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

Alright, Leah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I went to school for Illustration back in 2008, after switching from an education major. It took me a few years to finish and I got married somewhere in the middle. When I graduated, Zach (my husband) and I knew that we wanted to have kids and I really wanted to be home with them while they were little. It seemed that it would be harder to start a career, pause to have kids, then re-launch a career, so we jumped right into having kids, all with the hope that I could pick up jobs here and there to do while the kids napped. HA! Ideals. Things didn’t quite pan out that way. We had 3 children all pretty close together; Eve, Lucy and Peter (I promise we weren’t shooting for a Chronicles of Narnia theme). While they were all little I did have a couple illustration jobs here and there but in order to bring in some supplemental income I started doing family photography. This was at least somewhat of a creative outlet, though I hated editing. And it was easier to get photography jobs than illustration jobs.

By the time my youngest finally ended up in school, it had been 10 years since I graduated. That is a LONG time. I remember walking home from dropping them off, breathing so deeply in the quiet. Taking in the crisp fresh air, the warm sun pouring itself out onto the trees. Then it hit. Out of the blue and completely unexpected; I was so afraid. I had spent the last 10 years telling people that once my kids were all in school I would start.

I probably could have realized it sooner and planned and prepared for this moment, but when you’re a mom of young ones and getting everyone ready for school, you’re kind of just taking things one day at a time. So many questions filled my mind. “What if after all of this preparation and studying and money, I don’t actually even like illustration?” “What if I’m not actually good at it?” “Where do I start? Should I get an agent first or brush off the dust and get a more recent portfolio before even looking?” “How much money should I put into this?” “I feel so behind; so many classmates are so much further in their careers at this point and I’m just now starting…”

I decided the best place to start was to build a website.

This ended up being a really good move for me. I had to start filling in parts of the website and writing; I had to write an “about me” section where I try to put to words a bunch of arbitrary feelings. I was surprised that as I started writing, I had such a clear sense of who I am, what I’m here for, why it matters so much to me to make beautiful things. Not that I knew everything fully, but throughout the last 10 years of marriage and parenting where I was pushed to my LIMITS and triggered and making mistakes and having to work through those mistakes, I had learned so much about myself. I have had to make a lot of decisions over the years as to how I would respond to my own inadequacies, insecurities, fears and tendencies.

My heart swelled with gratitude as I looked back at the last 10 years. It felt like such a gift to be able to start where I was. I also think I would have been ok starting 10 years earlier. I think humans are very resilient and I would have still have God as my guide through it all, so I don’t feel like I wish I had started earlier. Nor do I feel like starting later was the only way to go or even the best. I just feel grateful for all the Lord has taught me about how he made me over the years, helping me see myself the way he does, teaching me to love the way I’ve been made and wired, loving the strengths and not hating the challenges. I just think His goodness is the same and would have helped me through no matter which way I would have done it.

Leah, 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?

Ever since I was a kid, I have always engaged with the world as if it was the most beautiful thing ever. I loved the crunch of the snow under my feet, the rustle of the wind in the trees, the smell of the earth after a warm rain. I even remember walking down the street while my family lived in Russia and there was dirt and mud everywhere (they use dirt in the winter to help gain traction on the roads since it’s too cold for salt), but I saw a puddle. I made my whole family stop and exclaimed, “isn’t it BEAUTIFUL?!” My parents exchanged confused looks. It was a mud puddle. But as I walked up to it, the wind blew and this dirty puddle was filled with dozens of tiny ripples. As if it was a massive lake, but miniature.

I would disappear in the grocery store and they always knew they’d find me in the dish soap aisle smelling the different dish soaps.

Most of the time I would get strange looks or shoulder shrugs so I learned very as I got older to keep my thoughts to myself. But I enjoyed it all. I thought our tiny apartment was THE BEST and the barred windows in the balcony were so whimsical. The view directly in front of the apartments was garages with junky cars, but BEYOND those garages, there was this golden field with trees and tiny blue butterflies. I would sit spend hours on that balcony, my imagination running wild. I am a feeler and I connect so deeply with people and places and things. Even now, I caught out of the corner of my eye the reflection bouncing off a little container of water on my front porch, dancing on my closed curtain. It’s so magical I want to cry.

Thanks to all the work I’ve done learning to love myself, I have recently started to see that the way I experience the world is a huge gift. It comes with challenges and I have to place boundaries in places others might not need to, but it’s a wonderful gift. I long for people to catch a taste of it. I want people to catch that bit of curiosity. Life is really hard and painful, but also crammed with beautiful things in the midst of the chaos. I’ve seen people become overwhelmed and consumed by the pain of it. Become crushed and hopeless because they’re stuck in a sucky apartment. I long for people to be able to also learn how to become aware of the beautiful things too. I think it makes us fully alive and human when we do. Joy and Sorrow all smashed into one. Together bringing such deep meaning and connection to life.

So I’m on a journey of trying to figure out how to help people get in touch with that. I paint fairies in the trees I see around me in hopes that you’ll see the painting and then someday be walking down the street, see the same kind of tree and wonder, “What if it really is covered in fairies? What if the world is full of so much more magic than I even realize?!” I then zoom way out and paint landscapes. All of these landscapes are covered in thousands of tiny, beautiful, magical things, more than we could ever know. I think the work I have currently starts to do that, but of course I’m growing and trying to figure out how to better communicate these things. I have recently started experimenting with more expressive paintings, which has been really interesting.

I believe my artwork can help you pause and become more attentive to the beauty around you, in the midst of the difficulty. And I think it’s critical for humans so they don’t become crushed and consumed by the hard and the ugly. Every human being needs beauty in their life and in their home. Every person needs a painting that can help them get in touch with wonder, curiosity and awe. It expands our imaginations, powers innovation, gets you thinking outside of the box. When people see my work, something slumbering inside of them wakes up.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

So, while the goal and mission have stayed the same, it has been quite a journey (unfinished) trying to figure out how best to do that. The nice thing is that I feel like if I love my hands tomorrow, I’d still have so many options of ways to express it or live into this purpose. The challenging thing is figuring out where to focus!. I finally signed up with some business coaches, Laura and Sarah, who have spent a lot of time crunching numbers with me, asking me questions, forcing me to cut out the hundreds of hobbies so that I can build a business that will last and hopefully succeed. In that process, I was realized that I don’t really love illustrating. I don’t like drawing/painting the same character over and over, I actually like almost any part of the process aside from the ideas.

When I started working with my business coaches, they really helped me narrow down my focus and come up with a plan to do what I love. So my plan was never to try and sell artwork or create fine art. But as challenging and emotionally intense as it is, I am still liking the learning process. And Fine Art is very different from illustration.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Oof, this is a really tough one. So, I have kind of been all over the place in relation to social media. But I’m glad I didn’t go viral right away. It gave me time to learn how to write posts and and experiment with what I wanted my social media account to be. Even though it totally feels like a bummer when you right a really great post, but only 2 people like it. Sometimes I felt confident that I should just keep doing what I’m doing, whether people see it or not, other times I’d feel so depressed that no one was seeing it. But I think one of the things that we should normalize is the idea that sure, we create artwork from our own convictions, just because it’s who we are. However art is to be shared; it is actually meant to be seen, it’s not actually just for us is it? I’m pulling heavily from Andrew Petersons book Adorning the Dark here, but there really is a greater purpose in that art nurtures community. It is intended to be viewed, to be enjoyed by more than just yourself. It really wouldn’t feel fulfilling to create all your art and hide it away in a secret room only for yourself. Sure, it would feel safer, but I think some of the magic of art is the vulnerability in putting something out into the world that didn’t exist before and the courage the show it, knowing it may or may not resonate with people.

All that to say, there is a lot of shame in feeling like you want people to see your art, but I think you’re supposed to want people to see your work. The thing you probably need to watch out for whether or not it’s to feed your ego or to benefit the community. (Again, thanks Andrew Peterson :)

Last year had a friend, whose job is social media marketing, send me some tips and ideas of things to try. The difference was enormous. Social media feels either like a crapshoot or volatile, but there are some really simple things you can do that do increase your availability without you having to compromise your values. Like, I just hate videos that try to trick people into clicking. Sure it’ll get more views, but I have it, so I don’t do that. Other people are fine with it and that’s ok! I’m not, so I don’t. But you don’t have to play games to get views. It’s worth consulting with someone who understands it better, sharing your values and asking their advice on how to help your art be seen.

Then after getting some big views on those posts, I went down to less and started stressing about the views again. Haha! Took a breath, and then tried to combined the things I was learning about social media with the things I actually wanted to post and talk about or show. I have noticed though that the number of people who tell me how much they love my posts is greater than the number of people “liking” it. Real like “likes!” Who knew. I’m starting to realize that the number of likes isn’t actually an accurate representation of the people who my posts are reaching, but it is helpful data.

I still don’t feel like I have figured it out, but I do think it’s helpful to approach it with a learning mindset. Finding what works, but not losing yourself in the process. At least, that’s how I’m feeling about it right now. :)

So don’t feel bad for wanting people to see your work, and look at it with the long game in mind, using the short term for growth and learning.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.leahmorrisoncreative.com
• Instagram: Leah_Morrison_Creative
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leahmorrisoncreative
• Youtube: Leah Morrison Creative

Image Credits

Bud M. Kirby, TinyUproar TinTypes