We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Noah Lawrence-Holder a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Noah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?

So when I was in high school, I was looking at art schools and getting a portfolio together for applications. I learned about Portfolio Day where art schools from all over will set up booths somewhere for prospective students to come and get feedback on their work. So I wake up the day of, all excited to make the drive from Madison to Milwaukee, and realize that my portfolio is in the closet of the art room at my school. I start freaking out because I’m figuring I’ve totally screwed myself, so out of desperation I call my art teacher, who is really great, to see if he can help me out in any way. He picks up, tells me he was just about to go for his morning run anyways and says he’ll just make his run to the school and meet me there. Mind you, he lives a good 4-5 miles away. But he did it! I’ll never forget pulling up to my school and seeing my teacher come running over the horizon to let me in. Total salvation. Thank you Mr. Nichols… I would have never made it without you.

Noah, 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’ve always loved making things. I think my earliest memories are of holding a marker. When I was a kid I started experimenting with little stop motion animations, then making little films with my friends, then skate videos. I’ve just always been compelled to try all these different ways to make the things in my head come to life. And somehow I’ve been lucky enough to make something like a career out of that fixation.

Right now I freelance, and teach at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design once a week. My freelance work is mostly illustration right now. I do a lot of event posters which is always fun, and I get to work with a lot of organizations centered around social justice which is really nourishing work. I also do some editorial work, product design… the list goes on. My favorite part about illustration is I get to problem solve. Someone asks me “How do we visually represent how urban redlining affects the health of Black and Brown communities?” and I get to be the person that figures that out. Then someone else asks me “What would it look like if a demon loved drinking beer?” and I get to figure that out too! It’s really fun, and I get to challenge myself in new ways all the time.

Before I was freelancing I was doing motion graphics at a couple different studios. Picture explainer videos, animated ad campaigns, making logos bounce around… that kind of thing. It’s a much different skill set but animating feels like breathing life into something. I actually graduated with an animation degree and thought I wanted to make cartoons for a while. Life is full of surprises I guess!

In addition to my freelance work I’ve received grants for my art, taken part in residencies and shown work in galleries. A couple years ago I started doing murals too. I think this is one thing that sets me apart from people. I wear all these different hats and get to take my creativity down all these different avenues. I feel really lucky that I get to bring my vision to all these different areas. I don’t know a lot of artists that get to do that!

I think there is a through-line in my work though. Everything I make is vibrant and whimsical and sometimes a bit mysterious. I take a lot of inspiration from fantasy and fashion illustration, and I love mashing together all the beauty that exists in those worlds. I like making art that tastes like candy and sticks to the inside of your eyelids hours after you’re done looking at it.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are SO many online courses out there. There’s a course for everything. I got good at motion graphics by taking an online course. Any program or any artistic skill that’s out there, you can find someone that will teach you online for a lot less than tuition at an art school costs. Mind you, talking with someone in person who really knows what they’re doing and getting direct feedback is unmatched. But online classes can really lay a great foundation for most anything, at least in my field.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding projects I’ve worked on have been murals. I live in Minneapolis, and did my first mural during the Uprising in 2020. I was painting on the boarded up windows of this Salon on this really busy intersection. The mural was in commemoration of all of the Black trans people that had been murdered at the hands of police. It was a really emotional thing for me to get to paint. But the best part was getting to directly interact with my audience. All of these people walking by would stop to ask about the mural, and I was overwhelmed by the gratitude so many of them expressed. It was the first time I got to really see how something I made impacted people, and that really changed what I thought was possible for me to do with my art.

Contact Info:

• Website: noah-lh.com
• Instagram: @blormpy
• Other: email- [email protected]