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

Hi Lori, thanks for joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I have always told people who ask me why I chose to be an artist, and my first response was that I didn’t; it chose me. It is fascinating that when I was in high school, fellow students would choose art because they saw it as an easy subject. It is the opposite. Do you know any other profession where you have to reinvent yourself every day? I enter my studio and only know what will happen once I start the creative process. I practise having a beginner’s mind to keep my work fresh and authentic. I have to have self-discipline. Most of us have two to three jobs to support our practice. Do you know any other profession that must do that to keep going? Art is my purpose, and I am trying to make a difference, one small ripple at a time. Giving up being an artist for a regular job, my life force would be sucked out of me.

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

About Me:

I am an artist deeply passionate about anything related to the visual arts. I chose painting, but I started with sculpture and fibre arts. My journey into art began at a young age when I first discovered my love for creativity and self-expression. I pursued my passion by attending both close and far-away art schools. I was privileged to have a mentor who guided me in developing a distinctive voice, and my work is collected worldwide.

Artistic Offerings:

In my work, I create original artwork and commissioned pieces. I also work with an art reproduction company that distributes prints of my work across North America in big box stores. My creative process often involves exploring urban and nature themes that I juxtapose with each other, creating a conversation about our own inner nature and the manufactured world. I describe my approach to painting as all-embodied. Like a dancer, I use my whole body to paint, exploring gestures and mark-making. This method allows me to produce expressive, experimental, and layered emotional paintings that reference the existence of being human. We are made of many different parts of self. Wounded, loved, scared, courageous, joyful. Moment by moment, we are in constant flux. There is a life force in my work that is full of vitality, and then juxtaposed are parts that are flat, limited, manufactured fragments. My work offers viewers a place to reflect and ponder their relationship to themselves and their external environments, hoping to provoke thought and emotion.

Problem Solving:

Every mark on a painting is a problem to be resolved. This is a conversation with me about the materials and the image. When I am asked to do a commissioned work, it presents a whole new set of problems. I respect and respond to my clients and collectors’ unique take on art and their personal stories. This is important as it is a type of collaboration. I help my clients find original and meaningful ideas that resonate with them personally. I want to enhance their environments and foster a deeper connection to the art they experience.
What Sets Me Apart:

What sets me apart in the art world is my commitment to making art that educates, evokes personal onus and taps into a larger conversation about climate change. I believe in community engagement through inter-generational art workshops, using materials that are usually thrown away, such as single-use packaging and integrating them into artwork. My work speaks about a human-caused global crisis, and yet the work is also about our relationship to ourselves. I am also an artist who chooses projects that resonate with me, which are only sometimes economic or have prestige. I care more about who are the people I am engaging with and the type of ideas. If it resonates and I can be authentic with my response, then I will engage. I believe in the power of the message in my artwork, ensuring that each piece I create is not just a product but a narrative that speaks to me and the viewer.

Pride and Vision:

I am most proud of my many achievements, including exhibitions, my work in collections, thirty years of teaching all ages, my community projects, and my latest accomplishment, a solo exhibition in Beijing.
My vision extends beyond creating art; I aspire to foster connections and conversations through my exhibitions and workshops.

Critical Takeaways for My Followers:

For those interested in my journey and my art, I want you to know that I am dedicated to making my work accessible and meaningful for all. Well, almost everyone!

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

I am now a mid-career artist. My journey has not been an easy one. I became a single mother and raised my two sons independently when they were 3/5 years old. They are now adults living their lives. I refused to give up my practice and found that I had to change what I painted about to fit my life choices. I found out that I was pregnant and at the same time I received my first grant from the government that was awarded to me to produce a body of work. Luckily, I had produced all the work. The only thing was that I never exhibited the work. It was not possible being a single parent. However I found my niche and I became quite successful in selling my work.
Being a single mother and continuing my art practice was a challenging journey, but it also offered me the opportunity to become extremely resourceful and resilient. I found audiences for my paintings, and I found a great teaching position at the University where I could work in the evenings and weekends and be there for the boys in the day. I lost out on lots of playtime with them, but I was able to create a community that helped me raise them. This community played a crucial role in my journey, and I am grateful for their support. Thanks to them, my boys had an amazing childhood and I continued my art practise.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Now, there are artist residencies for families and mothers. To answer your question, I would say these resources were not available for mothers and parents when I was raising my kids. If there had been, I would have applied. This experience of being around other mother artists would have been empowering. I encourage mothers who have a practice to apply to these residencies. There is no reason to stop making art and no reason not to have a family.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lorigoldberg.ca
• Instagram: [email protected]
• Facebook: [email protected]
• Linkedin: [email protected]

Image Credits

Lori Goldberg