We recently connected with Samantha Lesan and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Samantha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

I was so surprised when she asked to purchase my artwork. I had recently made several pieces intuitively for my own joy and never expected someone else to love them as well. My inquirer was a previous co-worker from a job I had just left and I invited her over to my home to look at my artwork. She quickly was attracted to several pieces in particular. She asked “how much” and I threw out a number I thought reasonable at the time, but in hindsight was much too low. It was exhilarating to have my artwork appreciated- something in which I had listened to my gut and intuition in order to make the marks and composition. It was also sad to let the painting go, to part with something that was personal to me, but it helped to know it went to a good home and would be admired on the her wall everyday.

Samantha, 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?

I currently offer mixed media artwork, commissioned artwork, and therapeutic art workshops! I am most interested in the healing, meditative qualities to art creation and I want to make that experience more accessible to others. I currently offer parent/child and women’s art workshops on the back porch of a lovely care farm, overlooking rolling hills at sunset. These classes include a variety of creative practices imbedded with therapeutic qualities, making space for processing emotions and impowering further resiliency with color, shape and mixed media! These classes are also available for group events, workplace team building, service providers and more- just ask!

How did I get into this in the first place?
It started with spending nearly a decade working for non-profits, a hospital, crisis centers, and shelters. Though I absolutely loved taking care of others, eventually I became very tired and needed to intentionally care for myself. This led me to painting- it was a meditative escape- the process of pushing color around and sometimes creating beauty started to feed my soul and became life giving. The mixing of colors and shapes are endlessly intriguing! -and it’s also a wonderful, non-verbal way to process complicated emotions.
Today, I’m taking both of these passions- the love for the creative process, and the love of holding healing space for others- and combining them. Come join me!
SamanthaLesan.com/classes

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I am having to unlearn is trying to create art or market art “correctly”. In the beginning of my creative journey, I created purely out of joy- experimenting, trusting my instincts, using basic knowledge of color theory and composition to guide, yet not override my decisions. Over time, however, I took more classes, listened to more artist marketing courses, etc. and guess what? My creativity suffered! I’m not saying that all of these resources are harmful, but that they sometimes can put an emphasis on product, not original art creation. I have learned that what makes my art special is ME. So, I am learning to tune back in to making authentic, purposeful, intuitive art and I carefully choose mentors and courses who are uplifting, yet who also challenge me to develop my skills further, in a positive, process-centered way.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think society could best support creatives by first understanding the creative process more fully. In the states, there seems to be less value placed on art then in Japan, for example. I do wonder if more was understood about the benefits of the creative process on mental health, focus, mood, creative problem solving, feelings of accomplishment, trauma recovery, etc. if it would be further valued in our culture. In my personal experience, I have witnessed survivors of trauma being led in various art projects. As they were taught various skills, you could see their amazement of what they were capable of, this in turn building an increased view of self and feelings of accomplishment, things that are very important in taking ownership of your healing process. Art is also used as a non-verbal way to process emotions, past history and dreams for the future. Since memories are often stored visually, expressing them visually can provide important, more intuitive ways of processing towards healing. These are just a few simple examples of the many benefits of art creation, more studies are now being done around the benefits of art making and art viewing in recent decades.

Contact Info:

• Website: SamanthaLesan.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samantha.lesan.art/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samantha.lesan.art