THE
HOPE TRAIL - Finding the path of promise with Lola
.ISM DIY Issue
Vol. 72008
by Greg Escalante
The true-life tales of Los Angeles artist Lola's triumphs over life's trials
and tribulations are as real as they come. With no small amount of obstacles
facing artists today, including a saturated art market and no seeming focus
within the current chaos, one artist shares some insight on her path and how
important the believe-in-yourself and do-it-yourself attitudes make for rough
but eventual successes.
Lola grew up in the seemingly inspiration-ridden suburbs of Riverside, CA.
Her exposure to art was occurring from her earliest days. She spent afternoons
following her dad around on window or sign painting jobs, and returned home
to enjoy creating his Peanuts-like cartoon strips. She muses, "Since
my brother and I were always in sports, Dad would volunteer his art skills
to
make our banners, signs and t-shirts for school activities. He taught me
how to silkscreen at a pretty young age."
Lola began painting at age 13, more as an experiment than anything at the moment.
The act of painting wasn't a habitual act until much later on, but for the
time being it provided a useful outlet as she spent days in her room avoiding
the fallout of her parents' failing relationship. She would maintain her interest
in painting through college, realizing that her interest was becoming deeper
and finding that frustration from lack of instruction would lead her to continue
her search elsewhere. And after two years and no real progress from within
the collegiate system's art faculty, she made the decision to branch out. For
Lola, branching out actually meant breaking free - free of her parents' constant
tension, free of Riverside's droll surroundings, free of the limitations of
her childhood surroundings.
Her road led to San Francisco, where she would find more questions than answers
to her growing desire for creative outlets. After dedicating herself to sharpening
her skills at the easel, she found that even in the city of opportunity and
inspiration, the forum for modern painting was surprisingly lean. After two
years working in San Francisco, it was time to return to Riverside for a
bit of regrouping. Here, she began working as a tattoo artist, apprenticing
under
a well-respected artist and growing her client list quickly. "I started
painting again while I was in between tattoo sessions," she says. "It
was a critical experience because I found that even though the ink work was
so successful, painting was more important to me. Tattooing was great to
do when I was young, but I wasn't happy with it. And I've learned along the
way
that there's a big difference in having a great career and being happy with
it. So I needed to paint, and that's when I started getting requests to show
around Riverside."
At the time of her growing desire to paint, the core of her being was being
challenged in other ways. "I was in a marriage of convenience, it seemed.
It was easy to fall into, but not easy to be in, so my work was centering around
an unhappy female character and her surroundings," she recalls. "But
people were responding to them, and I was invited in 2000 to show by an incredible
lady named Alaska at her gorgeous coffee shop. I had been doing small group
shows here and there, but this was the first time I'd been asked to put together
a body of work for a featured spot." That exhibit was successful enough
to invite her to show again in a larger capacities. Her first solo show, at
a wine bistro in Riverside was a surprisingly well-received exhibit, selling
out by the end of the night. This was also her first encounter with offers
of being "repped", but nerves told her the way to lean and she skirted
the issue until it worked itself through. "At that point I was free
to explore my next steps, which I believed would be in Los Angeles."
"
I started scouting around for any information I could find about galleries
and exhibits that I might fit into," Lola continues. "Remember,
at that time, Juxtapoz was filled with amazing and inspirational artists
that
just blew my mind. My first real draw to that sort of world was through the
Juxtapoz issue featuring Michael Hussar. Even though it's a dark and often
morbid scene, he maintains so much mystery and beauty that it's impossible
not to be drawn into. So I scouted through the Juxtapoz website and found
a couple of galleries and started my submission process."
With her work sporting a primarily mysterious and dark theme themselves,
gallery work was not far behind. But with her new desire for painterly success
came
another bit of life-changing news: pregnancy. The birth of her two girls
changed the face of her work in a very positive and encouraging way. Positive
in that
it opened up doors that had been shut long ago in her suppressed childhood
memory, and encouraging with the amount of interest in her new directions
in painting. The paintings were now far away from the femme fatales content
of
previous days. Now Lola's work would primarily be found populated by small
children and cute animals. "I didn't keep most of the older work, what
wasn’t damaged in a flood," she says. "I was primarily exercising
my frustrations in my unhappy life both currently and previously. But when
the girls came around I had a different outlook. We were having so much fun!
Now life was about fantasy lands and dress up. In my experience people want
to look at art that's more inspiring and creative rather than the negative
or even non-imaginative works."
The reception to the new works was very positive. She began an actual gallery
resume, which she quotes her big breaks as being with exhibitions at the
Toy Room in Sacramento, and La Luz de Jesus in LA. "Also, along the way, I
began meeting people, other artists that became trusted friends and allies.
I met Jason Maloney, who's always been a source of positivity and good information.
I remember him actually telling me how to get my work submitted to La Luz (hint:
show up in person, don't rely on the anonymity of email or letters!) Anthony
Ausgang is also an amazing person. He's always so intelligent and interesting,
and has a perspective on just about any subject that is as non-traditional
and fascinating as anything you'll hope to find. But all through these adventures
in exhibition-hopping I was noticing an artist's work that would eventually
not only inspire but challenge me completely. I was completely captivated by
the work of Nathan Spoor from the first moment. I mean, how could this artist
be painting my childhood memories, or how dare he unlock the doors of my psyche
and make me confront those suppressed things (laughing)! It’s very rare
that I find myself truly captivated and moved by someone’s work that
has the power to inspire me in so many ways. I've been very fortunate to
have met each of these artists, shared in their stories and experienced their
creative
genius. It seemed that even as my marriage was folding, the choice I'd made
to raise the girls and pursue the career of my choice was showing me that
I was making the right decisions."
"
I was lucky actually," Lola continues, and smiles shyly, "I was still
a stay-at-home mom and had my two little inspirations around me all the time.
Each painting was a story. They were about my girls, and it was easy to relate
to them because I was a little girl at once too." It was around this time
that Lola's desire to pursue stories surpassed the bedtime narratives that
she grew up with and was now passing on fond memories of to her offspring.
She began concepting her own tales. She teamed up with another Do-It-Yourselfer,
a female writer, and the two would go about learning everything they could
about self-publishing children's books. The partnership was short-lived, however.
The counterpart writer would prove overly demanding and underly proficient.
After compromising her ideals in an effort to produce the book, Lola decided
to pursue her ventures on her own. "Donating your life to another person's
dream is entirely different than partnering up and producing something great
that the public can be enriched from. I found that what I needed to do was
keep things in perspective and make something real, something that not only
a publishing company but a parent would want to invest their family time and
money in," she adds.
Lola is definitely a solid artist that has taken on the pursuit of her dreams
and found out, through disappointments and obstacles that come along with
the successes, that the best way to move forward most times is to truly "do
it yourself".
"
You really have to," she says plainly, "Either you're an artist or
you're not. Either you have it or you don't. And I'm one that has to find out
how to make things work. As a modern artist, as a woman, as a mom, as a forward
thinker - I simply have to keep pushing and searching until these dreams become
realities. The nature of the beast of the current art world dictates it. We're
all free agents trying to watch out for the pitfalls of this new place in the
market, or in this new spotlight that exists because of the hard work of forerunners
and great thinkers of previous days. If I could give any advice to new artists
interested in "breaking in" to showing their work it would be simple:
It's not all about the galleries. The artist has so much say in how they're
treated as well as what they show and where they'll show. Don't limit yourself
to one vision of your work. Be flexible and expect to overcome some challenges
in your path. And please, please stay true to your voice, your passion and
your love for the work. If a new artist submits to another person's agenda
on blind trust, expect success limited to the vision of the other individual.
OR, go out and prove it to yourself and to everyone else that you CAN do
it. That you ARE an amazing talent that that you SHOULD pursue your dreams
whatever
the cost. And expect the cost to be everything, and more. If you can't give
it all, you can't expect everything you've dreamed, right?"
With that being said, the lovely lady known as Lola - self-taught painter,
single mom, children's book and gallery exhibition creator alike - returns
to the safety of her easel and paintings and sketches to dream yet another,
more provocative masterpiece...
For more information, or to obtain the artwork of Lola, please visit: www.lolastrangeart.com
