Artist Interview: Lauren Lewchuk
Today we are chatting with the lovely Lauren Lewchuk, who is killing it in her efforts to get her work in new homes! Celebrating the launch of her brand new website with a new floral collection, Lauren is offering her pieces at price points that will easily suit many. We chat about the unshakable need to create, transitioning between styles, inspiration, and showing up despite the fears!
Let’s start with your first interest in art. What captivated you, what were your curiosities, first memories surrounding the arts?
My first interest in art definitely takes me waaaay back! Hard to pinpoint an exact time or situation but it's always been within me to be creative. Even as a child I was always painting, drawing, or making something. I loved giving some form of art or craft as gifts to friends and family. I had a lot of curiosity and experimented with so many different skills, crafts, and mediums: jewelry making, card making, origami, collage, crochet, embroidery... the list goes on. I also had a lot of trouble staying focused in school growing up, I get bored and unfocused very easily; I was always the one who had more drawings than notes in my notebook. The act of creating something actually gives me focus, keeps me motivated and of course gives me purpose and makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something. It's like I HAVE to be creative! That's just the way it's always been.
You have a very unique intricate style with hints of folk patterns. Can you talk about how it evolved?
My style has definitely evolved a lot over time! For several years I was working primarily with colored pencils and markers. (This was more during the earlier years and my experimental phase.) My work at the time was still very bright and colorful like it is now but it was full of gradients and the details were bigger than they are now. My work then was very psychedelic looking! I would say my style since has gotten more refined and even more elaborate, it's also more representational. It's obvious in my current works that I am very inspired by plants and nature, but I also use a lot of abstract elements as well. I really like the combination of abstract and representational; that there are both recognizable and unrecognizable elements. I feel my work is relatable while at the same time there is something more profound and imaginary about it, that you can completely get lost in it!
My primary sources of inspiration are objects found in nature, either from photo references or from memory. It all started with a book I found at a discount book store called Microcosmos. It was essentially a picture book full of really colorful and detailed close ups of all kinds of things: plant cells, feathers, butterfly wings... I loved seeing all these objects up close to the point of being unrecognizable and just abstraction. It's really fascinating. And in a lot of ways that is how I go about creating my designs; it's more about the parts rather than the whole and I arrange all these parts into complex and elaborate compositions.
It's interesting you bring up folk patterns! At this point I've been told by a handful of artists that some elements of my work reminds them of certain folk patterns or even more so aboriginal art. I've looked up these styles of art out of curiosity and I see a few similarities as well, mainly in certain small details and repetition. It's so interesting how those things happen, however it's purely coincidental.
Tell us about your new collection! What were your thoughts and inspirations?
The idea behind my new floral collection was to create a series of paintings inspired by my usual style, but simpler and more affordable. I tend to focus on creating more intricate and detailed paintings for gallery showings and exhibitions, but offering smaller collections as well means that I have more options that can appeal to more people and can suit tighter budgets. I've also been wanting to do smaller themed series where the whole collection is a particular subject matter or they all share similar design elements. In this case I used a floral design throughout the whole series, but I first used that particular floral design in one of my larger detailed pieces (which ironically is still unfinished)!
Have you done or considered murals? Your work would translate large scale very well.
Ah murals... getting into the mural scene is such a long windy road it seems. I have not had the opportunity (yet) to do a mural in my own style. It's almost kind of funny considering I have so much experience painting. I've done murals, faux finishes on large surfaces, and hand lettering as well. The bulk of that was done while working for a company as an artist/painter. But that isn't the sort of thing where you can just paint any way you want, it's always painting what someone else wants. Sometimes the project is something you're proud of and sometimes it's not. The designs and the whole process, it's out of your control really. But the experience is valuable. I've even assisted a few of the already established muralists in my area. But no, the opportunity to do one of my own and in my own unique style has not come up yet, but it's something I'm definitely interested in. I think my designs would look amazing large scale and could easily transform any space! And I can alter my designs to be maximal or more minimal depending on one's preference, and as mentioned above I love hand lettering and would love the opportunity to incorporate that into some mural designs as well!
We are strong believers that the more people discuss failure, the less significant the possibility of it becomes. In our society, we are so terrified of possibility of something not working out, that it halts all our efforts to begin with. We ask all of our interviewees if they can share a time where something (a project or opportunity) did not work out and how did you move forward?
I'm not so sure I have specific failures to discuss, other than typical hardships... rejections from exhibitions, publications, and so on. But I really don't consider those failures so much as just they are part of the process. I know that rejections are very disheartening to a lot of people, especially artists just starting out. There's also trying to get into certain fields like murals for example as discussed above, and feeling like there aren't going to be any opportunities, especially if you're competing with several already established artists in your area. Getting noticed in those situations feels impossible. And as a very introverted person, another difficulty for me is networking. Building relationships with potential clients is obviously essential, but I don't have the kind of personality to constantly go out to art shows or events to introduce myself to a lot of people. So there's the obstacle of having to get out of my comfort zone at times, but when I do it has definitely paid off. Luckily I've also met lots of people on social media and have gotten some cool opportunities in that way as well. But still there are a lot of times when I feel like I'm getting nowhere, and then right when I'm feeling like almost giving up an opportunity comes along. It's all going to come in waves so don't get discouraged. The biggest failure you could possibly make as an artist is not showing up.
Any events, shows, or projects coming up you'd like to share with the readers?
I've actually just finished up a couple exhibitions, and most recently received an honorable mention for my large scale painting "Serenity". I've also just been published for the first time in CandyFloss Magazine's The Enchanted Issue, which is just so exciting! As far as future events, I'm waiting to hear back from a couple, so fingers crossed! ...and there's a major project in the works that I can't wait to talk about but I can't just yet, but I'll definitely keep you posted!
Learn more about Lauren’s work and support her via:
https://www.artbylewchuk.com/
https://www.instagram.com/art_by_lewchuk/
https://www.facebook.com/LEWCHUK
https://www.pinterest.com/laurenlewchuk/_created/
