We were lucky to catch up with Angela Larsen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Angela thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

When I was at the University of Washington in an Undergrad Visual Arts program, I took my first formal drawing course. At my mid-semester critique I was told that I wasn’t able to draw what I see, that instead everything was drawn through my mind. They suggested I take more classes and learn how to retrain my brain. I didn’t draw after that class for 4 years. I was never amazing at drawing but this stopped me in my tracks. I focused on things like fiber arts, printmaking, jewelry design.. and I avoided drawing. I didn’t draw until I returned back to the PNW from living in New York City. Little by little I started to just draw, to not think about what anyone would think, what a “real” artist would do, and I started using drawing to illustrate phrases that ran through my mind. It didn’t take off, I still was just teaching art and drawing occasionally. But it was after my child was born in 2016, that the downtime of having naps, but needing to be close to my kid, spurred me to doing more. I bought an iPad after a drawing I made became popular through screenprinting tote bags, and I started to draw every day. Then, I pushed through the fear and gave myself a pseudonym of Lovesome Dove, named after a book that was always lying around my house, and with the shield of not using my real name, began to post art on Instagram. Then 2020 happened and people started showing up on my account. I was able to use my art and my words to make connections to people around the world. I was reaching people who felt the way I did or at least could relate. The art felt different. Selling work with the art on it was great, and up until recently it was very lucrative, but printing shirts and packing orders was not the thing that I wanted from this. The connections and the transparent, diary like writing and drawing were the things that felt good. I have since taken a step back from screen printing all my own merch and started focusing on smaller projects like creating annual calendars and workbook journals and zines.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I describe my work under Lovesome Dove as “drawing all the feels”. For me this endeavor has been an outlet for all the feelings I never have known what to do with. This gave it a spot to live outside of my body, and I have been so fortunate that it has connected with so many people. What started as me taking a screen printing class and drawing again, led me to over 13,000 sales on Etsy, probably 15,000 sales at in-person events, murals, custom work for a library system, self-publishing, etc… Honestly I don’t know how it got so big. And in some ways it feels small still.
My work has always centered around my internal struggle. As a person with anxiety and likely ADHD, sometimes my thoughts are so powerful I can’t go on with my day. I used to get up every morning and draw and write about whatever was bothering me or sticking out in my brain. I had no idea that these thoughts and feelings would connect with people in the way that they have. When things in the world become to big for me, art has allowed me a vehicle to share my feelings and fears and loves with the world.
It is not easy to put yourself out there, to show your art, sell your art. It takes a thick skin. I have had work stolen online, I have had the far right use one of my images during the pandemic as a target for shaming the masked and vaccinated. At times, I have wanted to delete everything and be free from it but I get constant support from people online and in real life that lets me know, this is meaningful, not just to me.
I have had the honor of painting murals, designing campaigns, logos, and selling my work but one of the greatest projects I worked on was for the library system I grew up going to. This is a place we would go to weekly my whole childhood and this year I got to see art I made for their summer reading program, in banners and pamphlets and bookmarks all over it. It was one of those full circle moments. I could have never imagined having that opportunity when I was wandering through those aisles as a kid. The process was a lot of back and forth but I believe we created a solid and beautiful campaign. In a crossover moment, one of my students (from the school I teach art at) was so excited to see me in their library, when I got the message from their parent, it was one of those moments that I felt, I am doing something that matters.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

My audience came from out of nowhere it feels like. I had a few images go “viral”, honestly, I am not sure how. Part of why I feel like my work has been so successful is because I have always worked in real time. If something is happening, I feel it, I draw it, and I put it out there. One of the moments that blew me away was looking at photos of the women’s march in Washington, DC and seeing someone had made a protest poster with my art on it. It was a whoa moment for sure. In some ways, you have no idea how your work lives on social media. People are screen shooting and sharing, putting it on their grid, and in some ways you don’t have control of what happens with it. I have had both positive and negative experiences with that. It is something to be thoughtful about if you plan to share your art on social media. How do you protect it? Unfortunately with the good of likes and comments and shares, there is also the bad. There are people who will steal your work to make money by selling products with the image on it, or someone might choose your work (they chose mine because it is so opinionated) to become the new thing to poke fun at. I think the key to success on the internet is being able to keep that separate from yourself. And it is easier said than done but it isn’t always a friendly place to be. So to have that longevity you really have to find a way to protect your heart. I love the good, the messages of how my work has helped someone or how much it means to people, but the bad is there and you can’t ignore it but you also can’t let it get to you. I don’t think I will ever stop being honest and open BUT I have been thoughtful about how much I give away. You have to keep some things for yourself.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I have always been someone who has struggled to connect with other people in a social sense. I often can’t find the words to express myself in the moment, some times I just freeze up. But, doing this kind of art in this way, it has been the ability to connect with others that has kept me going. With a background in art as a ways to create social change, I believe strongly in the ability to use art as a tool. That art should be accessible, it should be something that everyone has the chance to be around. By starting with things like murals and t-shirt printing, I found a way to make art part of the every day. That is my goal, to keep making art that touches people, that effects their heart and beings, and art that is accessible to anyone and everyone. I want to make work that makes people feel and that makes people feel less alone in this world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lovesomedove.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/lovesomedove