We were lucky to catch up with Lori Haas recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Lori thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I was extremely fortunate to have an amazing art teacher in high school, Carole Hale. She was always challenging us with creative assignments, and introducing us to different methods and mediums. I went on to study Fine Art at the University of Georgia in Athens; my BFA is in painting with a concentration in drawing. My best professors were the ones that taught us the mechanics of making art. For example; to build and stretch canvas, the differences between gouache and oil painting, different papers, ways of making marks using charcoals or pencils, color versus black and white. I was also exposed to processes not necessarily related to my major. Printmaking, photography, and ceramics to name a few. These have all been building blocks to a vocabulary that have allowed me to experiment with how to express my particular voice. The rest is just trial and error, over and over. The main obstacles are finding time and space to try new methods, time to make a LOT of mistakes. Another big one is being able to earn enough money to pay for the space and the time and the supplies. It takes a lot of these to fail and then figure it out! I don’t know anything I could have done differently to speed up the process. I had, and still have to, work hard, be patient, keep trying.

Lori, 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?

In 2001, after the attack on the World Trade Center, my art took a very specific turn. I was struck by how throughout history people have found it acceptable to murder one another, create divisiveness, and foster hatred among people under the banner of religion. I had taken a comparative theology course in college, and kept up study of different cultures and customs particularly relating to spirituality. The basic, underlying message is always the same. We may use different characters to tell the story, but the story doesn’t change, nor does its context of trying to be the best we can possibly be while we are here on this planet. I began to create small shrines, collecting icons and stories, hoping to draw attention to the similarities we share under the religion banner. One of my favorite parts of this journey was working on commissions. Interacting with someone helps ignite creativity that they don’t realize they possess, and underscores the connections we have with each other. I have also enjoyed doing gallery exhibitions, Trying to put together a story that has as much representation as possible is incredibly challenging.

In 2019 my daughter was off to college, and I began working on a series of works related to nests. Empty nester, so to speak. In 2020, during the lockdown, the project took a different slant, since we were all back in the nest getting through this together. Nests are also something that many people relate to, so that is definitely gratifying.

The last couple of years my subjects have come from plants, flowers, and pollinators. My hope here is that people are reminded to slow down and enjoy the miraculous microcosms around us. The underlying theme of my work is to help people feel as though they are heard, and that it can touch something in someone that they may not have known was there to be felt.

Every single piece of work I make is the sum of all of the teaching I have received. Time and again I come back to something that I thought I had forgotten. All of the work is mixed media, which in and of itself tells that story. None of them are as good as I want them to be, and I got to the final product of most of them by trying to fix a mistake I thought I had made. Definitely a journey.

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

When I decided to go on social media, I was fortunate to have a friend who had done some workshops in her career, and she was willing to sit down and give me some pointers. One of the most informative things I did was to follow other artists. This allowed me to see how other creatives run their pages. I was able to see new work, and events going on around me that I could participate in. I tried to do as many art calls as I could, and when I was accepted I did a lot of promoting whatever show or event I was participating in. Tagging other artists and galleries also helped. I have kept my page strictly art related; no personal posts. The most important thing is to post often, which I am not so great at. I meet with a group of other women artists, and we keep each other bolstered and share ideas.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I wouldn’t say that there is a particular goal or mission driving my journey. I feel as though I have some gifts that make people happy, and I should do my best with them.

Contact Info:

• Website: LoriHaasArt.com
• Instagram: @lorihaasart

Image Credits
Art by Lori Haas