We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Grace Leonard a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Grace, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I like to think that art has always been pushing its way into my life in a variety of ways, trying to send me signs, signs I kept ignoring for years! Art introduced itself into my life through therapy around 2014/2015. I had and still have issues expressing my emotions to those who are close to me, It is challenging to stick up for myself and how I am feeling. I also had a difficult time maintaining friendships, so I spent a lot of time alone outside of school and extracurriculars. I learned in therapy that I could use artistic coping skills like writing, drawing, coloring, and painting to release different forms of emotion and expression. Occasionally I drew, wrote, painted, colored, and even used clothing as an outlet to express myself. I was also a dancer, so music and dance as an art also played part into my creative capabilities. Art stayed attached to my hip, but I was unaware that it would become something I wanted to do for my whole life as a career. Flash forward to 2o23, I took my first ever creative courses at Wayne State University. I was graduating in the spring, wanted to take classes that were less stress and more fun. I fell absolutely in love with the ceramics and jewelry/metalsmithing courses I took. I found myself voluntarily staying for at least 5hours after class to work on my projects, or even to just experiment. My professors were impressed with my work and work ethic. I was excited about this, but also conflicted… I studied and worked so hard towards a different career path, but was now starting to feel like there was another part of my life I wanted to discover, my creative side. Pushing it off to the back burner, I enjoyed art when I could and used it for a hobby. Working with jewelry/metalsmithing, painting with acrylic, making ceramic pieces, and sometimes messing around with my sewing machine.

After graduating, landing a new job, and working for a while, I started to feel unhappy and conflicted once again. The career path I worked very hard to put myself into was revealing truths that I was not impressed to see. I was not ready to fathom this change of truths but, I continued to think about art and the what ifs in the back of my head. One day, after reuniting with a friend online, we met up to take a pottery class together. We talked about passions and things that we loved; young and hopeful creatives with a hunger and drive to be authentically themselves. My friend then asks, ” if you could do anything for the rest of your life without thinking about what you worked towards in school, what would it be?” I blurted out “Art” without even thinking. I then followed up with, “but how would I even make that happen?” My friend than began to explain how if he has made his dreams happen, so could I. Amongst everything else we talked about that afternoon, I left knowing what my purpose was, that was to be an artist. Since that afternoon, I researched and studied what I could do to make this dream happen. It meant for me, I needed to go back to school, I needed to network and meet other artists and creatives on what they are doing to reach their goals, and most importantly CREATE.

After curating a rough draft of a plan, I applied to The College For Creative Studies and got in with a generous transfer student scholarship. I researched and spoke with artists and CCS alum with years of experience behind them, they only affirmed that my goals were possible, it just meant work and dedication to get there. I started to create in my free time, developed a website, and networked as much as possible. I quit my fulltime job in the Social Services/nonprofit field and transitioned back to working in the service industry part time.

Today, I stand still in the curiosity and development stage, I have some commission opportunities in progress, and other events I will be participating at in the near future (details located on my website). I am vigorously saving money, while working part time, and witnessing small but, strong progression as an artist. Soon I will be back in school, making an even bigger impact on my work and progression as an artist. I still have to give my all each and everyday, it is not an easy journey, but I want to put in the time, dedication, work, and research to get there.

Grace, 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?

My name is Grace Leonard, I am 23 year old multidisciplinary artist who creates through mediums of abstract painting and collage, fashion/accessories, jewelry/metalsmithing, and ceramic pieces. My main message I portray through work is simply to make art for those who want to feel dope and inspired. Why’s that? Because through life, every human being experiences inspiration. Whether that means, inspiration through a healing journey you may be going through, a person or type of music that pushes you to get up every day and go to school/work/live life. Someone might be inspired by their mom who battled a tough sickness, or inspired by a culture which thrives on connecting with their community through things like ancestry. Inspiration can also be negative; inspired by a heartbreak to go cut your hair or scream your heart out. Taking painful trauma from your life and using to inspire a positive moment of growth or to simply recognize your emotions. I want to take all of those experiences in my life and turn that into functional or wearable art pieces. I want to take other peoples experiences of inspiration and make something unique and special for them. Inspiration is powerful and I felt connected to the word dope because it is a creative word. Its cool, unique, fun to say, positive, funny. Inspiration can be negative or positive, but regardless it turns out into something dope in the end whether its a life lesson, a moment of growth, or anything in-between. These things make me so utterly happy and I want to show that to the world and express myself with everyone and show people why there is so much beauty in these words and in art. As a new artist I have a long way to go, things are going to change for me the longer I experience, inspire, and create dope pieces through personal practice and education. I am so excited for my future, I hope that many people will come with me. I want people to buy my art, I want to showcase my art in galleries/exhibits, curate other peoples art in galleries/exhibits, become creatively involved in the fashion world. I want to live every waking moment in art. I am ready to continue putting in the hard work to get there.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

A mission and goal of mine is to be in a career where I am happy, in a life where I am happy, and being 100% myself.

I believe that in America we spend so much of our lives working and not enough of that work is something that people are passionate about. Many people chase financial freedom, money, and what that can do for them. Those are valid goals, but often times in that process, the career takes over and people become miserable in their work/studies and use vacations/get aways/time off as a way to cope and escape their job. In my mind that does not make sense to me, life is too short to spend it miserably 90% of the time and 10% enjoying it. It is harder said than done, this world is expensive, unfair, and divided by socioeconomic class, race, and s*x. There are so many reasons why people may think it is impossible and ignorant of me to make such a large opinion.

I want to show others and myself that going after what you love CAN become your life, that you do NOT have to follow the patterns of society and choose yourself and your goals. I want to explain the realities of how yes, it is a challenge, you have to face lots of doubt, uncertainty, and even some chaos. What I do know is that once you go after your purpose, there is an utter sense of determination, dedication, and drive. Those who see and support you will follow. Its important to choose yourself first, and not cater to the crowd or what is “logical”. There is no right way to go at it, no pattern to follow, but what I do know is those who refuse to give up on themselves achieve success. I know this because many of the artists that inspire me today, pushed through the hate, did what they wanted and did not take no for an answer. They used their creative outlets to make masterpieces, making an impact on the world, and some of them are living financially lavish lives, but I know that they reached success in their passions and goals.

I want you to ask yourself this question and really think about it. There is no wrong answer or wrong way to go about it.

What would you do if you could wake up tomorrow and choose anything you wanted to do for the rest of your life (forget about logistics, money, and what people will say)?

How could YOU, make that happen?

All it takes is curiosity, thought, research, and taking that risk.

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

Often times, people hold so many expectations for artists and that is ESPECIALLY when they first start out. Society criticizes artists when they are broke, but then will applaud them only when they are famous. We as a society need to show appreciation to artists and creatives every step of the way. Whether that is words of encouragement, a repost, like, comment, on Instagram or Facebook. Sharing different opportunities for submissions, or suggesting people to connect with. It sounds like a lot but, as humans we do this everyday in our lives whether we think about it or not. We congratulate our family and friends when they make an achievement, help a neighbor out by suggesting a store front to buy product at, or repost a funny video on the internet.

Financial success and fame to any extent is not easy, it takes time, often times artists and creatives do 5 free jobs all on their own before they start to get help or income, people do not recognize that. Art takes time, love, patience, and we turn away when we are met with expectations, disrespect, or fakeness.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tuatara-alligator-yahz.squarespace.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/g_goi_/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@g_goi_?_t=8jQP5dGXn6U&_r=1

Image Credits
Profile photo was take by: Armond Babridge