August Creator of the Month: Louise

Art plays a foundational role in Louise’s life. Whether it be for the purposes of personal creation, professional work, or connecting with others, Louise remarks that art has permeated throughout many areas of her life and given back to her in a variety of valuable ways. No matter the format, Louise says that art is what makes her life more vivid.  

Louise describes her art, craft, and writing as all being important and distinct personal practices. Her art practice primarily includes illustration, drawing, collage, and artist books. For many years, she worked as a layout artist in the advertising sector, and as an introvert, enjoyed completing work behind the scenes and producing work for clients. She remarks that drawing has been her dominant art practice, evolving throughout her life, and always present, whether that be in professional or personal contexts. 

Louise is also an avid crafter and enjoys working with diverse, often recycled, materials to give them a new life. She makes cordage from recycled paper and books into stitched baskets. Crafting is an outlet for personal exploration, creativity, and discovery.  

Additionally, writing plays a role in Louise’s life. After earning a fine arts degree, Louise went back to school and became an English as a Second Language teacher, helping others learn to write and communicate in English. She continues to guide workshops designed to allow people to discover their own writing abilities. Louise also writes to notice and learn more about the world and herself. 

Although drawing, crafting, and writing can all be described under the wide umbrella of “art,” Louise prefers to keep her artistic endeavors individual. She remarks that without maintaining the distinction between them, one form (often her professional illustration) is sometimes seen by others as more important or foundational to her artistic identity when in reality all play a part. She says, “sometimes when it’s all blended together you end up with nothing” and instead prefers to maintain autonomy for each of her artistic pursuits and simultaneously maintain each’s diverse role in her life. 

Not only have Louise’s art practices enriched her own individual experiences, they’ve also played an important role in making her connections with others more profound. The workshops that she began running after her experiences teaching English serve as an opportunity for creation, community, and personal discovery. 

Over the past several years, Louise has developed a variety of activities for workshop participants to complete at the beginning of her sessions. These activities are intended to reveal to participants that they CAN create art themselves (drawing or writing depending on the workshop) and reflect the participants’ innate abilities back to them. Often workshops begin with people's confessions to Louise; she recalls that “they would tell [her] this secret: I can’t draw.” However, by shifting people's personal perception of their own abilities, Louise claims that making art allows people to open themselves up to so much more than before. 

Louise shared a story of an engineer who attended a workshop. As she does with all participants, she assured him, “do what you do, and we’ll work with that.” During the workshop, his writing revealed a unique perspective he held that he previously had not identified; he approached life in a technical manner and was deeply curious about how things work, and more specifically how they worked for human beings. This perspective was his own form of magic. Identifying it through writing gave him greater appreciation of his way of seeing his environment. That day he learned something about himself, and Louise was introduced to a new lens with which to view the world through, enriching both of their lives. 

Louise says that workshops are rewarding because everyone benefits by hearing about the lives of others and their perspectives. Art is a catalyst for knowledge acquisition and personal connections, making life more complex, profound, and a lot more interesting. 

Art plays a role in many of our lives, and in the case of Louise’s, even many different roles in one life. Whether it be for one’s livelihood, personal gratification, self- expression, or community building, art has been a central part of Louise’s life. Her practices continue to reveal new things and serve as powerful tools for understanding the world and people around her, all the while making life more vivid.