We recently connected with Laura Hanson and have shared our conversation below.
Laura, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?
I have been painting for several years prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, and actually did have a few interested parties who wanted customized art from me. Some of them offered to pay me, some of them expected it for free. That still happens now, so I don’t consider it a measurement of my worth by any means. I didn’t paint enough to consider myself good at my craft, until mid to late 2019 when everything started to ‘click’ and I was developing a style. By early 2020, I had no work prospects coming in and I was forced to file for unemployment to try to keep my head above water. I put out an SOS on social media about the challenges, and posted pictures of the paintings I had available. I had seven people message me in that week who were interested in buying my paintings. It was a surreal phenomenon. I averaged about $100 or less per painting at that time, but I was happy to be receiving anything at all. Later that summer, my good friend helped set up an ecommerce platform where I can list and sell my artwork.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Always an artist at heart from day one, my earliest memories include me drawing on my walls, drawing in my books, and trashing our window fixtures with drawings. Explored every medium possible in public school, I really enjoyed ceramics the most but had a certain curiosity about painting I couldn’t quite figure out until I was an adult.
I got into painting seriously after my dad and I bonded over painting a 1976 Chevrolet Nova. We were estranged when I was growing up but he knew I always liked being creative, so he suggested painting a mural or doing something funky with my car. We ended up just painting purple at the time, but he would send me home with bottles of the glittery powder pigments that you mix with automotive paints, suggesting I experiment with it on canvas. I ended up really loving the process of painting cars, it translated into being a residential repaint contractor years later (my 9-5 job) and fueling my zest for artwork.
Fast forward to 2019, I was recovering from an abusive relationship and part of my recovery was self-teaching myself painting. Aside from my father’s guidance and stuff I observed from the internet, I never explored painting medium in school so everything I learned was trial and error. I firmly landed on acrylic painting, due to the forgiving nature and easy clean up process, but I have played around with gouache, water color and oil painting too.
The next challenge was to figure out what I wanted my body of work to represent. That didn’t click together until the pandemic and the uprising in Minneapolis in 2020. I absorbed all of that energy and put it back on the canvas.
Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
As valid as the hype of Beanie Babies. My work will never be minted as an NFT.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
Everyone has their own unique style, deliberate or not, when it comes to drawing, painting and sculpting, just as much as handwriting is unique. I get very frustrated by people who approach me and want me to create a painting or caricature that is far out of left field for me stylistically and see nothing wrong with that.
Also, a lot of extra work goes into being an artist that people don’t see. For me, I spend a lot of time after a painting is done taking pictures of it, setting holes, installing eye hooks and cutting wire for the backing, painting the edges, typing out descriptions and posting on social media, etc. Participating in pop-up events and gallery shows alike both are time consuming and investment, as most events want a participation fee and time commitment. Some galleries even extort the ‘pay to play’ idea and want to try to get hundreds of dollars out of you to participate in the group exhibition. This is done so they don’t feel the desire to upsell your work to potential collectors. It’s dangerous out there!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.laurahansonart.
- Instagram: laurahansonart
Image Credits
All are original compositions