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Laura Ahola-Young is an Associate Professor of Art at Idaho State University. She received her MFA from San Jose State University and her BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She resides in Ely, Minnesota as many summers as she can where she is inspired by the Boundary Waters Canoe area. Her paintings, exhibited nationally, examine plant science.
Published on March 19th, 2023. Artist responses collected in months previous.
What are you fascinated with right now?
I am fascinated by plants, photosynthesis, invasive and native species of plants….I can go on and on. I am reading as many texts as I can about plant science, trees and mycelium. My reading has led me to Critical Plant Studies and ideas around non centering the human in our worldviews, curricula and ways of being with the world. In fact, I have read so much on these subjects that I have had to find a strategy to give up some painting time without giving up my goals and practice. This love of plants stems from gardening and my connection to the Boreal Forest. I live now in the high desert and green life needs to be sought out, planted or found in the Sage Steppe.
What advice would you give your younger artist self?
This is a difficult question, yet I realize the advice I give to students is the advice I needed: just do the work. And work! Not everything, or many of my paintings and drawings are interesting or worthy-but I only know that by continuing to push myself-and work! I would have like to have known that I would end of being a mom-and the work would not suffer but become better because I was a mom. I also would have not limited myself as I did- trying new mediums, etc.
What are your tools for creative resilience these days? Do you have any methods to stay positive when life becomes difficult and perhaps when you have limited time to create?
Most of the resilience I embody as an artist comes mostly from outside the work- growing out of my life of being a sufferer of migraines. The pain that overtakes me absolutely stops me from being productive. I have had to learn to accept this (while doing my best to live healthy). I now can take the down time and not feel pressure to make something. My repetitive experience of pain has helped me to understand good days. I have gratitude for every day I wake with no pain, which gives me the positivity I need to go to the studio.
What is your dreamy vision for your creative career and art practice three years from now?
In three years: I would like more solo shows, more residencies, and more time for research. As a professor in my fifties- I need to start planning for retirement. I will never retire from painting- and teaching brings meaning to my life. Retirement from teaching is more than three years out…but planning needs to start. The thoughts of this pass quickly, as I tend to avoid thoughts of the future…..
Images included in this submission do actually include ideas for my future creative self. The images are actually drawings that I intend to put into the world for fabric designs. Each piece is focused on a specific discovery I made about plant science. The idea is to perhaps democratize plant science while venturing into a new world and market for myself.
How are you being kind to yourself as you look towards realizing your vision for your art career?
Kind to myself? Yikes. One thing that a viewer might notice in my submitted photos is multiple different studios. I decided to give up any idea of normalcy in my day to day life and how I live it, including how I occupy space. I took over a bedroom, my dining room-parts of my kitchen….and I have an oil painting studio. In a way, this is kindness towards who I am-someone who wants to constantly make work and giving up space for that. I do not worry about others entering my home. I am who I am. Patience is something I allow as well- my work takes time. Some days I want to do minute details while other days throwing paint on a canvas are my answers to life. Having room and recognizing my different practices is a gesture of living my best life.
What are you fascinated with right now?
I am fascinated by plants, photosynthesis, invasive and native species of plants….I can go on and on. I am reading as many texts as I can about plant science, trees and mycelium. My reading has led me to Critical Plant Studies and ideas around non centering the human in our worldviews, curricula and ways of being with the world. In fact, I have read so much on these subjects that I have had to find a strategy to give up some painting time without giving up my goals and practice. This love of plants stems from gardening and my connection to the Boreal Forest. I live now in the high desert and green life needs to be sought out, planted or found in the Sage Steppe.
What advice would you give your younger artist self?
This is a difficult question, yet I realize the advice I give to students is the advice I needed: just do the work. And work! Not everything, or many of my paintings and drawings are interesting or worthy-but I only know that by continuing to push myself-and work! I would have like to have known that I would end of being a mom-and the work would not suffer but become better because I was a mom. I also would have not limited myself as I did- trying new mediums, etc.
What are your tools for creative resilience these days? Do you have any methods to stay positive when life becomes difficult and perhaps when you have limited time to create?
Most of the resilience I embody as an artist comes mostly from outside the work- growing out of my life of being a sufferer of migraines. The pain that overtakes me absolutely stops me from being productive. I have had to learn to accept this (while doing my best to live healthy). I now can take the down time and not feel pressure to make something. My repetitive experience of pain has helped me to understand good days. I have gratitude for every day I wake with no pain, which gives me the positivity I need to go to the studio.
What is your dreamy vision for your creative career and art practice three years from now?
In three years: I would like more solo shows, more residencies, and more time for research. As a professor in my fifties- I need to start planning for retirement. I will never retire from painting- and teaching brings meaning to my life. Retirement from teaching is more than three years out…but planning needs to start. The thoughts of this pass quickly, as I tend to avoid thoughts of the future…..
Images included in this submission do actually include ideas for my future creative self. The images are actually drawings that I intend to put into the world for fabric designs. Each piece is focused on a specific discovery I made about plant science. The idea is to perhaps democratize plant science while venturing into a new world and market for myself.
How are you being kind to yourself as you look towards realizing your vision for your art career?
Kind to myself? Yikes. One thing that a viewer might notice in my submitted photos is multiple different studios. I decided to give up any idea of normalcy in my day to day life and how I live it, including how I occupy space. I took over a bedroom, my dining room-parts of my kitchen….and I have an oil painting studio. In a way, this is kindness towards who I am-someone who wants to constantly make work and giving up space for that. I do not worry about others entering my home. I am who I am. Patience is something I allow as well- my work takes time. Some days I want to do minute details while other days throwing paint on a canvas are my answers to life. Having room and recognizing my different practices is a gesture of living my best life.
Laura Ahola-Young
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