My subscribers are some of the most amazing, creative people I know. It is my great pleasure to introduce you to some of them via my Inspiring Subscriber Showcase series, in which I discover how a fellow Creative is living a creative life.
Today’s Inspiring Subscriber appeared on my radar in a big way last August, when she signed up for my very first Creative Ignition Circle (next session starting Tuesday, btw!) It was a joy to watch her develop and evolve her inspiring art practice, and the tools to keep it strong, over the two months of the Circle.
It was also a joy to listen to her sage advice to the other members of the Circle, and I was delighted beyond words when she joined the Creative Ignition Club (which didn’t exist at the time of that first Circle, but is now a benefit of Circle membership).
Laureen is not one to waste words. Whenever she offered her thoughts in the Circle, I knew everyone was in for some lustrous pearls of wisdom, and I always perk up when I see she’s posted something in the Club, because I know it will be a gem.
The woman can write, too. When she recently announced her brand new blog, I popped over for a visit and was deeply impressed with the richness of her descriptions and the clarity of her voice.
I shouldn’t have been the least bit surprised — when Laureen takes something on, she doesn’t half-ass it. She does it with grace, and with the utmost attention to quality and detail.
Read on to meet…
Inspiring Subscriber: Laureen Marchand
How are you living a creative life? How are you following your evolving bliss right now?
Right now I’ve got the most wonderful creative life in the most amazing location. I make paintings; operate my own art gallery, Grasslands Gallery; write about art and the business of art, both on the gallery blog and for other publications; and am currently dreaming up new things I can offer through the website and blog for other people who want more out of life than what they currently have.
The possibility of this life came from the decision I made in 2009 to leave the medium-sized city I’d been in for 26 years, and the “good” job that had become way too demanding and artistic-spirit-squashing. I’d been able to keep half a working and exhibiting artist’s career and half a library career (the link’s a bit out-of-date and should say 2008 not 2010, but the idea is there) for 20 of the years before that, but cities seem to start out manageable and then grow and get expensive. I got to the point where just staying ahead was taking all my strength and my studio life had all but vanished.
My heart was breaking all the time.
It was stay and die creatively or change something. The place I moved to is the tiny (135 people) community of Val Marie, gateway to Grasslands National Park. I picked it because the landscape here is gorgeous, because a good friend had preceded me here and through visiting her I’d come to know the place and some of the people, because having a good friend in your otherwise all-new life is a Really Good Thing, and because I could sell my city house for money and buy an inexpensive one here.
When you are running away to join the circus, if helps to choose your circus!
So I have my artist life and my business life. Since I believe in community as a legacy of creative thinking, I also have my giving-back life. Right now I’m Chair of the Board of Directors of Prairie Wind & Silver Sage, the “friends” group for Grasslands National Park. We operate a summer museum (which we’re currently exploring taking in the new direction of ecomuseum), in a heritage building where we have museum and art exhibitions, a gorgeous Prairie-related book and gift shop, and an espresso bar.
Not bad for a tiny town in the wild west!
I’m also on the board of our local community-owned share corporation Whitemud Grocery (and work there once a week), and on the loosely structured Val Marie Culture, Heritage and Youth Elevator Committee, dedicated to preserving and restoring our 1927 wood-crib grain elevator.
And I’m incredibly lucky to have the love and support of companions, friends, and colleagues in Saskatchewan, North America, and Europe — we all know what joy the creative life is, and we have each other’s backs.
I have to add, in case this all sounds too idyllic to be true, that I still face some of the same money worries that I had before. So sometimes I take jobs that mean my art practice gets less of me. But I try to do those jobs with honor and creativity. In addition to my local job, I teach for University of Maryland University College in an online library and research skills course required for new distance education graduate students. I also have a contract with UMUC as a course manager, helping revise and re-develop course materials and helping support course faculty.
The local job is one morning a week, and the UMUC work is intermittent, so that helps to keep things under control. But if the gallery and the possible other offerings take off, I plan that life will become more integrated. And the gallery is mainly summer-seasonal at this time, so I have winters to focus on studio and teaching.
What Resistances or “self-installed glass ceilings” have have you faced that kept you from following your Bliss(es)?
It’s probably pretty easy to see that I like to have a lot going on. Sometimes I have too much going on. I’ve never been able in my life to tell when things are going to be Too Much until it’s really full-blown. I’m working on that.
When I left my city life for this one, I thought it would be like walking into a permanent artist’s residency. But I’d lost the practice of working at art, and that was an incredible shock. It wasn’t easy to get it back. I took on too much work for other people, both paid and volunteer, and the art got further away, not closer. It was a huge disappointment.
What allowed you to get past the Resistance and onto your creative path? (Did you have a sudden revelation that things had to change? Did you experience a gradual shift?) What changes did you have to make?
As much as possible, I try to move out of darkness into light. I floundered on and off for a year. One day, doing nothing but play computer Solitaire and be in pain about not painting, I began to Google “creativity coach.” Light led me to Alison Gresik, who led me to Havi Brooks, who led me to…Cairene McDonald, Catherine Caine, Molly Gordon, Chris Guillebeau, Lisa Baldwin, and so many more.
And to you, Melissa.
Bless you, your Creative Ignition Circle was one of the last pieces of the puzzle that got me going. Now I’m painting regularly, and planning and dreaming, and there’s a lot more light than there was.
{Editor’s note: the next Circle session starts on Tuesday! At the time of this writing, there’s still room — if it’s calling your name click here to read more and join.}
What have you learned by honoring the call of your Bliss(es) that you’d especially like to share?
Oh, aren’t we amazing? And if we can hear our own self call, life can be so rich!
What practices or rituals do you have to honor your creative spirit and keep your toe in the creative stream? (Tips, techniques, tools — whatever works for you. Anything goes.)
I need dailiness in my art practice. I’ve learned that if my easel gets too far away from the front of my brain, it’s really hard to get it back where it belongs.
Right now I’m trying to paint 2 or 3 hours every morning, usually four or five days a week. More hours a day would be better, but I also need some realism in terms of life interruptions — if I insist on every morning come hell or high water and don’t make it, that can feel like failure. Feeling like failure is bad for artists. We should feel like successes all the time. We are!
I need to have plans and goals and dreams. If life becomes too much grindstone, my spirit starts to fade. I need to have something to aim at. I’m looking forward to three weeks’ residency at the beautiful Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland in February and March, where I can work every day in an atmosphere of artistic belief and support. To be in the studio all day every day — heaven! I’m also applying for a solo art exhibition. My last one was 4-1/2 years ago, and that’s too long. I used to exhibit really regularly. Getting back to that demanding and lovely state is a big goal right now.
What is one more thing you’d like to share to spark up our own creative fires?
Keep hope. Move towards light. “Because,” as Cathy Yardley said about life as your own story, “I know the damned thing works out.”
Thank you, Laureen!
In her own words: Laureen Marchand is a practicing artist and the owner of Grasslands Gallery. She lives and works in Val Marie, Saskatchewan, Canada. Laureen has exhibited widely for over 25 years, showing in more than two dozen solo or two-person exhibitions, as well as over 30 group shows, including both single-location and touring exhibitions.
Laureen’s paintings have been recognized by major funders, are held in many public and private collections, and have been represented in exhibition catalogues and reviewed in newspapers and magazines. As well, she has contributed widely to Canada’s artistic community as organizer, teacher, writer, and curator. Laureen holds the Centennial Leadership Award for Service to the Province of Saskatchewan.
Laureen Marchand paints in her home studio in the winter and at Grasslands Gallery during the gallery’s summer season. Always aware of the darkness behind light, she explores in her paintings the relationship of appearance to reality. Her current artworks use the image of the rose to wonder about beauty, loss, and the passage of time.
Now tell me, what struck you most about Laureen’s interview? Share your responses below.
PS — Pssst! Know someone who might benefit from seeing this today? Pass it on!
