We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Laura Tyler Strawn. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Laura below.

Laura, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I knew that I loved art from a very early age. When I was maybe 5 or 6 my parents enrolled me in summer art camps at our art museum in Kansas City – the Nelson Atkins Museum. I loved it and felt very awestruck and inspired by the beautiful building and exhibitions. My most vivid memory from the art camp was getting to learn about the ancient Egyptian exhibition with the hieroglyphs and mummies. After viewing the exhibitions we would go back to the art room and make art projects based on the artwork that we saw. Especially as a little kid, I felt like that opportunity to make artwork in the museum was so special. I loved every minute of exploring the echoing marble building, learning about artwork, and getting to use fancy art supplies. Now I live walking distance away from the Nelson Atkins Museum and love walking my dog around the sculpture garden. It is a very special place to me. I feel very grateful that my parents always emphasized pursing what I was passionate about, even if it was going to be hard. They always supported me to find my own path.

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

I feel like my artwork has evolved so much since I started this journey of pursuing a creative career. My jobs, artwork, and mediums have all been very diverse and I think reflect that I love learning and am always curious.

I knew immediately when I started college that I wanted to major in fine art. I was worried about finding a job after graduating and wrestled with majoring in something more practical. But I felt in my gut that I needed to be true to myself and pursue art. After graduating with my BFA in painting from Truman State University, I decided to go to graduate school. This experience forced me to create a ton of work, think critically about my art, and develop a sweet community of other artists and professors. As a 25 year old in graduate school, I had a hard time sticking with just one medium. My bachelors degree had focused on painting, but I also loved printmaking and photography. I loved learning new skills and mediums and didn’t like being tied down to only painting. At 35, I still feel the exact same way and feel a lot more confident identifying as an artist who can pursue multiple mediums.

After graduating with my MFA from the University of Missouri, I moved back to my hometown of Kansas City in 2016. I felt a little lost with what to do next and was missing my art community from graduate school. I had never taken a ceramics class before and decided to take one at a local non profit ceramic studio. I instantly fell in love with the tactility and process of clay. Shortly after taking my first class, I was instantly hooked and started volunteering with the KC Clay Guild. I have been serving on the board for the Clay Guild ever since and have loved being a part of its growth, especially now as we grow our capital campaign towards expanding our services to the Kansas City community with a larger facility.

In most recent years, I’ve taught ceramics and drawing classes at local colleges, sold and wholesaled my ceramics, and gained experience through working at a local high production ceramic studio. One hard thing that I learned, is that you often have to be very flexible and creative when pursuing a career in the arts. A couple years ago, I decided to take a job for a small marketing company that focused on fundraising for non profits so that I could find a little bit more financial stability, and make artwork outside of my day job. I truly believe that you are an artist whether you work full time in a creative field, work part time in a creative field and part time elsewhere, or whether you have a more traditional 9-5 and make artwork outside of your job. Even though I loved my company, I worried that having a full time job outside of the arts would make me feel less like an artist. But instead, it has given me the flexibility and work life balance to keep pursuing my creative dreams, while not worrying about paying the bills and mortgage.

These days, I am getting back to making and selling my ceramic work, but am making in a little more intentional and slow way, rather than producing the higher quantities that I used to. About a year ago, I started returning to my love of drawing by drawing digitally on my iPad. It has been a new obsession of mine and I love curling up with my dog to draw for hours. I am starting to combine my ceramics and artwork through a new website, and have also been taking a year long class on building art collections and licensing artwork. I am very excited to see where this takes me work. It has felt like a large period of growth for me.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think making art in any capacity teaches a great amount of resilience. I think this applies to any medium, but I especially see this in ceramics. There is often times a lot of frustration in ceramics, especially in the beginning, because clay has so much room for error. There are lots of factors that could cause things to go differently than you’d hoped. Maybe you trim through your pot, or your handle was too dry when attaching to your mug, or a little moisture caused your work to crack or explode in the kiln…It never feels great when your work doesn’t come together as you’d hoped, but I think the big take away is that we shouldn’t look at these mistakes as being, “failures.” We use these mistakes to learn how to work with the material better next time, and have to accept these accidents as an important part of the process. No one gets good at art without making a ton of work, good and bad. It takes years of building skill and a personal voice. This really helps me not treat the mistakes I make in art so preciously, because I know that anything that didn’t go quite right will help inform my process in the future. This is also a gentle reminder for me when working through something difficult in my own life. I may not get it right the first or second time, but every difficult thing I have to go through helps me better work through problems in the future. I have to give myself grace that I am always learning. Without going through setbacks, I wouldn’t be as prepared to deal with the inevitable curve balls life throws at me years down the line. There have been many times that I have had to pivot my art, life, and career to better support myself and sometimes it is scary and hard. Learning resilience is such an important part of life because things don’t always go as we’d want, unfortunately. Sometimes, we have to work really hard and learn really difficult lessons. But on a smaller level, when we can learn and accept mistakes as part of the art process and know that this makes us wiser, we can apply that to our lives on a larger scale.

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

I would say 1. hire more artists and 2. buy from local artists in your area instead of large corporations.

There have been many times in the last 15 years that I’ve questioned myself and thought I wasn’t qualified for a particular job based on having an art degree. I felt very pigeon holed, and felt like I could only be hired by jobs that were very specific to my fine arts degree, like teaching. And I quickly realized how few and far between the underpaid adjunct college art teaching jobs were. We often times have to take on less creative jobs to pay the bills, and work towards our creative goals on the side. I think society is just now starting to see the value in hiring creatives for a variety of positions outside of the arts. Creative people know how to be resilient when faced with challenges, they are natural problem solvers, and are open minded. Creatives are qualified for a wide range of jobs, even outside of the arts, and are starting to be valued more by employers. Artists are used to building websites, putting together a portfolio of work, as well as writing and analytical skills. They are great at setting goals and working hard, and that spirit of internal motivation is highly valuable. Creatives are natural self starters.

I hope that as we continue in the future, society sees the skills that artists naturally possess in a variety of situations. The arts are often the first departments to go during budget cuts, but the arts add so much to society. I hope that as we move forward, we can continue to value the arts and artists, and support them by valuing their hardworking skills.

I would also encourage people to support creatives by shopping with local makers and businesses. We are living in a time when many people might feel like they lack the control or ability to make a positive impact on the world we’re living in. But we can start with our own communities. If we can shift from buying from large corporations to small businesses and artists, we can help our own local economy and the livelihood of creatives in our towns and cities. I feel really proud that my hometown of Kansas City has so many creative people and small businesses. I try as much as I can to give my money to small businesses, local artists, and farmers to keep my money in the city and support my community. And in turn, I get to enjoy lovely art, amazing food, and items that are very special to me because I know that they were handmade with care.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lauratylerstudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauratylerstudio/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauratylerstrawn/

Image Credits

All photos and illustrations were taken or made by me.