We recently connected with Carolyn Laidley Arn and have shared our conversation below.

Carolyn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your creative career?

My current day job is in commercial real estate and I am a Senior Vice President at Lennard Commercial Realty in Toronto. When I joined more than 16 years ago, there were only about 30 people, and the firm has now grown to almost 200. At the time of joining, I was the president of the only Canadian chapter of CREW Network (Commercial Real Estate Women-a volunteer position) with 250 local members and over 6,000 nationally so the change drew attention as well as support from my peers. Transitioning to commercial real estate was a complete career switch after being at the top of my game in business development and executive project management at a commercial construction firm, which followed a 9 year career in commercial interior design. Well recognized in the industry I sought a new challenge and started something completely new, and on a commission only basis in an industry that was 95% men. It was a huge risk, but I felt confident that i could learn and achieve a similar level of success and achievement. After an initial settling in period, I began working closely with Jim Russell one of the 3 Lennard partners who was responsible for the culture of the organization, particularly its ‘work to live’ philosophy and he became my mentor. Interestingly, Jim was also a creative thinker, an artist and was working part time on his BFA at OCAD. Lennard encouraged its agents to be successful, genuine, honorable and trustworthy, but also to live interesting lives, embrace family, explore passions, travel and give back and have fun.

Then came art. After experiencing some particularly difficult personal challenges and seeing how art helped others going through challenges, I decided to reignite the interest in art that i had in my late teens. I signed up for multiple classes each week. Often the classes were during the day, so i would juggle meetings and workload to make up for time i was ‘offline’. Art became my refuge, my escape, my support and i was obsessed. Fast forward a couple of years later, i began participating in art shows and volunteering my time with Artists’ Network (I am now the Chair). I loved the sincerity and gentle quality of artists in contrast to the often cut throat world of business where i also existed.

There were a lot of lessons learned during my professional career that continue to resonate and apply in my journey as an artist and in my art:
Don’t be afraid to take chances, nothing is guaranteed and there are many lessons in failure;
Explore your passion, don’t be afraid to be different than others, keep pushing the boundaries;
Art has the power to heal, reduce stress and to completely get away;
Be the best you can and put the time in, learn everything you can from artists and peers you admire and respect;
Success doesn’t come easily, but if you put everything you have into something, you will succeed;
Practice, practice, practice; and,
Give back and use your expertise and experience to support others and volunteer your time to make things better for others and the future generation.

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

I began painting as a way to deal with stress and mental health and after seeing how it helped others. Slightly obsessed, and with I suspect undiagnosed ADHD, once I began, I was hooked, and there was no turning back.

I am an accredited professional interior designer (retired) and a lifetime member of the Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario. I am also the Chair of Artists’ Network, a not for profit organization of 225 members that helps artists with the business of art.

I refer to myself as an urban artist, because my inspiration comes from within. I exist in a very urban environment especially after working for more than 25 years in Toronto’s downtown financial core. Spray paint is one of my favorite tools so my work is primarily completed outside on the fence of my small backyard in the middle of the city, surrounded by the sounds and smells and feeling of big city life. I’ve always felt that this environment is at the root of my work, and need to escape, and particularly influential to my most recent collections.

I am a contemporary Canadian abstract intuitive artist working in mixed media and don’t use any reference when creating my work. The most enjoyable part is beginning without a clue of what it will become. That ‘who cares, you can do anything you want’ attitude allows me to be completely free, whimsical and uninhibited. I use a combination of patterns, lines and shapes, tools and stencils of all sorts and many, many layers. I tend to work on multiple pieces in very short bursts of time, which means that each time I begin, it’s with a new feeling, fresh creative juices and a different frame of mind. My pieces are ‘works in progress’ for days, weeks, months or longer. Because I enjoy the process so much, I often take many more sessions to complete a piece as I allow the richness to build through periods of chaos and calm.

The most common reaction to my work is a smile, a sense of calm, happiness, serenity and intrigue. Viewers will see different things in my work, and I am always excited to receive their feedback. One of the unique aspects of my work is that the pieces can generally be hung in any direction because I constantly rotate during the creation period. In fact I usually wire the back of completed pieces so they can be hung in two directions, and have been known to change the orientation of a piece minutes before hanging it for a show. I want the collector to participate in the creative process and make their own decision as to how the piece should be hung and enjoyed, knowing that they have the ability to change, giving them a completely different piece of art in the future.

I have recently taken on more commissions and all have been very successfully received. There is never any guarantee of what the final piece will look like so the best results are with people that love my work and trust the process. My risk free policy means that based on feedback, location it will be hung and their favorite pieces or marks, I’ll create something specifically for the collector and they will have two pieces to select from. And if they don’t, I’ve pushed the limits to do something different that i am proud to offer to my galleries, or to sell at the next art show, but this hasn’t happened yet!

The work I create is authentically me. I love to push the boundaries to create unique, bold, uninhibited, whimsical, fun and free pieces through the chaos and calm of my art making process as I live my life. I want my collectors to enjoy the richness, explore the layers and continue to discover marks in the work for years to come. But most of all, I want the finished work to create a longstanding feeling of joy, whimsey and happiness for the collector. As my mother has said, in choosing a bright coral colour that matches her lipstick to paint her walls, “I want to walk into the room and smile!”

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

There are many aspects of being an artist or creative that are rewarding. I love the ability to escape and feel the inner peace while creating the work. Participating in art fairs is something I really enjoy and while sales are extremely rewarding, so are conversations about the work and receiving feedback from future collectors and socializing with other artists. But, I would have to say that the most rewarding thing for me, is participating in one or two art shows every year along side my adult daughter Stephanie Arn, who is an incredible and very successful realist painter.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I believe that non-creatives don’t understand how much time and energy go into being an artist. When you see an artist that is producing great art, know that they have put in the ten thousand hours to get there. Encouragement goes a long way, as does asking an artist about their practice or about their work. Artists put themselves out there and bare their souls to create and show their work.

Slightly off topic, but something I wish people know about juried outdoor art shows is the huge commitment of both time and money. Most people don’t know that an artist will have had to be juried in often with very tough competition, and the pay anywhere from $250-1000 or more to be in a show with costs doubling or tripling that for show set up, marketing, promotion, travel and other costs. And that doesn’t include their materials, framing, time creating the art, planning, set up and being at the show. The ugly truth is that despite the ‘exposure’ of the shows, many of the artists don’t cover their costs, particularly in this economy. A smile or a short visit into an artists booth instead of walking by without looking at their work, or a small purchase from an artist you admire goes a long way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.carolynlaidleyarn.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolynlaidley_art/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carolynlaidleyART