We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Laura Garner Hine. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Laura below.
Alright, Laura thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
One of the biggest risks I have taken in my life, and I think any human being can take in their life, is to be vulnerable. It’s quite an oxymoron really- because I have found that showing vulnerability is truly a practice of strength. Once we let down those walls, we open ourselves up to a whole new range of experiences, emotions, and connections. Vulnerability fosters empathy, and can garner trust and intimacy with another person, which can bring strength to relationships and a stronger sense of self. It takes such courage, authenticity, and resilience to be vulnerable, but it sure is a huge pay off when one does take that risk.
As I’ve gotten older, I have become more fluid in being vulnerable with myself and with others, and certainly more resilient. It has taken time and a lot of stumbles, but it is an inherent and similar feeling that I have when I am creating a painting, or entering my creative process. There’s a sense of letting go which is familiar, a sense of becoming tentative or nervous at trying something new, a profound exuberance when discovery or a breakthrough occurs, and a level of self awareness and understanding that informs the next decision or action.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
“He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his mind is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist”
-St. Francis of Assisi
Art and creating have always been my first language. Since childhood, it has been my strongest sense and North star. I was raised in the city of Columbia, South Carolina. For as long as I can remember, I have always had a passion for all things odd, strange, old, beautiful, and insignificant (well, depending on whose perspective). I love the visual arts, and always have. My deep-rooted appreciation and passion for the arts has found its voice through numerous media, but the one that resonates with me the most is paint. Oil paint in all its excitable tangibility- from its long-bearing history to today’s modern applications.
I attended the University of South Carolina and graduated with a BFA in Studio Art with a focus in painting, as well as a minor in Art History. During my time at the University of South Carolina, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Groningen, the Netherlands; a fascinating hub of art and history in its own right. Upon completing my undergraduate degree in South Carolina, I continued my education by pursuing a Master’s degree in Arts, Culture, and Media at the Rijksuniveriteit Groningen in the Netherlands. It was during this time of my academic career that I saw a humble flier in the library that would unknowingly alter the course of my life. The flier was for a lecture and tour of a Fine Arts Conservation lab in the Southern Dutch city of Maastricht. Within minutes of attending, I quickly understood that this field was the marriage of all the things that made my heart sing and set my curious mind ablaze: fine art, history, process, methodology, materials, and science. Shortly thereafter, I left my Masters program in the Netherlands and moved to Florence Italy, where I completed a Masters program in the Conservation of Easel Paintings as well as Gilded Frames with Accademia Riaci.
After having lived and studied in Europe for nearly five years, it was time to return to the States. In 2014, I found myself back in Columbia, South Carolina and immediately began to look for work in the field of cultural heritage and historic preservation. I am fortunate to have found work and to have learned from the few Art Conservators that operate their own private practices here in the city. The continued education and experience they afforded me is something I will forever be deeply grateful for and humbled by. Over the course of my journey, I have been given the gift of some phenomenal mentors. It was one of those very mentors who hired me to assist in the renovation of the permanent collection galleries at the Columbia Museum of Art. From 2017 until 2019, I served as an Assistant Preparator and had the incredibly inspiring experience of working alongside the curatorial team. From safely transporting all the works on view from the galleries to the vaults, to installing and deinstalling traveling shows in the temporary gallery spaces, to restoring a number of frames in the permanent collection, to handling Jackson Pollock’s massive Mural, and executing a Sol LeWitt wall drawing installation alongside two of my favorite colleagues; it was a fecund and prodigious two years that again, would alter the course of my life.
Fast forward to 2024, and I now hold the current role as a full-time Preparator with the Columbia Museum of Art. Cinderella sang the words, “A dream is a wish your heart makes”, and I can say with utmost certainty that I am working in a dream role, with some really amazing people, that makes me wish for hardly anything and makes my heart sing on a regular basis. I am blessed, grateful, and lucky. Hard work had a little something to do with it, as well. And perseverance!
Some say it may not be best to bring work home with you, but I do! Being surrounded by constant inspiration and imagery at the museum, I try to harness that the best way I know how, by creating in my studio. I continue to paint in my free time, predominantly in oils. Gold leaf is never too far from my work bench, either. Lately my work has taken a more playful turn, thanks in large part to the influence of my three-year-old daughter. Collages and mixed media assemblages are a collaborative effort we work on together. I love collecting found objects with her and seeing the wonder of the world through her eyes. After all, “The creative adult is the child who has survived”. Watching her delight in the process of creating almost feels like I’ve come full circle, but not completely. More so, it’s that I know I will always be curious and always scratching at the surface of inspiration, trying to dive into the depths of what makes me feel human, forever and in perpetuity.
I have many other loves in my life as well. My family and friends are a fierce foremost. Also our four fur babies, cups of tea, languages, books, anything antique, history (especially the artistically inclined), fresh canvas, brushes, and tubes of paint, goat cheese, raw pigment, gnocchi with truffle, porchetta paninis, the opera, playing ukulele, orange marmalade and duck eggs, just to name a few. Oh, and good tools!
I am thirty six years old, and I am blessed to have lived such a rich and beautiful life. It is only just the beginning! To quote Picasso, “It takes a long time to become young.”
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
John Lennon famously said, “My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.”.
I have always loved this quote of his, because it highlights John Lennon’s belief that an artist’s primary function is to reflect the emotions and experiences of society, not to dictate opinions or lead people. He touches on something that is extremely important and I think is a prominent idea in today’s world… which is, “Society is under the delusion that art is something you have extra, like crème de menthe or something. But societies don’t exist with no artists. Art is a functional part of society”.
That is the most rewarding aspect for me, of being an artist or creative. I am tapping into an ancient necessity that has been a part of humankind since the beginning of our history. Wherever humans have been, ingenuity and creativity follow. Over the course of thousands of years, hundreds of civilizations, billions of people and vast distances, I am partaking in a ritual that is greater than me, and resonates with all of us in some form or another… whether is music, art, dance, or poetry. I can connect so powerfully in that way, when I am in the realm of creating. Oftentimes I truly feel as if I’m in a vessel or conduit space when I’m in the act, that things flow within me and without me. It’s incredible really… here I am, in the 21st century, moving a colorful substance across a surface to depict a moment, a feeling, or an observation in time, and to imagine a human moving a colorful substance across a surface in the caves of Lascaux 20,0000 years ago… truly makes my brain tickle and is utterly remarkable. Those ancient cave paintings were a combined effort of many generations, and I too, feel like I am a combined effort of many generations, such a grand collaboration!
It’s also wonderfully rewarding to have made something from start to finish, and to stand back and to be proud of it.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I was always so timid of calling myself an artist early on in my journey, especially when I was surrounded by colleagues and mentors who I admired greatly. Oftentimes I would internalize my struggle and have horribly frustrating and oftentimes toxic inner dialogues with myself- to the point where these thoughts could be very self deprecating, and counter to whatever I was trying to achieve as an artist.
Your village, your people, are wonderful resources! I wish I could have been more vulnerable and open about my struggles with some of those mentors and colleagues, for I am certain that they were no strangers to those types of thoughts and inner dialogues as well. I find that most artists I meet are very intuitive, sensitive, and empathetic. The world is not kind to those of us who feel so much. I often joke and say “I feel everything, all the time!!”. The world is not so kind to those of us who feel so much. It’s a strength, not a weakness, but another great resource for me over the course of my life has been resources in the mental wellness field. In this country, there can be a lot of misplaced shame or judgement when it comes to therapy. When I was younger, I carried so much myself… and it lead to deleterious results! Asking for help or support from another human being is a powerful resource that I wish I had embraced earlier on.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.artbylaura.net/
- Instagram: @lauragarnerhine
- Facebook: Laura Garner Hine
Image Credits
Drew Baron
John Allen