How easily can you access your child side? Do you think can still see the world with childlike wonderment, a sense that everything around you is new and you are filled with curiosity?
My guest on this episode, Layl McDill, approaches her unique sculptural work, and her way of seeing the world, through wonderment—a way of looking at what the world has to offer with a childlike curiosity. We talk about her lifelong focus on art, her child magnatism, her magical life as a working artist and expert art show car packer, and how we all can reach back and reclaim the wonderment we may have left behind as we transformed from fascinated child into responsible adults.
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Layl’s Artwork:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Laylmcdill
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CREDITS:
Cover design by Sage; Illustration by Olga Kostenko
Cover Art by Layl McDill
Music by Playsound
TRANSCRIPT
LAYL – 0:01
Really going to have more fun with it if you kind of go in there like a more of a trial and error type mindset. But when you do that trial and error, that’s totally like how a kid really learned something. Yes. See what happens with this. Get smashed up and see what happens. And I throw this on the wall.
SAGE – 0:17
Hello. All my playful, fun loving creatives. Thank you for joining me on the Sage Arts podcast. This is Sage and we are going to be getting into a conversation today with a really fun artist. So I’m going to keep the beginning here a little short. I don’t have a lot of story to tell you. No metaphorical tidbits, really. I am a little behind on some things you may have noticed if you follow me on social media. I haven’t post a lot recently. We’re up in Santa Cruz, where Brett’s daughter graduated college. Very exciting. She graduated with a double major, which my dad would have been art history, but they call the history of visual arts communication and visual art major as well. I don’t know where she got all that from, but we’re very proud of her and we spent a lot of time up there with her and her friends and their friends families, and it was a great time. So I got a little behind on work and I don’t have shoutouts today because I haven’t really I kind of tracked them and I haven’t been able to do that. But I will get all caught up next week. I did work some more on what we need to do in order to get some Zoom chat started next month, and it does look like we’re going to be starting July 9th. So I will get more information up for you when I get the details. I was going to do kind of a sign up and donate and get a little ticket. And I’m not going to make it complicated. I’m going to put out links to the Zoom and we’re going to do it on the honor system so you can do a suggested donation to it. But the Zoom calls that I’ve talked about in previous episodes is a way to connect to you and for you to connect with me and all the other people. Listen to this as well, to have more in-depth conversations about these subject matters that the podcast brings up. But any case that’s coming up, if you want to keep up to date on that, make sure that you’ve signed up for the newsletter. I’m going to be sending out the information and the links for those Zoom calls through the newsletter, so get that at the Sage Art Start comments on the front pages, the news and notices button. There’s also a link in the show notes. If you have show notes available because you’re listening through a podcast player. There’s also now a Facebook group, the Sage Art Share space. It used to be the AAP boxer share space. So if you’ve already signed up for that group before, you already be in there, But I’m going to use that as a space to also put out the link for the Zoom chat. So you have two different options. If you don’t like getting newsletters, you can join the Facebook group as well, or vice versa. Just search for the sage art share space on Facebook. If you want, join that group and I will let you in. And as always, if you’d like to write me, maybe tell me what you’d like to get out of these upcoming Zoom chats. I definitely have ideas and a little bit of structure for it, but I’d like to hear your thoughts and even timeframes, ideas and timeframes down. We’re looking at Sunday night and probably Wednesday or Thursday AM time, daytime at least where I’m at. So send your thoughts or comments to me via the Sage Arts dot com website. You can use the contact page there. You can also message me through Instagram or Facebook at the Sage Arts podcast pages or on the Sage Archer space, of course. Or if you know me via my personal pages, you’re welcome to do that as well. Just reach out and let me know what you think. And if you are enjoying the podcast and you are supported, I always have to throw this one out. You can donate via the PayPal button and the buy Me a coffee button, which you will find on the Sage Ask.com home page as well. So I’m going to leave that as the business for today so we can get on to our discussion with Leo McDill. And we’re going to talk about childlike wonderment. So this isn’t going to be too serious.
F1 S3 3:45
Right?
SAGE – 3:46
So settle in and get your your tea or your coffee or whatever it is you need. And let’s go join Leo. Now,
my guest today is Leo McDowell. She’s a whimsical sculptural artist who specializes in no fury cane work using polymer clay. Thank you for joining me today, Leo.
LAYL – 4:04
Oh, thank you so much for thinking of me. This is going to be such a thrill. I’m just so excited.
SAGE – 4:09
Great. Yeah, I’m excited too. We’re going to be talking about childlike wonderment, and it’s so evident in your work because it’s I don’t know how to explain it. I hate that this is I know sometimes because it’s sculptural, a lot of wall work, a lot of like so-called functional items like teapots and stuff. Why? I imagine they’re not overly functional. Yeah, the way you do them. But yeah, but there’s just there’s just so much just letting go. That childlike wonderment that you can feel that kind of like almost subconsciousness in the way your body is constructed and the colors and just the vibrancy and the movement. There’s lots of movement, there’s wire pieces going in different directions. The pieces go in different directions. And I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you do anything like in a rectangle or a square. I don’t come like that.
LAYL – 4:55
I if I do, if I do, I’m breaking out of that, you know? So. Yeah, right.
SAGE – 5:00
Yeah. Break out of the frame. Yeah. Yeah.
LAYL – 5:02
I hardly ever stay in the frame.
SAGE – 5:04
Yeah, yeah. So if you aren’t familiar with Leo’s work, do you look it up and I will post stuff on Facebook and Instagram of course, as well. So let’s start with just let’s talk about your work in terms of like what is your artistic, creative focus. I know I tried to verbalize it not very well. So would you would you do that?
LAYL – 5:22
I know. Is it so hard? Yeah. I mean, I really am very much into keen work, so I love to make a M.F.A. or occasions that are super, super detailed. And then I always kind of describe it as I’m creating my palette of pictures. So I’ve got all these little tiny pictures and I’ll use that pile of pictures as sort of a jumping off point. And so I’m using it to build on two things, or a lot of times covering mixed media or found objects and things, and sometimes it’s all clay and sometimes it’s mixed media. And really it just goes on and on and somewhat figuratively, like if it’s abstract, it’s still like an abstracted landscape, but a lot of animals figures guide to what we’re talking about here.
SAGE – 6:08
And stuff and like, explain what the military canes are for people who aren’t familiar. Like if you’re in polymer clay, you know, they are basically it’s like sushi, roll a bunch stuff up, you slice it and then you look at the slice side and it’s like this decorative pattern. But in clay you do these what are very detailed roles that are then sliced up in these small pieces and they’re not necessarily round. Some of them are square or triangles or whatever. They’re different shapes, and that’s the building blocks. It’s like you do mosaic with polymer clay, but.
LAYL – 6:36
It is a little bit like.
SAGE – 6:37
Ice tiles. So, so more than that mode, if you’re unfamiliar with the Miller Fiore is and that the Miller Fiore comes from what they used to do with glass. It was primarily Italy, right?
LAYL – 6:47
Yeah, actually that goes back to ancient Egyptian time. So wow. I always look at museums and the like few museums around the world have tiny little chunks of glass. There’s one of the Louvre that has a chunk of a cow in the glass and.
F1 S3 7:00
The Egyptian state. Oh.
LAYL – 7:02
It’s just mind boggling.
SAGE – 7:03
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they made these long.
LAYL – 7:06
Strips of.
SAGE – 7:06
Glass of glass and then they sliced them off like slicing bread or whatever, and they made them as decorative pieces. Yeah. So that’s what you do as well. But polymer clay and then other media with it. So now we have a picture of that.
F1 S3 7:17
And Yeah.
LAYL – 7:19
Yeah.
SAGE – 7:19
Your focus right now is primarily sculptural work.
LAYL – 7:23
Yes. Yeah, everything is good. You know, I think pretty much my whole career has been sculptural. Even if I was painting, I was painting on something I found, you know, like a suitcase on a chair, you know? Yeah, I do a lot of just flat. Yeah. I’ve never really been in just two dimensions. At least two and a half dimension.
SAGE – 7:41
Two and a half. Okay, You have to explain. Two and a half dimensions.
LAYL – 7:45
Yeah, well, I mean, it’s like sometimes it’s flat, but it’s a lot of flat things going together and sometimes sticking out in different directions and, you know, might go on a wall, but it’s sticking out from the wall.
SAGE – 7:56
Yeah, Yeah, actually. Gotcha. So it’s three, it’s three dimensional. And that is not like a representational flat image because you’re using pieces that are put together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. Yeah. You have dimensions. Yeah. So let’s back up a little bit. Tell us, where are you from? Where do you live?
LAYL – 8:12
I live in the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District, so I’m in Minneapolis and they have this arts district that like 25 years ago we moved to right when it was getting started. And the whole neighborhood is full of like a lot of warehouses and old spaces. Like there’s a casket factory that’s turned into an artist building. This is where all the trains went through in Minneapolis and everything is turned into art, a studio. So I’ve lived here a long time and I’m surrounded by artists like 1200 artists live and. Oh, wow, Pretty amazing.
SAGE – 8:47
So cool. Yeah. Wow, That’s great. What a place to create.
LAYL – 8:52
Yeah, I know. And then you want to think of Minneapolis, but then again, it makes sense. We’ve got really long winter. So what else.
F1 S3 8:57
You got right?
SAGE – 9:00
That’s funny. Now, this is all you do, right? You are an artist. Not. That’s all you do. But this is what you do for a living.
LAYL – 9:06
This is what I do for a living. Yeah. At this point, 30 years old, I am completely unemployable. I could never have a real job.
F1 S3 9:13
Okay, okay.
LAYL – 9:14
I am super lucky in that sense. And it’s been what I’ve done since I graduated art school. And I figured out a way to make it work, you know, to do, because that’s what I hear a little bit there. Yeah.
SAGE – 9:25
And I believe if I remember your husband does tile. Yeah. And you do that to my husband.
LAYL – 9:31
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, most of our business things kind of like meld together. So we share like a website and we share a studio and I get to use the shipping department, which is really awesome.
F1 S3 9:42
Great. And.
LAYL – 9:44
And that bookkeeper, you know, so he bakes handmade tile and he stays put and I travel around and it works out really well.
SAGE – 9:52
Wow, that’s a lot of stuff that’s come together for you that really I.
LAYL – 9:56
Really.
SAGE – 9:56
Like as artists. I think we’d all like to share somebody’s bookkeeper and shipping department.
LAYL – 10:01
You know?
SAGE – 10:02
That’s amazing. So is there anything else besides the artwork that you do that you feel that you have a passion for that kind of adds to who you are?
LAYL – 10:10
Yeah, You know, passion for a lot of things. Like I do a lot of exercise biking and I rode on a rowing machine. I’ve got really obsessed with that.
F1 S3 10:18
I know.
LAYL – 10:19
But I’ve really been getting back into storytelling a lot lately. I used to do it early on, like with whimsical stories, like made up fantastical stories, and now I’m getting more back into like telling realistic stories, and I’ve done it with The Moth. Have you ever heard of The Moth Stories Slams? It’s like an NPR thing, and it’s like they draw your name out of a hat and then you.
SAGE – 10:41
Get to.
LAYL – 10:41
Tell a story. I end up plan of developing these stories while I’m on my long drives, so it’s like other art form that I can do while I’m driving.
SAGE – 10:49
I do the same exact thing. Do you have a recorder? Yeah.
LAYL – 10:53
I do.
SAGE – 10:54
Yeah. That’s recorded. And yeah, me too. Yeah. What are you going to do with all those hours on the road? It’s such great thinking. Yeah.
LAYL – 11:00
It is. And it’s really like, kind of brought me back into stories again in my art and. But in a different way. And. Yeah, yeah, it’s interesting to see how that’s going to keep developing. Yeah. Try it more and more.
SAGE – 11:10
Now you’ve been in art for what seems like your whole life, but how did it start? Do you remember when you first were like, I like making art or you just were and it just became what it is?
LAYL – 11:19
Well, the lore of our family that my aunt always tells me is when I was like two, I said, I’m going to be an artist and a mother. And that’s what it was.
F1 S3 11:27
And oh, that’s it’s.
LAYL – 11:30
Like kind of it’s like I knew it for a very, very early, but I didn’t really know what an artist was. I mean, how did I know what an artist was? I don’t know. But yeah, I was always a maker, you know, drawing, doodling, sculpting, you know, building things like forts with space stations in the four to.
F1 S3 11:48
Know.
LAYL – 11:49
And plus I also had little sisters. They were like seven and nine and half years younger than me. So I got to like playing and being creative with them as I do a lot of art project design and I was in for age where I was like, And I do every single project that is available that they list in the booklet for the county fair. So I go down the list and I learn all the different is one of the weird ones was tube art, Watts tube art. So I’d go to the library and look it up and it was some kind of drawing with these little to be paint pencil thingies and.
SAGE – 12:23
Okay, I to look it up now to.
F1 S3 12:25
This too.
LAYL – 12:26
But yeah, I try all those different things. So all the way through. But I lived in Wyoming, so I grew up in Gillette, Wyoming, which is like a boom town. So I’d see bronze sculptures of cowboys and Indians and landscapes and, you know, wilderness sort of thing. Yeah, but yeah, not until I was going into my senior year of high school and my parents took us to the Smithsonian and I saw, like, abstract art pop art. And my mind was just like.
F1 S3 12:51
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
LAYL – 12:53
This can be art, too. You know? I also think the other art I thought of as art was stickers and.
F1 S3 12:59
Oh, anything you could.
LAYL – 13:00
See at Hallmark cards, you know, that’s, it’s so see you know, exposure dimensional.
F1 S3 13:08
Yeah. Yeah.
LAYL – 13:09
But then my senior year of high school I took what I saw at the Smithsonian, and I also got to do, like, a summer camp that year, too, which I think was a big thing and met a lot of, like young artists from all over the country. And that summer and then going into the next senior year, I was like, I always think of that year of my life was like this, like huge peak creative time that I’m kind of like trying to like, emulate again still in my life, you know, just be able to make all these things. And my art teacher was awesome and he just kind of let me do whatever I wanted to. So nice. But then of course I thought, You can’t make a living doing this. This. Is it possible I should probably be an illustrator? I don’t till those works do something. And I like stories and I like children. So I thought I would be like a children’s book illustrator. And that’s what I went to school for. But I think I’ve been lucky that I didn’t go that route. I don’t think it would have been my best fit. I tried it. I sent out full manuscripts, fully illustrated books to every publisher. I tried really hard. Yeah. And I did do like three books for a small publishing company, but I actually didn’t like it that much. It was.
F1 S3 14:13
For.
LAYL – 14:13
Thing. It’s like that’s really flat. Even though I was doing like, collage work, it was like as to flat as to like not dimensional enough. Yeah. And they always tell you to change like your favorite part. They always want to change your favorite course. So I just,
I actually did an art fair in school when I was still in college. Just so your end of the year, like put your stuff out and see if people buy it. So I did and I made a thousand bucks and I was like, Oh.
SAGE – 14:37
Wow, yeah.
LAYL – 14:38
I make people buy what I make. Like just these quirky little things that I’ve been doodling all semester, not just assignment pieces, but things I just did randomly.
SAGE – 14:48
And yeah, that’s that’s encouraging.
LAYL – 14:49
The light bulb moment of, Oh, how can I do this again?
F1 S3 14:52
How did it work?
LAYL – 14:54
And it’s like, Well, if I do once, I can do it again. Of course, you know, it doesn’t always work out exactly like that. You have a lot of ups and downs.
SAGE – 15:00
Rollercoaster Exactly right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you’ve made it work. You’ve been doing this for 30 years now and that’s. Yeah, that’s fantastic. So. Well, let’s do some get to know you questions and then we’re going to get to our subject matter. So. Okay, so let’s see if you could be remembered for one thing. What do you think it would be?
LAYL – 15:19
I would love to be remembered for my amazing ability to pack an art fair van.
F1 S3 15:24
Oh.
LAYL – 15:25
I am so good at it. And you know what? I would travel with my two daughters and my husband, and at that point, we only had a station wagon, and the other artists would watch repack that station wagon and put the kids in and just be like, It’s like a clown car. Like, how do you keep getting all that stuff in?
SAGE – 15:44
So you’re really good at Tetris too.
LAYL – 15:46
Is I think I get it from my dad. It’s kind of a thing in my family. It’s like, how can we pack, like, so much stuff?
SAGE – 15:53
Yeah, that’s amazing. Was is good. You got that that skill early on.
F1 S3 15:58
Yeah, that’s great. Okay, well, what would.
SAGE – 16:00
You say is the best compliment you’ve ever gotten on your work?
LAYL – 16:03
You know, over the years when you do so many different sales and, you know, you go back to the same places and a lot of times, you know, people come back and say, Oh, I bought this from you. And I mean, that is always so heartwarming. And I know some artists get kind of like frustrated that, oh, I didn’t sell anything because people just came back and said how much they love everything. But there’s been so many cool stories and some people come back every year about their same piece and tell me how much they love it. People get kind of emotional sometimes when they buy things and it can be like, so heartwarming. I was at an art fair down in Florida and a woman came in and she was actually like crying. And, you know, she purchased this like, I think it was like a butterfly ornament. Just a little thing. And she told me that she’d just found out that her dad had passed away. Like when she was out of here. I was just like and she said, I’m buying this to bring myself joy and to.
SAGE – 16:58
Make the money.
F1 S3 16:59
I know, I know.
LAYL – 17:01
I still think of it and it just gives me chills. And I was just like, wow, you know, that’s a compliment to have your art be chosen as the saying that’s going to be that meaningful in somebody’s life.
SAGE – 17:10
Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, that’s incredible. Yeah, it is. It’s really amazing what we do. I mean, a lot of times we feel like we do this for ourselves because we can’t not do it right. But how it affects other people, sometimes we don’t realize because we don’t necessarily know that, that that’s why people are buying it, you know, especially if it’s like online. You don’t even get to meet them or anything. But they take it home and they it’s this whole thing to them, you know, it means something different than, you know, just the money that they paid you. This incredible story. Yeah. Oh, thank you for that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, have you had any criticisms or insults that you’re particularly proud of?
F1 S3 17:44
Yeah.
LAYL – 17:45
I guess for this, like, worst case scenario when you’re in art school, right? And I’m proud of surviving it. Yeah, right. Right away. And my very first semester, I was. It was just community college. It wasn’t an art school. I was still in community college. I was in a sculpture class and my sculpture teacher came up to me and said, You’re going to thank me for this. Later. And then she crushed my sculpture. It was a ceramic clay form that I’d made, and she just dug her fingers, a joy to just smash it down. And, you know, it was complete gone. Oh, I was just shocked.
SAGE – 18:19
Yeah, sure. Yeah.
LAYL – 18:21
How could you do that? But I still think of that often. You know, just that taught me to you know, sometimes you’re just head in the wrong direction. And it’s so true. The piece I ended up making was completely different and way stronger. And sometimes you just have to just not just move away, you know, start over, whatever. You just don’t think of it as so precious. I think I was helping a lot, like with my cane work because, you know, you’re taught a lot of clay into something and it might not work out.
SAGE – 18:47
Right.
LAYL – 18:48
Even early on. I would just squish them all up and see what color would make it.
F1 S3 18:51
Yeah.
SAGE – 18:52
And yeah.
LAYL – 18:54
Slice it the wrong way. Just do all kinds of different things, you know, not be so precious about it. Right?
SAGE – 18:59
That was the last episode that got posted was like the preciousness because it’s like, yeah, it’s very hard. Once you’ve put anything of yourself into it to be like, Oh, well, now it’s like I’ve been or something, you know, I can’t.
LAYL – 19:11
Exactly.
SAGE – 19:11
Pick it apart or down or crush it. Yeah, that’s just such a great lesson. Yeah. So the teacher was right. You’ve been thanking her for that for years now.
LAYL – 19:20
She was so right then.
F1 S3 19:21
All right, that’s great.
SAGE – 19:23
Now, how do you think your family or friends would describe what you do? You’ve probably heard a few people try to describe it.
LAYL – 19:30
Yeah, as everybody, even I have trouble describing. But yeah, I don’t know if my mom uses this term still, but she used to, especially as I was starting out, she would call me this. She would say, I’m a working artist, You know, she just kind of say, My daughter’s an artist. She didn’t have to be like, she’s a working artist. She was like, She really does have a real job. She don’t have a job, but she’s really working hard. But but it is fun to see my parents love to come to art fairs with me and help me out and especially my dad. Well, make sure everybody sees how a cane is made, you know, because he’s so you know, and I mean, part of that magic age, you’ll come up to people. They’ll be like, even not quite in my booth yet. Like, have you seen how they do or she does.
F1 S3 20:10
This, you know,
So what a great cheerleader. They they’re very supportive. It’s like you get a little.
SAGE – 20:18
Little whether they call crier outside your booth comes. Yes, exactly. That’s amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
F1 S3 20:24
That’s great.
SAGE – 20:25
So there’s one of my favorite questions to ask people. Are you a planner or pants or do you plan your work or do you just kind of go by the sea to your pants? I feel like I know what the answer is going to be, but people always surprise me. So yeah.
LAYL – 20:37
I would say I am 90% pants are, I am. But the 10%, the 10% really matters. And I mean, I’d pretty much that’s how my whole life, even like if I’m going to go on a trip, I’ll plan just, you know, getting there and the place to stay. But I do not want to plan like what I’m going to do each day. You know, I hate that you have to get, like.
SAGE – 20:56
Reservation.
LAYL – 20:57
Basic things.
SAGE – 20:58
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
LAYL – 20:59
I can’t stand it. So. Yeah. And when I make my art and now I’m making these really big pieces, it’s. I have to have some sort of planning. My very first one that I started, I wanted to just head right into and I was like, you know, if I make a really big piece and I ended up with a lot of like work put into a part is going to be really hard. So I have been doing a lot more, at least a loose sketch of where I’m headed and then laying things out and taking a photo of the like laid out mixed media pieces. But I mostly, even in my day to day life, I’ll get up and I’ll be like, I’m going to do this, this. And then I get in the studio and something else. I want to do that. And pretty impromptu.
SAGE – 21:36
You have access to a planner.
F1 S3 21:39
In.
SAGE – 21:39
Your head.
LAYL – 21:40
Yeah, It’s there to get me through.
SAGE – 21:42
Yeah. Okay. And I want to make note that you’re in a working studio right now because we’re going to probably end up with some of this background noise, which is, you know, I actually like ambient noises, but, you know, it’s like such a no no in podcasting where other people are doing things, there’s things that are getting shuffled around, there’s phones going off here and there. So the yeah, so you’re in a very active place.
LAYL – 22:03
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Open to the public. There’s a lot going on. A lot of times.
SAGE – 22:07
It’s always open to the public.
LAYL – 22:08
Yeah. 11 or five Monday through Saturday. So I’m not always here.
SAGE – 22:12
Do people kind of come and go? I mean do you get people on a regular basis coming through.
LAYL – 22:16
Oh yeah. Or not. Right on the main street. Our whole building is on a main street. Our building door is kind of off the main street. So, you know, it’s not a ton of like walk in traffic, but people come, there’s a couple other studios and businesses in our building and so we get a little cross traffic here and there. And it’s fun. It’s fun to get interrupted and.
SAGE – 22:33
Yeah.
LAYL – 22:34
Interact with people and show them what you’re doing.
SAGE – 22:36
Yeah, because I always thought that was the hardest part about being a working artist was that you’re just making stuff by yourself and until you go to a show or whatnot, nobody really cares what you’re doing. Yeah, I always just felt so. Yeah, Isolated. Yeah, Sometimes. Be really hard to concentrate.
LAYL – 22:50
Yeah, it’s pretty fun that literally I can finish something and put it right on the wall and somebody might come in like that same day and see what I just made.
SAGE – 22:57
So. That’s great. Good. Yeah. Such a great situation. I’m so envious.
F1 S3 23:02
I feel.
LAYL – 23:02
Really lucky.
SAGE – 23:03
I really like it. So wonderful. Okay, here’s just a fun question. Do you have a favorite guilty pleasure food?
LAYL – 23:11
Well, I love baked goods. I mean, I just think, you know, just I just draw me in and I do love cooking and I love cooking. Anything that involves like, washing things, you know, and just like, kind of yeah.
F1 S3 23:24
I love to.
LAYL – 23:24
Squash. So like, homemade noodles and homemade tortillas are one of my favorite things. So when I’m on long trips and I come home, I literally did that my last trip. I came home and like, we’re making homemade tortillas and I just eat them and eat them. They’re so, you know, simple and delicious and put anything on them.
SAGE – 23:40
So it’s not so much guilty pleasure. It’s just you have this like almost a lot of pleasure style thing that you’re drawn to.
LAYL – 23:47
Yeah, I love kneading dough.
F1 S3 23:51
Yeah.
SAGE – 23:51
And for people who don’t understand polymer and canning, it requires a lot of squishing there. You start off with a big chunk of the picture. It could be like, you know, like 12 inches wide and the squishing squishing squish it into it is like it could be, whatever, an inch or half an inch wide and you’re done and design it. I think long snake of it. You just squish in solution squish. So lots of squishing in your life. Gotcha.
LAYL – 24:15
There’s a lot of squishing.
F1 S3 24:16
I’m glad you like it because there’s a lot of pushing to be done is okay.
SAGE – 24:24
Okay well, let’s let’s talk a little bit about not a little bit let’s talk a lot. Let’s talk about the subject matter that when we we have a little discussion before we get on the podcast. So kind of figure out the kind of thing that we want to talk about. And you brought up this word wonderment. Do you want to explain that?
LAYL – 24:40
Yeah, You know, I feel like I lost my wonderment I about in 2009 where I was like, go, go, go, go. And then I kind of just had this lull and it was like the first time ever in my life because I’d had so many ideas, so many ideas and winter and, you know, it’s hard to get through the winter sometimes, You know, you just get those winter blues and sure, I was on a walk or run. I think it was running back then and something clicked in my mind and I can’t even say how it happened. But I looked around me and I started thinking of a new series of work that I was wanting to make. And all of a sudden I felt this like overflowing feeling of wonderment, like just looking around me and going, Oh, that’s part of art, piece of art. Oh, that could be leading to this sort of like these landscaping things, which is probably it makes sense because I was outside and, you know, taking in the world. But that was when I started really realizing what is wonderment and maybe connecting it back to my childlike self, thinking of all the things when I was a kid that used to fill me with wonderment. And then that’s when a lot of my art, I started looking at what I was doing as like the pieces I loved the most are the ones that really leave you with that little sense of not quite knowing what it’s about. But it could be about many things and open ended ness in a way to that wonderment can bring you.
SAGE – 25:52
Yeah, yeah. And then like the viewer of the art can really put themselves in there because there’s so much to be discovered and added to the story that’s there.
LAYL – 26:00
Yeah. And like, maybe even every time you look at it, I mean, even with my own art, like, I’ll look at it and I’ll be like, Oh, now I see this thing going on, right?
F1 S3 26:07
You know.
SAGE – 26:08
Those are great pieces. Now, you said that kids were a huge inspiration for you. First of all, you have kids. Your mother, you said, right?
LAYL – 26:15
Yep. They’re grown up now. They’re 26 and 23 and one is a children’s librarian. The other is an artist of all kinds. From early on, I mean, I wanted to have kids so bad when I was two. I wanted to be an artist and a mother. So, you know, like it was in me. And like, from the beginning, I just love to be around kids. I did a lot of like summer programs when I was working into high school and things like that. And just that playing. It’s just so fun to play with kids and see where they go, where their imagination takes you and to lead them along a little bit and then just like have that collaboration kind of with kids. It’s just something that’s been in me since the beginning, and a lot of it probably does have to be with being a big sister and, you know, having the sisters around all the time. And you’ve.
SAGE – 26:57
Pretty young. You said collaboration with kids just in terms like inspiration. I mean, do you actually done pieces with children?
LAYL – 27:04
Yes. My favorite series is my Scribble Scapes. So I let my nephews scribble in my sketchbook. You know, I’m send they’re drawing and they’re like, oh, let me try. And I’m like, they do scribble, but I’m like, Oh, yeah, scribble, scribble. And they filled up like half of my sketchbook with scribbles. Yeah, But I later on, I look in the scribbles, I’m like, Huh, I’m going to turn these into something. They they felt like magical. The four year old scribble. I’ve decided that is the key age girls. Things just are so loose and just free and they’re not trying to look like anything They want to just see where the line takes them.
SAGE – 27:40
Yeah.
LAYL – 27:41
So I still have some of these scribbles that I’ve harvested and I’ll turn them into sculptures. So I’ve done probably half a dozen or more sculptures from these scribbles. Like one was a rocket. So it had these I scribble a rocket kind of something coming off of it, you know, flames or something. Know, like I flames are scribbles. It was really unusual. And a scribble garden and a scribble museum.
SAGE – 28:04
Yeah, I love that. I love when people do that. It’s such a cool thing to go back and see what children have done and what they see and how they see the world. Yeah, to take that view and use your artistic skill and the things that you’ve been through your years of living and being an artist. Yeah, that’s really that’s magic.
LAYL – 28:22
Pretty cool.
SAGE – 28:22
Yeah. Every time I’ve seen something like that, it’s just like, That’s magic. Yeah.
LAYL – 28:25
Yeah, it really is. Yeah, Something about it.
SAGE – 28:27
So do you keep children in your life like I must have children? This happens in order to have that inspiration.
LAYL – 28:34
Yeah. My husband says I’m just a kid magnet, so that just happens through the pandemic. When we were all isolated, one of the shops in our building had a little boy. He was like six at the time, and he was in my studio almost every day through the pandemic. Oh, wow. So, I mean, how can you not you know, it’s just always happens. I’m lucky. I have a lot of nephews. I still have a four year old nephew and a well, almost four and six year old nephew. So just getting to hang out with them as much as I can and really spend the time with them. Yeah, I just got to spend like a week with them. And we went on what we were calling Mystery Adventure Walk just the neighborhood and just looking at everything. It’s how can about, oh, what could this be from? And we were got on this whole idea that somebody was painting everything blue and everything blue that we saw, we would be like, Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah, well, what a.
SAGE – 29:27
Way to get a kid focused, but what a way for you to see the world differently because now you’re watching what they notice. And did they come up with kind of like weird little crazy things because it sounds like you’re making a story as you go, right?
LAYL – 29:38
It was kind of. Yes. Yes. And they finally decided it was probably Bigfoot.
F1 S3 29:42
Oh, I love it. Yeah.
SAGE – 29:45
The kids will come up with stuff. You would never come up with our brains. It just don’t work that way. It’s just.
LAYL – 29:50
It seems so random, but it’s coming from somewhere, right? Yeah.
SAGE – 29:54
And if you try to think about where is that coming from, Where is that connection? Why did they think of Bigfoot? And it might be because, Oh, we’re covering all this space and we need some big, you know, some long string that’s going to be able to do all this stuff. Yeah, What’s their logic? Or they just dip your hand into their little ball of imagination? Their head? Yeah. Either way, what a way to access your imagination in your own consciousness and yourself as an artist. Do you feel like that’s what you do?
LAYL – 30:19
Yeah. I mean, I feel like I kind of click back to when I was that exact age that if the kid that I’m with. Yeah, I feel like all those ages are kind of like in my head and whatever age. But it is down to like, you know, a little baby toddler, you know. Yeah, it’s like they’re all still there and just can kind of reconnect with it and think that same way.
SAGE – 30:37
Yeah. Have you made efforts to kind of keep that alive or is that just very automatic for you, or is it just because you always have kids around that you’re able to constantly be in touch with that childlike side?
LAYL – 30:48
Yeah, I mean, it probably also helps that I’m getting to play with clay every day.
F1 S3 30:53
You know? Yeah, that literally. Yeah, that.
LAYL – 30:56
That just I’m in it all the time. Yeah. I can’t imagine it going away.
SAGE – 31:00
It’s just always.
LAYL – 31:01
Been some day. But yeah, yeah, it’s just always there.
SAGE – 31:04
That’s great.
LAYL – 31:05
Yeah, that’s great. It does help to actually be with kids and kind of feeds it, you know? Yeah, it’s like watering the plants, I guess.
SAGE – 31:12
I know juice and artist is extremely important that the child like imagination is something that’s accessible. Do you see that as important for other artists? You know, like very serious artists who do very dramatic stuff? Would they benefit, do you think, from accessing that childlike mind?
LAYL – 31:29
Oh, yes. I and I think maybe if they thought about it, they probably already are. But I think that the artists that maybe really benefit the most would be artists that kind of maybe get in sort of a rut of like production art or at least figured out some way like this is the thing that sells. So I’m going to make a bunch of these, right? You know, and maybe that feeds you. I think for some people it totally works. But I think some people eventually burn out. If you just keep doing this one thing that seems to be working, but to let yourself like be like a kid and break the rules that you’ve given yourself. Yeah. You know, if you’ve told yourself I’m always going to, you know, paint everything in blue and black, well, maybe a kid would be like, Oh, I really need to see what some purple is going to look like and some pink splatters over that. Just try it.
SAGE – 32:12
And yeah, like the permission to just do whatever comes to mind. The permission to just play.
LAYL – 32:18
Yeah. And kind of step away from the, the adult in your head saying I have to do this because la la la la. This is the thing.
SAGE – 32:25
To get away from that you.
LAYL – 32:26
Know that I’ve been doing for a long time. Yeah, I think it’s very important to figure out what rule you’ve been following and stop and tell yourself. Okay, well, what if I do this? And kids have taught me that in the past coming into my studio, and I remember my nephew just grabbing the pliers and it’s like, okay, pliers are for wire, you know? But no, he’s going to use the pliers on the clay and he’s going to squash the clay with the pliers. And I was like, Oh, that kinda makes a cool texture. It was one of those moments was very like, Yeah, what is the rule? The rule is not the players are always for wire.
SAGE – 32:57
Yeah, that’s a, that’s an interesting note. I’ve always wondered why people think things are only for one thing. And of course we’re fed like so much like, here’s this product is going to help you do this, and that’s what it’s for. I like to go to Home Depot or whatever big hardware store and look at things and think, What can I do with that? Not like, Oh, this is for that and this is for that. And that’s the kind of store where things are very specifically for this is for just for your heating. This is for yeah, you know, and I’m like, Oh no, I’m gonna take this action and I’m going to make a sculpture out.
LAYL – 33:27
Definitely. Yeah, yeah. Hardware stories can be so much fun. And if you walk into a hardware store and thinking like a kid, you be like, Whoa, I could take all this stuff and do all kinds of different things.
SAGE – 33:36
Yeah. So you can really walk into any store with a child like mine of what could this be? And like, find all kinds of crazy things you would not have seen before if you were thinking like a child.
LAYL – 33:47
Yeah. Thinks that way. More fun. Yeah, I think there’s something like that about like when you learn some technique and you get all these, like, rules, you feel like, Well, I have to do this this way in order to be successful, because that’s what the teacher said. And, you know, this is a limitation that they have given me. And it’s you’re only going to be successful at that, but you’re really going to have more fun with it if you kind of go in there like a more of a trial and error.
SAGE – 34:10
Yeah.
LAYL – 34:11
Mindset. Yeah, I mean, that’s hard to do. And some people don’t like learning that way. But when you do that trial and error, that’s totally like how a kid really learn something this year. I’ll see what happens with this. Get smashed up and see what happens when I throw this on the wall.
SAGE – 34:25
Yeah, it’s not like the kids in, like grade school get a lesson on how to make art. They’re just Here’s the paint now, here’s not how not to, like, destroy the classroom. And that’s like it, right?
F1 S3 34:36
Right, right.
LAYL – 34:37
You got a couple of rules. Like, hopefully.
SAGE – 34:39
Wear this apron and don’t touch your fellow students with your painted.
LAYL – 34:43
Hands. Don’t paint yourself too much.
F1 S3 34:45
All right. But that’s like it, right?
SAGE – 34:47
And that’s the rules they get. I’m a terrible student these days when I go into an art class. And a lot of times I was doing it for the magazine or whatnot. And then like halfway through the lesson, I would just start doing my own thing. And it’s funny, like, some teachers are like, Oh, that’s great, that’s so cool. And other ones are like, No, that’s not the way you’re supposed.
F1 S3 35:03
To do it.
SAGE – 35:03
But I’m like, Okay, I’m sorry, I’m bad. Student I can’t stop. Just keep doing what you’re doing. I have.
LAYL – 35:09
To guess. I’ve had students like you before.
F1 S3 35:11
Trouble
Yeah, but I love you’re.
SAGE – 35:16
Bringing out the whole like, yeah, if you think of it in terms of like being like a child, if I was in a children’s classroom, I wouldn’t be given a bunch of rules and been expected to stick with them. Yeah, I would just be given the freedom. I mean, it’s nice to have the shortcut that the teacher learned how to use material. These tools together and you learn like a new set of skills and then you go and you do what you feel that you want to do with them. And that’s what a child would do. Yeah. Sorry. Hijacked the conversation for a while. I’m very passionate about that.
LAYL – 35:46
I agree completely.
F1 S3 35:47
Yeah.
SAGE – 35:49
Is there anything specific you do to access your child’s side or is it just always They’re like, you’re like, I got to go get extra energy for some children so I could go do my work.
LAYL – 35:59
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
F1 S3 36:00
Yeah.
LAYL – 36:01
Exactly. I know. I’ve called myself like a child vampire.
F1 S3 36:04
I was just going to say that I was like.
SAGE – 36:05
Oh, that. That sounds bad, but.
F1 S3 36:07
I don’t know if I tell you that.
SAGE – 36:09
That a child like imagination. Vampire Yeah.
LAYL – 36:11
But I think it is always important to really feed your muse and getting more put into your brain. I go into museums, I mean, I love museums and then like, we’re talking about, like go out in the world thinking of the world as a museum. You know, Hydra risk could be a museum. Yeah, you know, that kind of thing. Yeah. And I also just remembering back to all the things that were filled with wonderment when you were a child. My grandmother was so kind. She would let us just dig through anything and she’d let us dig through her office supplies. She had all these big heavy jars of old office supplies. Yeah. I don’t know why they were so interesting. I didn’t know it was of before, But just to think of that, you know, when I was that age, digging through the weird materials that I didn’t know they were. Yeah, they kind of just feature that wonderment. It just even the memory of it just sparks it. It’s a good thing, right?
SAGE – 37:01
Yeah. That’s great.
LAYL – 37:02
A lot of eraser pencils. I don’t know. Why should somebody eraser pencils exist anymore with a wheel on the end? I don’t know.
F1 S3 37:08
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
LAYL – 37:10
Like an eraser wheel.
SAGE – 37:12
And they were the hard pink ones, right?
F1 S3 37:14
Yeah, Yeah, right.
LAYL – 37:15
Yeah, yeah. Stuff like that. Label makers and weird things.
SAGE – 37:21
So we’ve talked a lot about all these ways that you access children’s imagination and then you get inspiration from them. Is there some things you would like to offer in terms of advice for artists who maybe don’t readily access their child’s side? What are things that they can do to try to get more of that curiosity and childlike imagination out there?
LAYL – 37:41
Yeah, well, I really think just trying to trick your brain into looking at things as if you don’t know what they are, and it’s not like you have to look at something and try to figure out what it is. That’s more like just looking at it and thinking there’s a lot of possibilities of what that could be.
SAGE – 37:58
Right?
LAYL – 37:58
Whether it’s the story of like, why is out there? Like just today, I might walk over here to my studio. I found a little nest on the ground that was like a beginning of a nest that a bird had made. And it had like a little piece of, you know, shredded paper in there and like, plasticky netting stuff in there. And it was just the beginning of a nest, and it was just like this little treasure of a nest. It’s a beginning or an end of a story, right? Where did it come from? Asked those questions. I feel like even thinking of a kid asking questions like, you know, what was this? Where did this come from? You don’t have to actually have the answers. Just knowing the questions are there. It does something in your brain, you know, makes you feel that wonderment.
SAGE – 38:33
And what it just naturally brings up before you try to get too logical about it.
LAYL – 38:37
Yeah, it’s all biological. Exactly.
SAGE – 38:39
It’s like just trying to shortcut that logic. Yeah, I think.
LAYL – 38:42
It’s.
SAGE – 38:42
A hard thing for us to do these days as artists because most of us don’t have a bookkeeper and other people help.
F1 S3 38:47
Us out.
SAGE – 38:48
Yeah, but we have to be the businessperson as well as the artist, right? So we have to use both sides of our brain. I mean, absolutely. We do use both sides of our brains to be.
LAYL – 38:56
Really.
SAGE – 38:57
Interested in some of the research I did recently. But it is hard if you spend the morning on accounting and figuring out your marketing, your promotion is, and then you got to go make art and your brain is like gets all logical about it. So it would be great to be able to stop and say, I’m going to be a child right now.
LAYL – 39:14
Yeah, and maybe you shouldn’t expect yourself be able to just like click right into it. I mean, a little structure is always good and sometimes that feels like a launching pad. Like, sometimes I’ll take a pile of my scraps and just bring those and put them on the table. And maybe I’m giving myself the assignment of like, I’m going to make a bunch of little tiny creatures because those are very popular. But rather than like a kid maybe would have like, Oh, I’ll just do free for all. But that’s a little bit overwhelming as I’ll actually, like, work my way through the scraps, you know, like from one end to the next and, you know, just sort of organize, maybe work with them. Like, okay, I’m going to make myself make creatures from this end of the scrap pile to this scrap yard. And I can’t go, I can’t leap over. I have to use the first three things that are coming up. But that’s kind of like an assignment, because that assignment can really help you kind of get going. But you’re still playing. I mean, I think also I mean, we don’t realize how many rules kids give themselves when they play to, you know.
SAGE – 40:09
Oh, yeah.
LAYL – 40:10
To get them. So just to kind of have that limitation, like even just thinking of that walk with my nephews is like they gave themselves the rule of we’re going to look for everything blue. And that’s going be part of our goal.
SAGE – 40:20
So they came up with that.
LAYL – 40:22
Yeah, yeah, they totally came.
SAGE – 40:23
That’s like, interesting. I never really thought about that. I mean, I in art, we talk about having limitations because it does help direct you. Yeah, free for all can be very scary for a lot of people because I don’t know what to do, you know, where does the ideas come from?
LAYL – 40:35
Too much.
SAGE – 40:36
But all of our ideas come from limitations, even if it’s a I wonder if you know, or I really would like to make something that’s reminiscent of my beach trip. We start with limitations. That’s where the curiosity comes from. Yeah, it’s like what ifs or whatnot. Those are limitations because now you’re working with in whatever your suppositions are that you’ve brought up. But I never really thought about children doing that. But they must.
LAYL – 40:59
Yeah, I think they do. I even think of my daughter when she used to have this whole little tiny town village sort of thing in our attic and she had all these little animals and she had a whole structure, like she literally wrote leases for her stuffed animals for stag and they had a monetary system.
F1 S3 41:16
With.
LAYL – 41:17
Their little beads that they use as money like. So they still are making up these these rolls. That’s amazing. But they’re in their own little fanciful world. Yeah. Yeah. And at the same time also break the rule evolve. What is the role? How much of it are you going to break? There’s a fun play between those two things.
SAGE – 41:33
Yeah, kids are really masters of that, aren’t they? They have the rules and then they try to break the rules, but they kind of like, come back to, like, whatever little corral they have for themselves.
LAYL – 41:42
Yeah, exciting.
SAGE – 41:43
Because I haven’t really thought about that. That’s a really great, I think, analogy for an artist too. Yeah, some rules have some structure and and you got to know how to break it. That’s kind of the key.
LAYL – 41:53
And just break it a little bit here and there and what happens. And yeah, I think we always have to keep doing that. Even I teach a lot of classes and there’s a few different techniques that I’ve been teaching for a long, long time. And one of them and one step I’ve just recently been, if anybody gets done early, I say, okay, extra credit, pick another color and do something completely different. So they’ve been controlled by the rules and then now it’s like, do anything. And I’ve actually had a lot of fun with it myself because I’m like, Okay, now I need to break my own rule and.
F1 S3 42:22
What.
LAYL – 42:22
Do I do here?
SAGE – 42:23
What kind of classes do you teach for adults or children or anything?
LAYL – 42:28
It’s it’s a big mix. I love to teach the adults because I love to get some wonderment and magic into their lives. And I’d love to teach adults that are non crafters or non artists because they’re more challenging. Crafters and artists are super easy, although they could be troublesome like you. And then they go on rails and do different things. But that’s that’s good though. But especially if you’re doing something really creative, then you know they’re so easy because they’ll just dive in. Yeah, but teaching like I used to teach at the Parkinson’s Center, so it’d be people that are even losing their ability to move as well. And these are mostly older men that are retired that never really thought of themselves as artists, farmers and mathematicians and engineers and, you know, all these types of people. And so teaching them and seeing them get that wonderment back in their life, you know, really has the technique of the layering of the if you is already very fascinating that, you know, you follow a few steps and do these few things and then it’s like, wow, I made magic. So those are my favorite classes are like, if you get like the whole family comes for a class and you’ve got like grandpa and grandma who are like, I’ll just sit back and watch. And before you know it, they’re like, Oh, let me try this. I usually tell people and like, you’re not going to be able to just sit back and watch.
F1 S3 43:44
You just wait in here. I’m cool.
LAYL – 43:47
Yeah, I get a lot out of it. Oh.
SAGE – 43:48
Okay. I’m going to ask the wind down questions, although some of them are kind of big questions. So what do you think is the most important lesson that you’ve learned over your career, Whether it’s a personal lesson or an artistic lesson, what do you think is the most important thing that you’ve been taught by what you do?
LAYL – 44:03
Gosh, well, there’s so many lessons.
F1 S3 44:05
I mean.
LAYL – 44:06
A day latest like lesson. I’ve kind of taught myself that. I think part of it is being away from doing art fairs and everything with the pandemic and then getting back in. Yeah, and I went back into the selling with a different mindset of that. Like the actual exchange of money is not the only currency. The other currency you can get is those interactions with people and just the joy and the feeling that you get from being able to show your art and getting feedback and that whole just idea of people getting something out of your art. I mean, that is something if you know somebody comes in and looks at your art, that is something that you’re getting as somebody is appreciation.
SAGE – 44:47
Yeah.
LAYL – 44:48
Knowing that it’s meaning something in their lives.
SAGE – 44:50
Right, Right. So the value beyond the monetary gain that you have when you sell something like that. So there is so much more to.
LAYL – 44:57
It Is more to it. Yeah, there’s more to it. Yeah. I started at the end of our phase. You know, a lot of our fair artists will say, how is your day? Was sales good And yeah, now I try to ask question like well what was the most interesting interaction you had and yeah like how about that then.
SAGE – 45:11
Yeah, that’s a really good focus to have because a lot of times you don’t necessarily sell, but sometimes you have like really great stories or you meet really interesting people or have really interesting feedback from people that you didn’t expect. And those are precious and valuable and you get stories.
F1 S3 45:26
You do what.
LAYL – 45:26
You do, get.
SAGE – 45:27
Stories from it. Yeah, that’s why I feel like my life is like I just gathering stories, you know, because nothing else is going to come with me wherever I go. But my stories, hopefully as long as my stays active. Yeah.
F1 S3 45:38
Yeah. Those.
SAGE – 45:39
Yeah. Come with me all the time.
LAYL – 45:40
That is so true.
SAGE – 45:42
So, yeah. So I always ask people, how do you feed your muse? What kind of things do you do to keep yourself inspired? So is there anything beyond children who talk a lot about the children dropping out?
LAYL – 45:53
I mean, traveling and every time I do travel a lot for art fairs and I know it sometimes is hard to do, but when I go someplace, I try to make time to go to the museums, any museum, you know, whatever it is. My last trip, I was driving through Kansas and somebody told me about a little art center and I was like, I am stopping at that little art center, you know, just in the middle of Kansas. And the art they had there was amazing, right?
SAGE – 46:18
Yeah.
LAYL – 46:18
And they were the only half of the show was up, but they had a show of all local like right within that like county five county area. Yeah. Artists. And what they were doing was so cool, like all these mosaics and stuff and oh my gosh.
SAGE – 46:31
I think it’s going to be a new goal to try to like, find some little out of the way place. I mean, because I drive through these places. I know, hey, I’ve been through this many times, but I never thought, Oh, I’ll stop and look at an art museum. Yeah, what a cool idea. When you travel around like I’m in some little spot, I’ll, you know, take a break off the road and go check out some art, okay? Yeah, it’s going on my road trip list now.
LAYL – 46:50
I mean, sometimes you feel like I was trying to stop at an antique store and nothing was there.
SAGE – 46:55
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, sometimes it’s just not. But everyone get off.
LAYL – 46:59
But that was experience to just like, wow, this is like a one road town and it’s only a dirt road and, well, here it is in the middle of Kansas.
SAGE – 47:08
It’s kind of like making art. Like sometimes you try stuff and sometimes it doesn’t work. And then sometimes that crazy.
F1 S3 47:13
You know, So.
LAYL – 47:15
True.
SAGE – 47:16
Okay. And then, like, one of my biggest things is that we as artists are often fed that success is monetary or getting into museums or galleries. But there’s so many different versions of success. Do you have like a different view on success? I feel like you you would.
LAYL – 47:31
Well, I used to always say my definition of success was having somebody do the things that I didn’t want to do, be able to hire.
F1 S3 47:37
Don’t want to do.
LAYL – 47:38
Like bookkeeping and shipping and yeah, those things. Now I’ve gotten to that point and to me when I look around at where I’m at right now, it really makes me feel successful that I am able to mentor other people and share my knowledge and share like a lot of the mistakes and things that were wrong. Kind of makes you appreciate all the things going wrong. Yeah, you could talk to another artist and be like, Yeah, that happened to me years ago when I did. And you know, to get to that point and I had a really official mentor through a program when I first was out of art school and to be on the other end where literally you still get so much out of it as a mentor that makes me feel like I got somewhere, right?
SAGE – 48:18
It’s an acknowledgement as well as something that feeds you. Yeah, I have to agree with all of that. I would feel much more successful. Somebody else was doing my bookkeeping.
F1 S3 48:27
Yeah.
Yeah.
SAGE – 48:31
So tell us what you’re doing now. What’s coming up where people could see your work? Yeah.
LAYL – 48:36
Oh, my gosh. There’s so much going on right now. It’s kind of insane because I’ve got art fairs, I’ve got two solo shows up that, well, they will be up at the same time and some other. So I do a lot of shows in art centers beyond the art fairs. But for art fairs, one art fair that maybe people will go to that listen to this is the Ann Arbor State Street District Art Fair, and it’s July 20th through the 23rd. Okay. I know that people drive from a long ways to go to that. Okay. And then I just have everything on my website that’s label MacDill dot com.
SAGE – 49:10
So L.A., why L M.C. Dealer.com I would spell everything out. And then you have a newsletter there. Somebody wants to follow you and see what you’re up to and where you’re going to be next.
LAYL – 49:20
Yeah, all the, all the socials. It’s just my name.
SAGE – 49:23
All right, So Leo McDowell, just all one word kind of thing, and you’re on social media. Okay, great. Well, this has been a great conversation. I knew it would be fun to talk about this childlike wonderment thing. I didn’t realize how many ideas I was going to get out of it. So I really appreciate all the stories and the sharing. Thank you so much for doing that for us.
LAYL – 49:44
It was so fun. I got so much out of it too.
SAGE – 49:46
I really appreciate this.
LAYL – 49:48
Thanks so much for having me.
SAGE – 49:51
Well, I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. And hopefully you go out and look at the world with a childlike view, trying to look at things as if you had never seen them before. Right. And go to museums while you’re on the road. Go hang with some kids because they’re such great teachers for us and just really recapture that wonderment that you had as a child. And maybe you still have sometimes, but maybe it gets set aside because we have all this business stuff and all this logical stuff in our lives that we have to attend to. But you want to reach back for that because it really does aid your creativity and spark your imagination. So if you would like to write me your thoughts, maybe you have some stories about your own childlike wonderment. I’d love to hear it. Write me at the Sage Arts dot com on the contact page or on the Facebook or Instagram podcast pages, which is the Sage Arts podcast. All one Word. Or we have that new shared space, the sage art share space as a Facebook group so we can write there as well. Start a conversation on there. I’d love to see that happen. And if you get a lot out of this podcast and you want to give back, you can do that on the home page of Sage Arts dot com. Just a little ways down you’ll find the PayPal and the Pioneer Coffee buttons. Those links are also in your show notes. Like everything I mentioned, if it’s a link, it’s going to be in the show notes. So if you’re on a podcast player, check those show notes out and that includes all of Leo’s information. So look at her art. It’s just so inspiring and fun and just you’ll understand what we’re talking about if you’re not familiar with it, remember to check out Facebook and Instagram for stuff that I will post this coming week about her work as well. If you want to help spread the word, hit the share button on this poster. You’re welcome to grab images and repost. So other creatives that might be needing this kind of conversation can better find us. In the meantime go out there with those childlike views of the world. See everything. Like if you’ve never seen it before and feed your muse with new experiences, be true to your weirdness and we’ll see you next time on the Sage Arts podcast.
