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Nayana (B 1981) is a full time multidisciplinary artist and activist who resides with her child in western Massachusetts. She attended Greenfield Community College and Massachusetts College of Art for Photography and then dropped out to become a full time painter. Her paintings can be seen in collections in galleries and museums around the world. Nayana has also been a curator and community arts organizer for over 20 years, including former founding Chief Curator for The Whitney Center for the Arts. She also sits on several arts organization boards, including as an executive board member of Artist Organized Art, and is an advisory board member for Be The Change and The Native Youth Empowerment Foundation. In addition to being a painter and photographer Nayana is also a sculptor. Her sculpture “Zoongide’e” (sculpture about domestic abuse) , a metal, plexiglass and concrete wetu (Wigwam) was on display outside Fenway Park in Boston for the summer and fall of 2022. Nayana’s work often deals with issues related to trauma and violence including her experiences as a Leukemia and Bone Marrow transplant and DV survivor.
Published on March 19th, 2023. Artist responses collected in months previous.
What are you fascinated with right now?
Not a lot is fascinating me at the moment. I haven't had a lot of time to allow myself to be fascinated. I have been focused on finding a workflow that allows me to keep up with demand and give my home life the attention it needs as well. Attempting to find a balance where deadlines are being met and I don't feel overwhelmed with the process. And making sure that the work doesn't start feeling like work or like I am a factory just producing work. I've been making sure to find ways to make it stay interesting and relevant to me personally. Art has always been about what I'm feeling at that moment and never about what I was expected to produce. So I have been trying to maintain the sense of desire and catharsis that brought me to this work to begin with.
What advice would you give your younger artist self?
Get organized before things get busy, not after. Keep all of your receipts and find ways to budget your time. Make sure you don't say yes to too many opportunities at once and take time to breathe. Accept help from others. Its ok to need a break and to allow your body to recover from going and doing all the time. Schedule yourself breaks and take those breaks because if you don't, it will catch up to you.
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?
I have been losing sleep to create sometimes when my home and family life have to take precedence, yet the deadlines for work are fast approaching. I have had a couple moments where I felt overwhelmed by a necessary task. Like writing a proposal by a specific deadline, or finishing an amount of work in time to ship out. How I have gotten through it has been by talking with other artists and professionals who are experiencing similar situations. I have been trying to make myself take breaks and find a quiet space to meditate or just breathe. My biggest issue has been feeling overwhelmed by the amount of things I need to get done in a time frame or how to do something I have little to no experience doing. I have been reminding myself that nothing worth doing is easy and they are rarely not scary or intimidating.
What is your dreamy vision for your creative career and art practice three years from now?
Three years ago I would have never imagined I would be where I am now. It's difficult for me to even try to speculate three years from now. I hope to still be relevant. I hope to still be doing the MMIP project and still exhibiting it. (I am booked out past those three years for it so I should be). I hope to be doing other work regularly as well so that I can establish myself on more then just this project. I hope to be successfully creating more sculptures and public art works for social change. I hope to be exhibiting my work in even more places then I am now and reaching more audiences. I also hope to be self sustaining in the MMIP project and able to continue it on the side with other things indefinitely.
How are you being kind to yourself as you look towards realizing your vision for your art career?
This is a difficult one. I am working on identifying when I need a break and actually giving myself the time to take a break before I crash. I have had a couple instances where I crashed and my body took a break I wasn't giving it. I'm working on my anxiety surrounding being in the public eye and trying to schedule time for myself. I have started smudging (burning sage) every night before bed and when I wake up. I have been pushing myself to eat better and maintain better practices around personal health so that when I do have to push myself, I am less likely to have a crash. I'm also working on using the word "no" more and identifying when I can't agree to a project or an exhibit because it will be just too much at once and cause a lot of stress.
What are you fascinated with right now?
Not a lot is fascinating me at the moment. I haven't had a lot of time to allow myself to be fascinated. I have been focused on finding a workflow that allows me to keep up with demand and give my home life the attention it needs as well. Attempting to find a balance where deadlines are being met and I don't feel overwhelmed with the process. And making sure that the work doesn't start feeling like work or like I am a factory just producing work. I've been making sure to find ways to make it stay interesting and relevant to me personally. Art has always been about what I'm feeling at that moment and never about what I was expected to produce. So I have been trying to maintain the sense of desire and catharsis that brought me to this work to begin with.
What advice would you give your younger artist self?
Get organized before things get busy, not after. Keep all of your receipts and find ways to budget your time. Make sure you don't say yes to too many opportunities at once and take time to breathe. Accept help from others. Its ok to need a break and to allow your body to recover from going and doing all the time. Schedule yourself breaks and take those breaks because if you don't, it will catch up to you.
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?
I have been losing sleep to create sometimes when my home and family life have to take precedence, yet the deadlines for work are fast approaching. I have had a couple moments where I felt overwhelmed by a necessary task. Like writing a proposal by a specific deadline, or finishing an amount of work in time to ship out. How I have gotten through it has been by talking with other artists and professionals who are experiencing similar situations. I have been trying to make myself take breaks and find a quiet space to meditate or just breathe. My biggest issue has been feeling overwhelmed by the amount of things I need to get done in a time frame or how to do something I have little to no experience doing. I have been reminding myself that nothing worth doing is easy and they are rarely not scary or intimidating.
What is your dreamy vision for your creative career and art practice three years from now?
Three years ago I would have never imagined I would be where I am now. It's difficult for me to even try to speculate three years from now. I hope to still be relevant. I hope to still be doing the MMIP project and still exhibiting it. (I am booked out past those three years for it so I should be). I hope to be doing other work regularly as well so that I can establish myself on more then just this project. I hope to be successfully creating more sculptures and public art works for social change. I hope to be exhibiting my work in even more places then I am now and reaching more audiences. I also hope to be self sustaining in the MMIP project and able to continue it on the side with other things indefinitely.
How are you being kind to yourself as you look towards realizing your vision for your art career?
This is a difficult one. I am working on identifying when I need a break and actually giving myself the time to take a break before I crash. I have had a couple instances where I crashed and my body took a break I wasn't giving it. I'm working on my anxiety surrounding being in the public eye and trying to schedule time for myself. I have started smudging (burning sage) every night before bed and when I wake up. I have been pushing myself to eat better and maintain better practices around personal health so that when I do have to push myself, I am less likely to have a crash. I'm also working on using the word "no" more and identifying when I can't agree to a project or an exhibit because it will be just too much at once and cause a lot of stress.
Find Nayana LaFond on Instagram
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