit badge of honor when my 16-year-old posted ‘My Dad is doing something awesome.’ I want to do a ton of Sioux Falls stuff. There’s so many icons in town that people have been talking about.”

Brent Plooster’s self-portrait

He also felt bad about some who viewed his depiction of the woman walking while reading as anything other than a Sioux Falls icon, he said. Social media reaction with mixed, with some ordering on the spot and others criticizing him for not securing the woman’s permission.

Plooster said he tried to make the image anonymous by not showing a face. The goal of the design was to use images that only people living in Sioux Falls would understand.

“It’s not meant to be malicious or mean,” he said. “I feel like you can look at it and smile because you get it.”

He hopes to work with Sioux Falls businesses to create custom designs for them and would one day like to write a children’s book. For now, his mind is swirling with his next Sioux Falls-inspired work, he said.

“There’s more coming,” he said. “I’m working on it now.”

To purchase items with Plooster’s Sioux Falls designs, click here. To view examples of his other work, click here.