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Nayana LaFond is a multidisciplinary artist and human rights advocate living and working in Massachusetts. She utilizes a variety of media including painting, sculpture and photography to discuss topics related to domestic abuse and missing & murdered indigenous peoples. In addition to being an artist, Nayana LaFond has been an active curator and arts organizer for over 20 years. For more information visit nayanaarts.com
Published on April 1st, 2025. Artist responses collected in months previous.
Talk about some of the logistics of your art practice. What systems do you have in place to help streamline your workflows?
I have set up spreadsheets to track artworks locations and information on each piece which I can send to museums and galleries. This has made things much easier to keep track of and provide information when asked. With the portrait project I established a specific workflow which allowed me to complete hyper realistic images in as little as 2.5 hours. Repeating the same steps in the same order for each not only allowed me to complete the works faster allowing me to paint more portraits but it also created a clear continuity in the work.
What is some advice for someone who does not have any experience who would like to pursue a career like yours?
I would recommend they be realistic about their expectations for this type of work. It requires a kind of juggling act. You will need to not only be an artist but your own assistant, receptionist, manager, bookkeeper, coordinator etc. etc. Even when you do reach a level where people perceive you as being very successful you will still be struggling to make ends meat. It isn't easy and it's not meant to be. If you chose to live this life it is because you absolutely MUST because it is the only way you can live. It is who you are. You must also have faith that things will work out, that commissions will come in, that grants will arrive, that somehow the lights till stay on and the paint won't run out.
What was the lowest point in your art career and how did you overcome those adversities?
It is difficult to say there was a lowest point in my career. I would consider my entire life to be my career though, because being an artist is more who I am then my career. So considering that I would say that experiencing extreme circumstances pertaining to leukemia, a bone marrow transplant and domestic abuse leading to me fleeing my home would probably be the lowest point I have raised myself out of. And I did so through art, through creating works about being sick, about experiencing domestic abuse and about finally getting free and healthy and starting over. It is in the years following those events that my career really took off. Perhaps it came from a renewed sense of appreciation for life and a wealth of inspiration from those life experiences.
How did you come into the type of artwork you are doing now?
Every artwork I have made has been a kind of therapeutic exercise for me. Working through something traumatic and processing. The MMIP painting project and other works related to domestic abuse and Roe v. Wade are reflections of that. Processing my own experiences related to those topics. More recently I have done some quieter works about more intimate aspects of life. Those have been an attempt to cleanse my artistic pallet and rest. Producing work about trauma for a long time while also doing speaking engagements where I discussed the trauma and met the families whose trauma I was charged to paint took a toll on me. Making works that were simply about the quiet moments of life helped me to re-center myself.
What was an epiphany in your art practice that took you to the next level?
I did in fact have an epiphany this year this has taken me to a level though I am unclear if it is the next level at this point. I have had them previously as well. Previously it was less epiphany and more indescribable drive to create and express. This lead me to do human rights advocacy work and into the MMIP painting project. This year following a tattoo ceremony I had an epiphany related to doing human rights advocacy work. I realized it is as important to know when to walk away as it is to begin this type of work. That in doing this work (which I have never profited from) striving to "do no harm" is at the center of it. I realized that the project had reached a level where I would not be able to continue to protect the works from misuse (I have had to serve cease and desist letters already) and also from me gaining clout from it, which is profiting. I realized I had done my part, and it was time to send the paintings home to their families. And so now the project has shifted to that as its goal.
Talk about some of the logistics of your art practice. What systems do you have in place to help streamline your workflows?
I have set up spreadsheets to track artworks locations and information on each piece which I can send to museums and galleries. This has made things much easier to keep track of and provide information when asked. With the portrait project I established a specific workflow which allowed me to complete hyper realistic images in as little as 2.5 hours. Repeating the same steps in the same order for each not only allowed me to complete the works faster allowing me to paint more portraits but it also created a clear continuity in the work.
What is some advice for someone who does not have any experience who would like to pursue a career like yours?
I would recommend they be realistic about their expectations for this type of work. It requires a kind of juggling act. You will need to not only be an artist but your own assistant, receptionist, manager, bookkeeper, coordinator etc. etc. Even when you do reach a level where people perceive you as being very successful you will still be struggling to make ends meat. It isn't easy and it's not meant to be. If you chose to live this life it is because you absolutely MUST because it is the only way you can live. It is who you are. You must also have faith that things will work out, that commissions will come in, that grants will arrive, that somehow the lights till stay on and the paint won't run out.
What was the lowest point in your art career and how did you overcome those adversities?
It is difficult to say there was a lowest point in my career. I would consider my entire life to be my career though, because being an artist is more who I am then my career. So considering that I would say that experiencing extreme circumstances pertaining to leukemia, a bone marrow transplant and domestic abuse leading to me fleeing my home would probably be the lowest point I have raised myself out of. And I did so through art, through creating works about being sick, about experiencing domestic abuse and about finally getting free and healthy and starting over. It is in the years following those events that my career really took off. Perhaps it came from a renewed sense of appreciation for life and a wealth of inspiration from those life experiences.
How did you come into the type of artwork you are doing now?
Every artwork I have made has been a kind of therapeutic exercise for me. Working through something traumatic and processing. The MMIP painting project and other works related to domestic abuse and Roe v. Wade are reflections of that. Processing my own experiences related to those topics. More recently I have done some quieter works about more intimate aspects of life. Those have been an attempt to cleanse my artistic pallet and rest. Producing work about trauma for a long time while also doing speaking engagements where I discussed the trauma and met the families whose trauma I was charged to paint took a toll on me. Making works that were simply about the quiet moments of life helped me to re-center myself.
What was an epiphany in your art practice that took you to the next level?
I did in fact have an epiphany this year this has taken me to a level though I am unclear if it is the next level at this point. I have had them previously as well. Previously it was less epiphany and more indescribable drive to create and express. This lead me to do human rights advocacy work and into the MMIP painting project. This year following a tattoo ceremony I had an epiphany related to doing human rights advocacy work. I realized it is as important to know when to walk away as it is to begin this type of work. That in doing this work (which I have never profited from) striving to "do no harm" is at the center of it. I realized that the project had reached a level where I would not be able to continue to protect the works from misuse (I have had to serve cease and desist letters already) and also from me gaining clout from it, which is profiting. I realized I had done my part, and it was time to send the paintings home to their families. And so now the project has shifted to that as its goal.
Find Nayana LaFond on Instagram
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