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

Lauren, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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?

My brain – a downspout of information. After a heavy storm of inspiration, its wave of ideas could flood the county. For years it would rain down idea after idea, to which I filtered down to mediums fitting well within the box of what I might find at a local craft store. Until one fine day, when my super-graphic dream became too rounded to fit within the constrains of my painters tape…

“I need to make a turn in this line… I have to do it. But how do I do that? I think I need to draw a perfect semi-circle, but how?” The wheels began turning. “Who draws semi-circles anyways? Excluding art, where do they make circles?” Then I remembered it… Geometry 101. Contractors use it to make door frames, window gaps – The compass. As silly as it sounds, spending hours spinning on how to accomplish something only to discover a simple, existing tool was the lightbulb moment for me. If a compass was this easy to discover, the tools I need MUST already exist in some format.

Enter the mindset of – if there’s an idea, there is a way! When I removed the constrains of fitting my creativity into only what is available at a craft store, the answers to my questions seemed to fall from the sky! “If there’s a small compass, there has to be a big one right?” A quick 3 hour Google spiral later and I’ve found my 2ft wide contractor compass for my first real mural project. And when I outgrew that 2ft wide contractor compass? Another Google spiral lead me to how contractors use pivot points and a plumb bob to cut dry wall.

When I removed my own limitations that all the tools I could ever need to create art exist in the art store, my true forward momentum began to unfold. Soon the downspout of information was flooding my garage/workshop with ideas requiring soldering irons, angle grinders, and a commercial paint sprayer. It wasn’t my lack of knowledge that stood in the way – it was my limiting beliefs that artists use art stores, not Home Depot.

Armed with my new tools, I began the true quest towards learning-enlightenment – making mistakes. Mistake after mistake – you gotta make them. Try using a pink eraser until it was gone. “Gosh, that was painfully bad having to erase pencil mark on an 8 ft wall… what can I use instead of an eraser next time?” It’s the mistakes the spark the ideas to learn more about my craft – The mistakes that drive me to turn to likeminded creators and follow their guidance on tips and tricks. It’s the mistakes that turn the wheels of the “there’s gotta be a better way” train. It’s the mistakes that lead me to chalk – instead of pencil and eraser. It’s the mistakes that stoke the fire of my creativity.

For every idea I have where I say to myself “it can’t be done” – I try to return a quick respite of “if there’s an idea, there’s a way”.
Rather than allowing myself to settle into a small box of what is possible, I lean into the idea of “everything is possible, you just have to figure it out. And you, can figure it out.”

Lauren, 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?

I’m a self-taught, female identifying artist – I specialize in super-graphics which, if you’ve ever been into a 90’s bowling alley, chances are you’re familiar but didn’t know they had a name. Trust me, they’re all the rage. They’re the big, over the top retro geometric lines and circles stripes spanning the walls – arches and squiggly lines pasted on like a welp, super graphic! What’s even more encompassing is these 90’s bowling alley designs take root in, the 70’s… Rad!

Enter the disco ball – Is it an obsession with reflection? Sure probably, but in my humble opinion nothing wraps up a super-graphic with a bow better than a funky mirrored accomplice. I began disco-ball installs in my own home as an experiment – then my experiment became an “OMG I need to put these in public” then one salon and a hotel later, we’ve confirmed people LOVE a mirror ball. My early installs birthed the idea of a mobile party – the disco-ball bolo tie! Because you CAN always be in the presence of a disco.

It’s difficult to define my products – I’m a chameleon of mediums at this point – I paint super-graphics and neo-traditional animal skulls superimposed on top at my core. The designs often representing different animals and color-schemes from my home state of Colorado. I take those super-graphics, and make ’em big with mural painting – stationary or on the move (I’ve recently painted a school-bus and an RV). I also have mobile murals – I craft large wood cut outs and paint super-graphics on top! These travel to pop-up events as backdrops or mobile art! I’ve recently begun jewelry creation, spinning up a variety of disco bolo ties and other disco accessories! I also dabble in textile work – tufting silly rugs shaped like eggs and flowers.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

“Without formal training, you are not an artist.” – This impeding line on repeat for years.

You are an artist from the moment you choose to create something from nothing, something from just an idea you had in your mind. I’ve spent more time in my creative career telling myself I’m not actually a creator, than I have believing in myself. If you have an idea, if you’re willing to be vulnerable and accept criticism over your idea, if you want to share your idea with others – you are an artist.

Creating is not something limited to a certain subset of people. All artists look different – some may be full time, others might work a couple of hours a week on an ongoing project. Believing you are an artist is the first step to unleashing your potential.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My journey in life and art is to remain a child for as long as I can. To hold closely to a playful life, and to never take myself or my creations too seriously. I do not create to evoke question or contemplation about what something means. The meaning of my art is simple, find joy in today! And if you can’t, join me for a moment on a journey back to simpler times – when things were bright and happy and rainbows filled the sky. Where you could build a breakfast sandwich out of rugs and run race-cars down the lanes of your wall.

In everything I make I hope at least one individual finds a moment of respite from the craziness of our world to feel their inner-child jump with joy! My goal is to pave a path of ridiculousness with art and to collect as many people yearning to feel joyful again along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.etsy.com/shop/abstruselike
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abstruselike/

Image Credits
Photos taken by Lauren Young