We recently connected with Laura Villafani and have shared our conversation below.
Laura, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I have been drawing and crafting since I was a very little girl. My mother said that I would sit by her while she was sewing and I was crafting with the scraps of fabric… I was a year and a half. From then on, my mother put me in crafting and art classes (after I turned the right age to be able to attend a class :) ) But all I remember is wanting to color and draw. I still have some of my elementary notebooks where the teachers wrote good things about my drawings. In those times when I was growing up, we had the yellow pages book. That was the only place I could find clipart to draw on my sketchbook. Due to many moves around the world, my sketchbooks got lost. I grew up without any internet or computers. Everything was auto-didactic. We had to learn some art techniques with private classes, some basic books and some magazines like National Geographic. I don’t regret not having the technology we have today, it made me more sensible to what I do now and to what people like. I learned how to see my surroundings. Everywhere I look, there is art. So it makes me appreciate more what I see, what I have, and what I can do now. Technology took away the handcrafted look of many art pieces. I am not against it, but I like the hand painted look in paintings. All the hand painted pieces of art have such stories behind them. I am not perfect and don’t look for perfection in my art. I enjoy every line I make with a pencil, every stroke of a brush over a canvas. At the present moment, all I do is train myself to get better at my painting and at my crafting while watching videos. I do not watch tv… I search for classes online all day, everyday.
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 have been married for 28 years and have two amazing children. I was born in Venezuela, South America. My mother is from Bolivia and my father was Polish. My brother was born in Argentina. As you can see, we are an international family. We have lived all over the world due to my father being in the oil business. I consider myself an “oil brat”. The moving around in the wold taught me a lot about myself and what the world is made of. Learning the history about each country I lived in, made me appreciate the different cultures we have in the world. And with that came the interest of the colors and crafts of each country. I was also born on December 25th, 1965 so I say that “I carry the spirit of Christmas all through the year”. Because of our many moves, I learned to connect with individuals around the world. I speak Spanish, English, and understand Portuguese. Because of my love for art I learned how to speak, write and read Japanese. All I had to do was make it look like art, especially all those characters they have in their alphabet. That is how I roll, turning everything into art.
I have been doing art since little, My father wanted me to study Journalism but I went ahead and studied art. That is what I wanted to do. And learned how to appreciate everything I did and created. Learned so many techniques and mediums that I didnt have enough time to do all that I had created in my mind.
After I got married and had to move to a small town in Texas called Harlingen, I found this lady that taught painting. I decided to try it. That is when I first tried oil paints. Fell in love with them and what I could do! There was no internet then, it was just beginning. There was no way of marketing my artworks. As time passed and I got more comfortable with the oil paints, I started getting commissions and selling some of my pieces. It was an eye opener for me and from then on I did not stop painting. I paint in many mediums because I like variety. Everyone in the world is different and as I connect with so many different cultures, I like to have a variety of artworks available.
I went to college in Venezuela and graduated as an Interior Designer, and there I learned how to work for your customer. Sometimes we are a bit selfish in what we do but at the end of the day, you want to make that customer happy, and wanting for more of you. When I graduated as a Visual Artist in Colorado in 1993, I had gained many more skills to adapt and expand my crafting and art.
I love the Renaissance, for me those are artworks that say so much. So pure in color and form. So realistic. I am not a fan of abstract work but I do some here and there. People like it! I have reproduced some major artworks for myself because I wanted to learn how those masters painted and to study the painting itself. There are so many clues you can find by making art reproductions.
I am still looking forward to taking some intense art classes. I think an artist has to keep learning everyday… no matter what. Art never stops. And we live in a time where clients are more demanding than ever. So you have to keep up with technology and whatever tendencies are going on at the time. As time goes by, we are losing many things from the past but we are also gaining many new things as technology avances and we can connect with the wold much better and faster.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
Yes, there is a particular goal and mission driving me into this creative journey. We are now living in a very different world. The love for money, status, and materialism has taken away from individuals enjoying their families, friends and lives. People have forgotten to smile. People have forgotten to appreciate the small things, the details. There is no way to explain the pleasure I get when I see the smiles of individuals that buy my arts and crafts. It’s fun to see how something with color changes a person’s attitude. I love the comments I get with all that I do. I can see I make a difference in some people’s lives by just sharing my art through social media.
I also help my community with my art. I usually donate a percentage of what I get through my art and part time job to one of our local food pantries. The pandemic has hurt a lot of families who are in desperate need right now. This drives me a lot to do art, even if it’s a little thing, but that percentage goes to help them.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Before the pandemic started, March 9th 2020 for me. I was decorating cakes and cookies on the side. I was doing this at home. Nothing big, a hobby. A hobby which I learned by myself through videos on YT. I was having fun but had to stop after the pandemic. There were no more parties and celebrations so I decided not to do it anymore. Besides, many started decorating cakes and cookies from home right after that day. There were many charging so little to get business that I think the craft of decorating went downhill. There was no appreciation for the art of cakes and cookies. People stopped appreciating the time dedicated into doing that kind of craft. After a few months of doing nothing “artsy”, I decided to find a part time job. The pandemic and lack of creativity was affecting me emotionally. Somehow I started drawing and painting again and my life took a complete turn around. I still have my part time job, and when I come home from it, I dedicate all that I can into arts and crafts.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: lvs_customcreations1965
Image Credits
There are no image credits but all these artworks are made by me, including the reproduction of “The Bather” from the artist Ingres, “the girl with the pearl earring” by Vermeer. My private collection of masters reproductions. I reproduces these master pieces to get better at my techniques and to decorate my private house.