We were lucky to catch up with Luanne Bole-Becker recently and have shared our conversation below.

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

Honestly, I think starting my visual arts career late in life, in “retirement,” has been exactly the right time. I’m ready for it, I’m equipped for it, and I appreciate it.

In my earlier careers, I often felt I had something to prove, or that I could never let mistakes and uncertainty show. Now I know that’s not true. I’ve proven to myself that I’m smart enough, I’m good enough, and that “mistakes” inevitably lead to advancements, opportunities, and creative problem-solving.

I take chances. I admit when I’m wrong. I accept rejection. I try not to obsess too much. I just keep exploring.

I also bring the skills and experience of a lifetime to my art and my art career. Social media is like writing and distributing press releases. Search engine optimization is something I learned to code as a computer analyst. My project management experience enables me to juggle overlapping art shows and projects with ease. Producing, managing, and doing the accounting for numerous non-profit events makes art installations, openings, and sales reports almost second nature. They may still be tiring, but they’re not overwhelming!

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?

Magic from the Mundane

My artwork is a lot like me: quirky, whimsical, a bit disjointed, and full of vintage pieces and parts!

I love storytelling through photography and assemblage, building magical worlds to explore. My work often includes:

– Surprises, in terms of unexpected angles and perspectives, quirky details, or the pairing of incongruous elements.

– Vintage items I’ve accumulated for the past 40 years. These objects carry history, unique craftsmanship, and reflections of usage and decay.

– Whimsical creations that entertain.

– Behind-the-scene stories that intrigue.

– Immersive worlds that invite.

Being creative has tied together a lifetime of roles. In the 1980s I worked part-time as a stained glass artist while employed full-time in the financial and computer industries. I always dabbled in photography, and from 1994-2014 became known as an Emmy-award winning PBS documentary maker along with my husband and creative partner. I am also a freelance and technical writer. More recently I took on the role of gallery manager and curator where I mount 4-6 invitational art exhibits per year.

I have exhibited regularly since 2019 throughout Northeast Ohio with acceptance and awards in a variety of galleries:

Artists Archives of the Western Reserve
Ashtabula Arts Center
BAYarts
Bryn Du Mansion
Carrington Arts
Center for Artful Living
Creative Space Avon
Cuyahoga Valley Art Center
Door2 Art
Fusion Art
Grey Cube Gallery
The Jenks
Lakeland Community College
Light Space Time Gallery
Mansfield Art Center
Photocentric/Waterloo Juried Arts
Piqua Arts Council
Public Square Huntington Building
Root Cafe
Seven Brothers Distilling Co.
Stella’s Art Gallery
Summit Artspace
Tricky Tortoise Brewing Co.
Valley Art Center
Westlake-Bay Village Rotary Art Festival
Willoughby Artsfest

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Making art is what gets me up in the morning. It’s a way to keep my brain and soul engaged, curious, and connected to the world around me.

My assemblage art comes from different starting points. Sometimes it’s a theme or artistic technique I want to explore. More often it’s an object that inspires a whole new world.

Each aspect of the artistic process poses a challenge I want to solve:
– How do I visually represent an idea? What other ideas are related?
– What pieces do I have that fit a theme? What additional pieces should be added?
– Where else can this idea go? Should I stick with the original or modify it?
– How do I balance the design visually?
– How do I engineer how the pieces are attached?
– Can I edit this work to improve its design and/or clarity?

My brain races with possibilities. Searching inventory and local recycle shops is a fun scavenger hunt. There can also be many unsuccessful rabbit holes I fall into, but the journey nearly always produces new ideas and more clarity.

In my writing career, I had focused primarily on non-fiction. Back then, I never quite understood when authors would talk about how their characters developed personalities of their own, and how they wondered how their own stories would unfold.

Now I get it. When I build a new assemblage, I have a direction and the bare bones, but the end result must be revealed. The journey is the true reward. When I’m lucky, finding a juror or customer who connects to the artistic result and its creation journey is an added bonus.

Have you ever had to pivot?

All my life, I’ve been restless and driven. I credit much of that restlessness to being a smart kid, but also incredibly torn between my creative and logical sides. But I didn’t really know it at the time.

My family was working class and I grew up amidst family issues, so I knew I needed to move out as soon as practical. As a good student, I gravitated to both math and writing. I graduated summa cum laude with a college degree in what seemed most practical at the time. Accounting. Huh???? How was that going to feed my artistic side? I started out thinking I didn’t need to.

Even though I knew accounting didn’t excite me, it was something I learned quickly and could easily get a job in. I excelled as a financial analyst and then a computer consultant. At the same time, my bosses realized they couldn’t force me into the typical 60- to 80-hour workweek. Instead, I would repeatedly negotiate reductions in my full-time hours (in the 80s, when this was pretty much unheard-of) so I could work part-time in a stained glass studio, then as a free-lance writer. I knew my artistic side was being squelched in the corporate world, and I often felt ill preparing for work each day. But my logical side reminded me of my financial obligations.

In my thirties, I finally received the spark that pushed me to acknowledge both sides of my brain and personality. An adult trip to Space Camp made me realize my life should be as exciting and fulfilling as that simulated space mission. So I switched gears.

It took a year or so to make inroads beyond the corporate world. I eventually used my consulting skills to write the best proposal of my life! A non-profit started by the families of the Challenger astronauts created a new position for me, even though I lived nearly 400 miles away. Now I was working with astronauts and teachers and students, writing articles, creating curriculum, producing TV shows. It was the first time I felt I could control my career direction, rather than just ricocheting from one unsatisfying job to another. My artistic side was starting to unfurl.

Five years later (in 1994), my husband (a radio and TV guy) and I launched our own video production company after attending the Sundance Film Festival. We went there to research the documentary-making world, and came home convinced we could find a way to break in. We did, partnering for decades with the PBS station in our hometown. Producing meaningful videos was a way to finally give full voice to my artistic side, bolstered by organizational skills for sifting through 1000s of photographs, film clips, and interview quotes. We received multiple Emmy awards along the way too!

When life threw us a curveball years later, I pivoted again. Alzheimer’s was slowly stealing my creative partner over a 9-year decline. As my caregiving role lessened in 2019, I began to rebuild an artistic career, this time individually. By then I had realized it was pretty much “now or never” to explore this new path. With the help and encouragement of several fellow artists, I started with a solo show of photographs and assemblages in 2019 and haven’t stopped. I have exhibited, sold, and been awarded in more than 2 dozen galleries across Northeast Ohio. I also have begun curating shows in a local gallery that I manage, providing other artists the same chance.

While I may have always “known” internally that I needed to pursue an artistic career, it took me about 30 years to commit to it, then another 30 to build a life that could support it on my own terms. I’m glad to be able to say that my art and my life are now aligned.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: simplifyingstuff
• Facebook: Luanne Bole-Becker Artist
• Linkedin: Luanne Bole-Becker

Image Credits

Image of me with artwork: Andy Tubbesing
All photographs and assemblage work: Luanne Bole-Becker