We recently connected with Arleigh (arlay) Turley and have shared our conversation below.

Arleigh (Arlay), appreciate you joining us today. One of our favorite things to hear about is stories around the nicest thing someone has done for someone else – what’s the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?

In the beginning of my artistic career it was really hard. I felt defeated a lot. I had many tears, and poetic break downs along the way. I was like a broken ballerina. I knew how to dance and I had something to show for myself, but no one would listen, watch, or cared. And it made me break more and more till I couldn’t dance for awhile..I remember crying to my husband who also happens to be my best friend. This one particular time I had just released a new collection of handmade dolls for my art shop and no one was buying my art. I felt so heart broken. I was ready to just give up on being an artist. I had poured all my my creative spirit into these dolls. All of a sudden I heard the notification sound for my etsy shop which sounds like CHA-CHING! I stopped crying and I was so excited! I had gotten an order!! Finally! lol. Then I looked at who ordered it and it was my husband’s name… He wrote the sweetest note in checkout telling me how proud of me he was, how beautiful my art was, and that he was my number one fan. He also told me to keep going no matter what.. to not give up and that if he had to he would buy every single doll and art piece I ever make for the rest of our lives and fill his work office up with them with pride.

It was truly the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me… because no one has really ever in my life cared about something that was important to me just as much as I cared. Now I get so many orders I have to close my shop and I get overwhelmed sometimes for vacation mode because it can be hard to keep up with the demand… I think about how far I’ve come and think about my humble beginnings.. I remember back to him. I never felt safe enough to be a full time artist until I met him. Maybe one day I’ll be able to share that story too.

Arleigh (Arlay), love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Keshhii / Hello kindred spirits! My name is Arleigh, Pronounced ARLAY.. eigh pronounced just like the eigh in eight, weight or freight, lol.
Okay, now that that is out of the way, I am Native American Zuni Pueblo and Dutch. All of my art has indigenous roots and meaning but I’ve spun it all into my own personal reflective art which I call, Fragments of my Soul for sale.
I am an artist with many roles. I write poetry. I make poetic handmade artwork curiosities, and heirloom handmade dolls. All of my artwork is composed of a fibers from my soul which echo a concert of images. These images include whimsical dark fantasy land all knotted together with the glue of truth and my existence in raw deep poetic language.
Everything I make are fragments of my soul for sale.
My talent I received as a gift from my native ancestors. It is all of our voices together in one. It is the way I have made sense of the pain and even joy I have experienced on this earth. I have turned it into beauty. I have a story.
Though it is modern times, I feel my Ancestral Indigenous spirit flowing through me to be a rainbow of all our voices together.

I started writing poetry and making art since I was a little girl in grade school. It just is something that has always been a part of me. After my daughter Petra Luna was born I desperately wanted to know how to sew. I had never learned and I didn’t learn well in a classroom setting so… I just taught myself. I went and bought a sewing machine. I pulled clothing apart and studied how to put it all back together. I studying the nature of the stitches, the widths of them. My oldest daughter Juleigh Skye, who was in middle school sewing at the time taught me how to sew in a straight line. The rest is history from there. I taught myself how to make my own patterns. I taught myself how to embroider, how to crochet, how to make clothes, costumes, and how to make little handmade dolls that are my own reflection of people and characters. I taught myself how to read professional patterns and make things from those. It’s like another language the sewing world. After sewing for a long time I wanted to make more poetic art forms for a more mature audience than my dolls and clothing was calling for. I started putting together little wonders of nature… I would find things passed away in nature and say little native prayers over them. I would decorate them into little glass coffins. It’s a type of art not everyone understands. However, I think it’s sacred and beautiful if it is done right. As well as if it is done with pure intention, love, and respect for the spirit. These art vessels have different mixed medias intertwined with elements of nature, like bones from naturally passed away animals or bugs, crystals harvested from the earth, and plants or ocean materials. I also like to incorporate fantasy creatures. So if some of the deceased beings I find are only parts and pieces I will make a fantasy monster or creature. I often put hand made poetry with many of the pieces I make. I still make my dolls as well.

I share and make my art because it brings me peace on an earth that one day we all must depart from.
Other kindred spirits in this world buy and collect fragments of my soul I put up for sale.
They decorate their homes with it or gift them to loved ones.

Your home is where your Soul blooms & rests. One should Decorate it in a way that makes them smile each Sunrise when you wake and feel comfort each night when you part with reality into the womb of your dreams.

I’m the most proud of the beautiful people I have met along the way. Seeing how much my art means to them still will astound me. I can’t believe they like something I made. To hear them say how I am their favorite shop and a beautiful soul makes me cry. Just to hear that one time from one kindred spirt on this earth who felt my art call to their heart is enough for me at the end of each day to be proud of myself. For I made someone else in this world happy. I connected with another human being poetically in a world where people rarely connect at a soul level anymore. That in itself is art… a rare art.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

How much it hurt. How many tears I cried to get to where I am today. How lonely it was. How awful it felt to have fake artists stealing my ideas and pretending it was their own. How awful it felt to try to grow on social media and how much I actually don’t like promoting myself on social media. It’s not who I am as a person. I am very introverted. Some days I am very chatty but most days I’m just in my own little introverted world and I just can’t bring myself to even go to the mailbox some days.. So how am I going to get on social media and be fake and ask everyone to hey look at me, look at how cool I am, look at how awesome my art is!! lol, Ya right I don’t want to be that person! That is not me. I tried to be that and it made me feel broken.

The journey to where I am now was painful. It’s painful to make art from your inner child or inner broken spots and bare them for the world to see or perhaps not even notice. I had to learn how to not care about any of that. I had to learn how to not look anymore what anyone else is doing, or if anyone else is trying to rip me off. I had to stop caring about social media honestly! It hurt me the most. I know that is not a popular statement in today’s world but for me it is pure truth. I cared so much and it made me cry so much. It was hurting me. When I stopped caring about that shit and only did it when I felt like it, everything got better for me. I was happier. I was more free. I stayed in my own lane and in my own world. I didn’t pay attention to anyone else but me. And that is when things started blossoming and blooming rapidly. I’m happier doing things my way. I like being more old school. It feels better to my spirit. I’m okay with being the little mole rat in the ground that happily chugs along and digs little happy tunnels and makes happy art in the underworld and then comes to the top every once in awhile to hang out and share what I’ve been up to with all the rest of the world who live above ground.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Self preservation, self healing, world healing. It’s a survival tactic for me. I feel like it helps me make sense of this world. It also connects me with my heritage and my ancestors. It gives me a light in the darkness. Because of those things it connects me with kindred spirits in the world. They may not speak the same language or live anywhere near me, or anything like me, but we connect on a different realm. Art speaks every language. Art connects people form all different walks of life and helps them understand things they would never have understood if it weren’t for art. It brings people together from different times that aren’t even alive anymore. Art is everything. And I”m so grateful I found my artistic voice. I believe everyone in this world has an artistic voice. There are so many infinite ways to be an artist. There are so many ways to heal through art.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.LetterstolaLuna.etsy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/letterstolaluna/