Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Laela White. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Laela, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I decided to take a risk on myself and apply to grad school for my MFA. I wouldn’t say it was a spur of the moment decision because I had been mulling over it for months at that point. I started my application, did all of the admin stuff, but when it came time to upload images of my artwork, I felt stuck. I had photos of my work, most of them on my public portfolio and some as unshared files in my computer, but something was preventing me from uploading my photos and finishing that last step needed to submit my application.

I was afraid.

Afraid of putting in all this work, and becoming hopeful, just to ultimately get rejected. Afraid that I would succeed and would then have to become reacclimated to being a student, rearranging my life to accommodate that, and would not be able to live up to my own high expectations of myself and whatever image of Grad School Laela I had in my head. Afraid that too much time had passed in between my undergrad program and me trying to enter grad school. Afraid that *not enough* time had passed and academia was still too fresh in my head and I didn’t know who I was an artist.

I decided that enough was enough. I couldn’t stop thinking about applying, and decided I needed to finish it for myself and to stop obsessively worrying about it from both angles.

I finally submitted my artwork and subsequently my application. And within 2 weeks, I had my interview with one of the faculty members, and was accepted.

I start next month and I’m so excited I could scream and shit myself. I’m proud of myself and happy that I took that chance on myself.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a multi-disciplinary artist, meaning I make art in all forms of media. I’ve always loved to draw and paint, but I started nourishing that interest after suffering an injury from dancing (my first creative love) at age 14 and developing tendonitis in my knee. I couldn’t dance for a while and needed a new outlet, so I started drawing a lot more. From that sprang countless sketchbooks, learning how to use different paints and drawing techniques, and eventually in my senior year of high school, my AP studio art teacher Ms. Hart suggested I go to art school and assured me I was good enough to apply. I had a lot of problems going on at home at the time, and it affected my drive and dedication to school/the future, so I ended up /only/ applying to art school — and I got in, with the best scholarship they offered. After some ups and downs, I graduated with honors and was class marshal, and received my BFA in 2020. I’m less than a month out from starting my MFA program and I’m excited to revisit academia and the institution with a little more life experience, and a lot more wisdom and skills under my belt.

My art explores finding the humor and brevity in everyday life, and that manifests in bright colors, scale shifts, puns, and absurd whimsy. Life is hard and scary, and I feel like art is one of those pure things that can truly serve as a way to give people space to enjoy things for the sake of enjoying things, to find community, and to have a moment to look at something so colorful, so absurd, that it gives them the change to laugh. I usually work in series due to my tendency to get hyper-fixated on ideas/topics/things and feeling the need to create art until I reach an internal “stopping” point. My work spans from paintings and drawings to sculptures.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Growing up, I loved to dance. Like LOVED it so much, I wanted to go to Julliard and eventually join a dance company or back up dancer. When I was 14, I was part of a dance group and we had modern choreography (lots of jumping and rolling around the floor). There was a certain part of the dance where we had to jump as high as possible, and land on our knees. The floor was marley, and our dance teacher didn’t want us wearing knee pads (didn’t go with the outfit, according to her). After hours upon hours of practice of landing on our knees, hard, we started to feel it. Fast forward a few months, my knee has a swelling the size of a goftball on the side of my knee and later found out that I developed tendonitis. For those that don’t know, it’s a chronic conditions where the tendons become inflamed and hurt during physical activity. My dreams of becoming a professional dancer came to a crashing halt, I had to do physical therapy, and come to terms with the fact that I would have to wear a brace any time I exercised.

Desperately needing a new creative outlet, I start drawing and painting more seriously, and also started theatre in school (a lifelong interest that I was never able to pursue due to lack of resources/opportunities). What was once a hobby soon became my new thing and I ended up deciding to pursue it as my career and life path.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Artists are involved in everything — anything you see, touch, interact with, or hear, there was an artist involved in it. I think that society as a whole could do a much better job of supporting artists and dismantling the preconceived false notion that artists don’t make money, are starving, and that art isn’t a viable career choice. We could also start funding the arts in schools to help kids nourish their interests and see it as part of their core curriculum and not just a a fun little hobby.

Contact Info:

• Website: laelawhite.com
• Instagram: @vangoghawayy

Image Credits
hot cheetos – schuyler hazard