In this episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Laura Harper Lake and Sarah Wrightsman sit down with artist Becca Lane of One Lane Studios! Becca is an acrylic painter who creates portraits of animals combining hyperrealism with a colorful and playful contemporary vibe! Becca’s work features silly and sweet oddball creatures like racoons, possums, spiders, and more. Becca recently won the THRIVE Arts and Culture Business Competition from the Regional Economic Development Center (REDC), so we’ll chat about that and everything that comes with running a small art business. In this episode, we’ll discuss Becca’s unique journey to art school, her love of animals, puzzles, and more, and how Becca has cultivated the community she loves online! Find One Lane Studios on the web at www.OneLaneStudios.com and across the big social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and Bluesky) by searching @OneLaneStudios or you can visit www.OneLaneStudios.com/links! Listen to this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or on our website www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Discord. If you love listening, consider making a donation to Creative Guts! Our budget is tiny, so donations of any size make a big difference. Learn more about us and make a tax deductible donation at www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Thank you to our friends at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Exeter, NH and the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH for their support of the show!
In this episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Laura Harper Lake and Sarah Wrightsman sit down with artist Becca Lane of One Lane Studios! Becca is an acrylic painter who creates portraits of animals combining hyperrealism with a colorful and playful contemporary vibe! Becca’s work features silly and sweet oddball creatures like racoons, possums, spiders, and more.
Becca recently won the THRIVE Arts and Culture Business Competition from the Regional Economic Development Center (REDC), so we’ll chat about that and everything that comes with running a small art business. In this episode, we’ll discuss Becca’s unique journey to art school, her love of animals, puzzles, and more, and how Becca has cultivated the community she loves online!
Find One Lane Studios on the web at www.OneLaneStudios.com and across the big social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and Bluesky) by searching @OneLaneStudios or you can visit www.OneLaneStudios.com/links!
Listen to this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or on our website www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Discord.
If you love listening, consider making a donation to Creative Guts! Our budget is tiny, so donations of any size make a big difference. Learn more about us and make a tax deductible donation at www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com.
Thank you to our friends at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Exeter, NH and the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH for their support of the show!
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:01] LHL: I'm Laura Harper Lake.
[0:00:01] SW: And I'm Sarah Wrightsman.
[0:00:03] LHL & SW: And you're listening to Creative Guts.
[0:00:18] SW: Hello, listeners. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Creative Guts.
[0:00:22] LHL: On today's episode, we're talking with Becca Lane of One Lane Studios, a New Hampshire artist known for hyper-realism portraits of animals combined with bold and colorful backgrounds.
[0:00:34] SW: And we're super excited to talk with her.
[0:00:37] LHL: Yes, this has been a long time coming. She's been on both our radars for a while, but I got to meet Becca recently after she won an arts grant competition from where I work, the Regional Economic Development Center, aka REDC. Meeting her only made me want to pick her brain even more and learn all about her process. I'm really, really pumped to chat with her in this episode.
[0:01:00] SW: Yes. And it's so exciting because obviously we care about arts, and small businesses, and the creative economy. And so it's so cool to see artists win these kinds of business awards and see economic development organizations invest in the arts.
[0:01:14] LHL: Yes. Yes. And in this episode, we get to chat about not only the art process, but the art of being an entrepreneur.
[0:01:21] SW: Yes.
[0:01:21] LHL: It really pairs those two things together well.
[0:01:24] SW: Yes, it does. And I know we say this every single episode, but we are super excited to talk with Becca. So let's get right into the guts of this episode of Creative Guts with Becca Lane.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:01:39] LHL: Hello, Becca. Thank you for being on Creative Guts.
[0:01:41] BL: Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
[0:01:43] SW: We're super excited to talk with you.
[0:01:45] LHL: It has been a long time coming. You've been on both of our radar for years. And as I said earlier, I feel like I've known you for a long time, even though we've only met once, because of social media and you're engaging awesome content online. We're super pumped to finally sit down with you.
[0:02:02] BL: Thank you so much. I'm so pumped too.
[0:02:06] LHL: How would you like to introduce yourself as a creative? Do you want to give the folks listening a little rundown of who you are?
[0:02:13] BL: Yeah. I'm Becca Lane, the one Lane behind One Lane Studios. Artist and owner. I paint silly little critters dressed up in cute outfits. And I'm very inspired by animals and my love of art. I kind of just brought those two together to make One Lane Studios.
[0:02:32] LHL: I love that. But your style is very iconic to you, I feel like.
[0:02:37] BL: Thank you.
[0:02:39] LHL: It's just such a – you see it, you know that it's a One Lane Studios piece. I guess let's go back to the beginning. When did you start creating and why?
[0:02:49] BL: As long as I can remember. Yeah, as soon as I could hold a crayon, I've been making art. I love painting and drawing. Yeah, some of my earliest memories are art-making.
[0:02:59] SW: That's awesome. That's so cute.
[0:03:02] LHL: And so, in high school, were you like, "This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to school for this?" Was this sort of the trajectory you always knew?
[0:03:10] BL: It's funny you mentioned high school. A bit unique. I basically dropped out of school after eighth grade. Yes. And then I really, really leaned into the art-making during that time, which brought me back to school in what would have been my senior year, I believe, of high school, but only for art classes.
[0:03:30] LHL: Oh, wow.
[0:03:30] BL: Yes, at the public high school. I always joke that I took AP art classes. I had a 4.44 GPA, graduating, but I was exclusively taking art classes. That whole chapter is pretty unusual. But during those four years when I was kind of a bit isolated at home and whatever, I was just drawing easily 16 hours a day.
[0:03:50] LHL: Oh my gosh.
[0:03:51] SW: Wow.
[0:03:52] BL: Yeah. And that's when I was like honing my skill, and I realized time would just pass by so quickly. And that was a time when I needed it the most. And so that's where I kind of just realized that this is sort of like a calling, as goofy as I know that can sound. But I was like, "This is just what I'm meant to be doing."
And then in addition to that, because I didn't go to high school, I didn't have SAT scores. I didn't have any of your usual schooling things that you need to get into college. And actually, you had Hannah Cole on the podcast.
[0:04:21] LHL: Yeah.
[0:04:23] SW: That's right.
[0:04:23] BL: Yes. Hannah was my "high school" – because I wasn't really there. But high school art teacher.
[0:04:28] LHL: Oh my goodness.
[0:04:29] BL: Yes. And she played a huge part in encouraging me to apply to colleges, which is something I hadn't even considered because I was like, "How am I going to do that?"
[0:04:38] SW: Oh my God.
[0:04:38] BL: Yeah, with a limited education. I did, and I had scholarships to tons of colleges. I guess it pays off to spend all that time making art instead of doing the traditional thing.
[0:04:49] SW: Wow.
[0:04:50] BL: Yeah. And then it was kind of like, "This is what I know how to do." Not in a cocky way, but I feel like I know how to do it well. I'm really familiar with it. And so that kind of just became my whole life, and it still is my whole life.
[0:05:03] LHL: That is amazing, unorthodox and amazing.
[0:05:07] BL: Thank you.
[0:05:08] SW: Did you end up having to take the SATs?
[0:05:10] BL: I never took the SATs.
[0:05:11] SW: Okay, that's cool. That's cool.
[0:05:12] LHL: Good for you.
[0:05:13] BL: Thanks.
[0:05:14] SW: My brother didn't take the SATs when he was in high school because he wasn't gonna go to college. And then at 21, he was like, "I want to go to college." And so I helped him study for the SATs. And he had to take them.
[0:05:25] BL: That was very nice of you.
[0:05:29] LHL: Wow, that is so cool. And, yeah, I think having a calling like that, it just sort of solidifies your identity in a way, I think. If you're spending all this time making art, are you feeling like really in touch with your – I guess this is sort of an invasive question, but do you feel like it helped your mental health a lot and was really helping you grow as a person in that way?
[0:05:51] BL: Absolutely. I think it's been one of my best coping skills all my life, especially during that time. It was a difficult time. I don't think people just drop out of school because they're having a great time.
[0:06:01] LHL: Yup.
[0:06:01] SW: Nope.
[0:06:02] BL: And so it definitely is something that I leaned on hardcore then and still come back to all the time now. Beginning of my art making was a lot of art, specifically about mental health and mental illness. And then that kind of had a shift, probably right around 2020 or so, maybe 2019. And I started making goofy and silly art. Yeah. And that kind of is where you see my work come from now. I was like, "This is fun." It's lighthearted. I was making such heavy work for so long that I just felt like this weight had been lifted. Not to say that heavy work doesn't have its place. And I still make it. I technically have an account called One Lane Backroads.
[0:06:43] LHL: Oh.
[0:06:44] SW: Oh, wait. That's good to know. I was just going to ask if we could see your sort of old work and the old style still out there.
[0:06:49] BL: Yeah. I'm trying to slowly bring some of my old stuff over to One Lane Backroads. And when I occasionally make some new stuff that does not fit on the One Lane Studios timeline, I will post it over there. People who've been following me for a while are familiar with my darker work, let's say. And so I want people to still be able to find it if they're curious. I mean, it's just polar opposite to the stuff I usually share.
[0:07:12] SW: Yeah. Oh my gosh.
[0:07:14] LHL: That was going to be a question actually, because I am an interdisciplinary artist in medium and in subject, and I feel like I will make a series, and I'm like, "Oh man, I love this." But I'm like, "But now I'm done. I'm not doing this at all anymore." And so when I meet artists who have seemingly like, "This is my direction." Hearing how you're still able to pursue these other directions and still be able to manage that within marketing and all that kind of stuff, I think that's fascinating.
[0:07:43] BL: Thank you so much. Yeah.
[0:07:45] LHL: I'm definitely going to go and check that out. I wasn't aware.
[0:07:47] SW: Will you talk a little bit more about your style now? How would you describe that? What does your art look like for our listeners who can't see it right now?
[0:07:56] BL: Absolutely. I sort of combine, I guess I could call it photorealism, with more stylized painterly work to kind of create details of these photorealistic animals with different outfits or scenarios that they're in. And then I also add some flat color and flat color elements to that. Sort of something that inspires that is like paper dolls I often think about, and the layering, and collage, and whatever. But I'm just doing it all with paint. Yeah.
[0:08:25] SW: I love that. It's so cool.
[0:08:26] BL: Thank you.
[0:08:26] LHL: Do you have a name for – the collection is called this. Or are they just your little critters or –
[0:08:34] BL: I wish I was that organized to have like a proper name for it. They're just my little guys, my art babies, my critters. Yeah.
[0:08:43] LHL: Oh, it's so unique and so fun. I feel like anyone I see who looks at your work, their face just lights up.
[0:08:50] BL: Thank you.
[0:08:51] LHL: There are these nostalgia elements in it, too.
[0:08:53] SW: Yeah, absolutely. Do you have any real-life little critters at home? I can imagine you in all your like possums.
[0:09:01] BL: I wish I had possums. I have three cats and three dogs. And then we also foster kittens. We've had up to 14 cats in our house at a time. Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah.
[0:09:14] LHL: Oh, man.
[0:09:16] SW: I'm sure they're very inspiring.
[0:09:17] BL: They are. They are. And they get right into that paint, and it's kind of chaotic at times, but we have fun.
[0:09:24] LHL: You just mentioned not being super organized, but I have a feeling you might be. Because along with selling your originals, you're also putting your creations on art prints, and cards, and stickers, and puzzles, and so much more. How has that process evolved?
[0:09:38] BL: Yeah.
[0:09:39] LHL: Because I think you're organized if you can pull all that off.
[0:09:43] BL: Thank you. I think it's one of those things where you don't quite feel organized, but maybe on the outside, it looks a little more put together. I think that was kind of born from – it's a few things. Partially, the way that I work, it takes me so long to get stuff finished. I try to release a painting about once a month, sometimes a little less, sometimes a little longer.
[0:10:03] SW: Wow. You seem so prolific that that actually really surprises me. I would think you're putting out a painting, I don't know, every day.
[0:10:10] BL: Yeah, at a glance a week. For sure, posting constantly. That's probably part of that. But no, I release a painting about once a month, sometimes less, and they just take so long. And then in addition to that, there's the business side of things to run. And so some of it came from needing to have more income because this is my full-time thing. I don't have anything else. That was the start of it. And it just began with art prints and stickers. And then I realized I kind of love the slightly commercial graphic design side of things. I genuinely enjoy it. And I try to turn them into things that I myself would use or love. I have like puzzles that I've been kind of gearing up to release a bunch more of. And that's something that I love to do, or greeting cards. I'm a greeting card person.
[0:10:59] LHL: Yes.
[0:10:59] BL: I'm very big into like I'm not going to release something that I myself wouldn't use.
[0:11:03] SW: Yep, yep.
[0:11:03] LHL: Yeah. Oh, it totally makes sense.
[0:11:05] BL: Yeah.
[0:11:06] LHL: Yeah. Is there any dream products down the line? Any dream products to release your art on a rug, or on a something, or - I don't know.
[0:11:16] BL: That's a great question. There's two big things long-term goals that we'll see what happens there. I would love to have a book once I have enough illustrations.
[0:11:26] LHL: Yes. Yes. I absolutely see that in your future.
[0:11:31] SW: Yes.
[0:11:32] BL: Thank you.
[0:11:33] SW: Ooh, yes.
[0:11:34] BL: That would be so fun. And then also, randomly, when I started the whole One Line Studios collection, part of what I'm doing is designing outfits for these creatures. I'm not like taking them from anything. And I'd love to have more apparel that is kind of inspired by the work, but not necessarily. Yeah, not necessarily. I have actually apparel now, but it's like shirts with the art on it. But I would love – there's one skunk that I've painted, June, and she's wearing these blue overalls. And I designed these little daisy buckles and all these little elements to it. And I'm like, "I would love a pair of those for myself."
[0:12:09] LHL: Yes.
[0:12:10] BL: It'd be super cool. That's like long-term big dreams.
[0:12:14] LHL: Has anyone ever said like, "Oh, for Halloween, my kid was your skunk." Or anything like that? Wearing those clothes. I could totally see that, you know?
[0:12:24] BL: It's funny you say that because – well, I say every year for two years. One Lane Studios is only turning four this year, so it's not the longest. But the last couple of years right before Halloween, I've said like, "If anyone dresses up as any of my characters, I'll give you like –" I don't know. I'll just incentivize it with free stuff. And last year was the first year that it happened.
[0:12:44] LHL: Oh my goodness. That is fantastic.
[0:12:46] BL: Yeah. Of all the things I painted. People call her the Pink Possum, Pink Pony Possum.
[0:12:52] LHL: Yes, yes.
[0:12:53] BL: But the piece is called the Pink Possum Club, and It's Chappell Roan, but like as a possum. And so someone had a full possum onesie. And then they put like, I think, a pink bra over it and the Chappell Roan inspired, everything. And my life was made.
[0:13:07] LHL: And I have a feeling Chappell Roan would love that.
[0:13:10] BL: I would die if she saw that. I found it. It's so cute.
[0:13:13] LHL: Yeah, it is. It's so great.
[0:13:15] BL: Thank you.
[0:13:16] LHL: And so speaking of, well, the vibe of your community. We have a question about your community because you have a lot of engagement and folks that are just really like attuned to what you're producing on social media, especially your video content. I'd love to hear more about how that grew and what it kind of means to you now.
[0:13:36] BL: Yeah. I mean, how it grew is it feels like a fluke a little bit. Back in 2021, I had a video go viral, and just a series of viral videos. Stuff just kind of snowballed there. But as far as the closeness of the community or how I feel so close to the community, I think it's a number of things. One, I have slightly poor boundaries. If anyone DMs me, I'll DM you right back.
And it's funny because occasionally someone's like, "Oh my gosh, you DM'd me back." And I'll maybe let you feel special. But I talk to everyone. I love talking to people. I'm such an introvert in life, I feel. But online, I'm like, "What do you want to know?" I'm an open book. And I love talking to people online.
[0:14:18] SW: Our next question is about your work-life balance.
[0:14:21] BL: Oh, just wait until you hear about that. Yeah. No. But I think there's just relationships within my community that I've maintained. And I feel so close with so many people in my community. I know all pets' names, and their birthday, and all these things. And I think that's part of it is just like there's such a human connection happening. I think some of it, too, is just sharing vulnerable parts of myself. And then I notice people will reflect that back to me, and that brings closeness. We have lots of inside jokes within the community, which I love.
[0:14:56] LHL: When you're thinking about the demographics of your community of people that love supporting you and checking out your content, would you say there are a lot of artists, a lot of animal lovers, the Venn diagram of both, or some other like kind of identifier that is what is part of – I mean, everyone's coming together because they really enjoy your work and your creations. But are you noticing other trends within them?
[0:15:21] BL: Yeah, it's definitely, like you said, a lot of animal lovers, a lot of artists, other small business owners. It's definitely a lot of like alternative people and people who are kind of offbeat, like myself. Sense of humor, you kind of have to with some of my work. Yeah. And lots of like queer folks, women. People, generally Gen Z and Millennial, that's primarily the people that I'm talking to and hanging out with online.
[0:15:47] LHL: That's awesome.
[0:15:48] BL: Yeah, I love it.
[0:15:50] LHL: That's so cool.
[0:15:51] SW: Sorry. This is such a specific puzzle question. We're a huge puzzle family. We love puzzles. Our job, we are volunteers in the town of Newmarket. We go to the library, and we take out a puzzle, and we make sure that it has all the pieces by doing the puzzle.
[0:16:05] LHL: Wait. Is this a real thing?
[0:16:06] SW: No, but legit. Legit. This is a thing that we do. We keep going back to the library and saying, "Hey, this puzzle's missing a piece." And we're the honorary puzzle doers.
[0:16:16] LHL: The Wrightsman family is just holding it together for this town.
[0:16:18] SW: The Wrightsman family. The official public testers of the Newmarket Public Library.
[0:16:21] BL: I'm going to have to send you one. Give me a review and let me know what's working, what's not working.
[0:16:27] SW: I asked because I was like, "Wow, I would totally love –" my husband's birthday is coming up. Love to get a puzzle, right? And he's really picky about puzzles. He wants it to be like, "You can't have too much of flat one-color background." I noticed that the puzzle you made, you changed up the background from the original picture so that it's not just one flat – was that on purpose for puzzle lovers?
[0:16:48] BL: It was on purpose. I mean, because I'm a puzzle lover myself, I was like, "This would be cruel." I don't want people to be miserable putting it together. And I think with this next batch of puzzles, I'm doing the design on the background again, but I might add like a gradient or something.
[0:17:06] SW: Yes.
[0:17:06] BL: Yeah. Because I'm still hearing that people are struggling with it a bit. But yeah, I want it to be fun.
[0:17:10] SW: I'm so thrilled.
[0:17:12] LHL: What if you have levels like beginner, middle, advanced, pro puzzle?
[0:17:18] SW: And it's just one plain, white puzzle. No. That is exactly the kind of puzzle that my husband hates.
[0:17:24] LHL: Do you know who I am? I'm the girl who wants to love puzzles, and buys them, and doesn't do them. Or like a corner and doesn't fit. I have a Mandalorian one. I've got a giant round moon one that I've never done. I am dying. I mean, I'm not dying, folks. I'm really keen on doing some puzzles, but I just feel like I never dedicate the time to them.
[0:17:44] BL: My thing is, I used to have them sit out for like months at a time. And then we started fostering up to 14 kittens at a time. And you realize I had to go down from 1,000 piece to 500 because I'm like it has to be done in a sitting.
[0:17:56] SW: Yes.
[0:17:58] BL: We got serious.
[0:17:59] SW: We put puzzles on our dining room table, and they sit there for weeks, and then we can't eat dinner at the dining room table, which is fine. We can live with this decision we've made. But we do have a three-year-old. And the older he gets and the taller he gets, the harder it gets to – I hope the Newmarket public library isn't listening. But sometimes I think that maybe we lose the piece, and it's not their fault.
[0:18:18] BL: You're going to get fired from this volunteer job.
[0:18:21] SW: Fired from my volunteer job.
[0:18:22] BL: Conspiracies are a beginning.
[0:18:25] SW: If I can make a request. I think you chose the perfect piece to be your first puzzle. I think the whole bunch would make a really good puzzle.
[0:18:32] LHL: I agree.
[0:18:33] SW: And I think Baby B would make a really great puzzle.
[0:18:36] BL: Yeah, I could see that. I could see that. I think T'Can, B'Nan's bestie, has to be a puzzle for sure.
[0:18:42] SW: Oh, yeah.
[0:18:43] LHL: There's so many times I'm looking at your work and I'm like, "This one is my favorite." And then I keep looking and I'm like, "Wait, wait. No. This one."
[0:18:51] BL: Thank you.
[0:18:52] LHL: I've got about five or six favorites.
[0:18:54] SW: Oh, yeah. Benny and Lou would make a great puzzle.
[0:18:57] BL: Actually, they would, because they have like the ripples in the background. That would help a lot. I wouldn't have to spend so long designing all these little graphics for the back.
[0:19:04] SW: Yeah, there's the little fish in the background. They look like goldfish.
[0:19:08] BL: They are a little goldfish.
[0:19:09] LHL: Would you say you have a favorite? I know that's going to be like, "Which are your favorite children," you know?
[0:19:16] BL: That's so tough.
[0:19:16] LHL: I guess if someone was like, "You have to have one tattooed on your arm, which one would you pick?"
[0:19:22] BL: When you put it that way.
[0:19:25] LHL: It narrows it down a little?
[0:19:25] BL: It does. It would have to be B'Nan. And that's the one that's a puzzle. He's the one that literally changed my whole life.
[0:19:33] SW: He's this guy.
[0:19:34] BL: Oh, yes. Yeah.
[0:19:34] SW: He's really cute.
[0:19:36] BL: Thank you.
[0:19:38] SW: And here's his friend, T'Can.
[0:19:39] LHL: T'Can. I think T'Can is my favorite. But then I love the skunk. I don't know. I don't know.
[0:19:44] SW: I love Baby B.
[0:19:46] LHL: I love the crow with the disco ball in the background.
[0:19:47] SW: Yeah. He's cool, too. That one would also make a good puzzle.
[0:19:51] LHL: If you're listening to this, which if you're listening to this, you are listening to this, you don't know what we're talking about. Get your butt on over to onelanestudios.com.
[0:20:01] BL: Yeah. That will do it.
[0:20:03] SW: This is an episode you can't listen to in the car because we're going to drive you crazy.
[0:20:06] LHL: Yeah.
[0:20:07] BL: You might need a visual aid, yes.
[0:20:11] LHL: Oh my gosh.
[0:20:13] SW: Yeah. Okay. That was fun. Sorry for the tangent, everyone.
[0:20:15] LHL: Don't apologize.
[0:20:17] SW: It was the puzzle thing that –
[0:20:19] LHL: Weaving back to social media a bit, but for kind of a different lens, you have really strong engagement and really quality, authentic content. What is the process of balancing art and content creation?
[0:20:35] BL: Oh, great question.
[0:20:35] SW: Oh, great question.
[0:20:37] LHL: Because I don't know it either.
[0:20:38] BL: I know. I'm not sure I know. I feel like a lot of the stuff that I share – this depends. Are we talking stories or grid? Stories are a whole other story, no pun intended. I share a lot of my personal life on my story, so that comes easily. Everyone takes a thousand pictures of their dogs every day, I feel like, and I just share a good handful of those. But as far as social media content posted on the grid, I make a point to document my painting process. Especially because I found early on in my career, back when I was a pet portrait artist, people who don't paint truly don't know about the process yet.
[0:21:19] SW: We know nothing.
[0:21:19] LHL: Yeah. They think it's magic.
[0:21:20] SW: Yes. It is magic.
[0:21:21] BL: I've had people – or, "Are you a printer?" Or that kind of thing. And I'm like, "Um, it's a bit more involved than that." And so part of it's just kind of wanting people to get to see the process and then also maybe hoping to foster some appreciation for how much we put in as artists from start to finish, which feels a little funny to say knowing that I then edit 12 hours of footage into a 30 second video, but it at least gets you the start, middle, and end.
And I hope to share more of the process, too. I'm very kind of top secret during the making of my work. It's just part of what keeps me motivated. I'm very motivated by surprising people I've learned about myself. I think it's just constantly having my phone ready to record and do all the social media stuff.
[0:22:12] LHL: Here's the question. With your work, do you start a piece and never finish a piece? Are there pieces that just never see the light of day?
[0:22:19] BL: As far as the One Lane Studios animals, I have one.
[0:22:25] LHL: Wow.
[0:22:25] BL: Yeah.
[0:22:26] LHL: That is amazing. My thought, I don't like to show stuff mid process. I'm trying to get better at it. But I don't like to do that because my ratio is a lot different. I drop a bunch like that. And I think that's partially because I'm in another exploratory phase in my art world, I guess. But I still feel like if I let folks in and I don't finish it, I know no one's sitting at home sweating saying, "Dang it, Laura. You didn't finish that apocalypse piece." But in my head, I'm thinking, "Ooh. I don't know."
[0:22:55] SW: I actually get that, and not –
[0:22:57] LHL: Why? Are you singing at home thinking?
[0:22:59] SW: No, no. Not art. But I do have a bunch of books that wilt away on my currently reading shelf on Goodreads because I start them and I mark them as currently reading, but then I might – I don't really decide to put them down. I just don't pick them back up again. So they just sit there and wilt forever.
[0:23:14] LHL: Yeah.
[0:23:15] SW: Not that any of my four Goodreads followers care if I am committed to finishing that book.
[0:23:20] LHL: They're all talking about it. Yeah, they got a group chat going.
[0:23:25] SW: Hey Sarah, are you ever going to finish that book? It's been on your currently reading list for like – we need to know what you rate it, please.
[0:23:32] LHL: Yeah, dying to know.
[0:23:34] SW: I'm one of the four, actually. I'll be like, I actually returned it to the library six months ago. But I might take it out again.
[0:23:42] BL: Yeah, you never know. Keep them on their toes.
[0:23:45] LHL: Yeah, I guess I'm exploring how my relationship is with content creation and social media. Because sometimes when the camera's on, it makes me feel like there's a barrier to completing it authentically or to actually doing it the way I would if no one was watching, even though no one's technically watching, because I could delete the video.
[0:24:06] BL: Very true. Yeah.
[0:24:06] LHL: I don't know.
[0:24:07] SW: It is nice to see Whips as like a non-painter because of what you said, like people who don't paint don't get it. And like it does really look like magic. And so when you share those like behind the scenes or that work in progress, it's very demystifying. Even hearing that like your paintings take a really long time, I'm like, "Oh, okay." It takes a really long time.
[0:24:31] LHL: Oh, no. You're the one we're interviewing, you should be talking about that. I was just going to say, I feel like maybe I'm being inspired by this conversation to do like a graveyard series and just show all the –
[0:24:42] SW: Yes.
[0:24:42] BL: Ooh, that'd be so cool. That'd be very cool.
[0:24:45] SW: Do it only for your Patreon patrons.
[0:24:46] LHL: Okay, yeah.
[0:24:48] SW: Smart. Smart.
[0:24:50] BL: She's one of them. She wants to be exclusive. See?
[0:24:53] SW: Nice. Nice.
[0:24:54] LHL: But what were you gonna say?
[0:24:57] BL: I was going to say, that's partially I think why I keep things a surprise because I am so freaking pumped to show my work to people. And I've found even my sister who I live with, she knows if I'm starting a painting, she knows not to look at it, she doesn't come in the room. I sound like such a diva. But I'm just so – I know as soon as I get that serotonin from watching someone get excited about it, it sucks the motivation right out of me.
And so keeping it a secret and being like, "I'm looking at this adorable animal for whatever weeks," endless hours, 100 hours or more. And I'm just picturing all my different followers. Like I was saying earlier, I know so many of them so personally, and I'm like, "Oh, this person's going to love this one." And I can't wait to see what they have to say or whatever. And so I'm just thinking that the whole time while I'm painting, and I think that's largely what keeps me going to the finish line. Because I'm like, "I'm not allowed to share this until it's done. And so I'm just dying to finish it.
[0:25:55] SW: Oh, that's so fun.
[0:25:57] LHL: Also, I feel like your original sell rather quickly.
[0:26:00] BL: They do. I've been very lucky with that.
[0:26:03] LHL: I feel like there could be an online feeding frenzy if you start to show the in process. Your followers might start duking it out, "Who's gonna get it?"
[0:26:13] BL: Who knows? I have no idea.
[0:26:16] SW: What are your other studio rituals? It sounds like you paint at home. Are you listening to something while you're painting? Do you have any other sort of routines around painting?
[0:26:24] BL: All over the map, truthfully. I used to have more of a standard. It was like particular genres of music and all these things. But for the most part, I need a clean space to start. I can't really think straight until it's clean because I'm home. Even if it's like, okay, the dishes are on the counter in the room that not even my studio room, I'm like, I have to have those put away. Clean slate. Everyone's taking care of all the animals. And then I am very specific about wearing my apron. I try to condition my brain that apron's on, it's work time. Yeah. And then having time lapses of my painting actually is also super helpful because my phone's out of my hand. It's on the tripod behind me. I'm not seeing notifications, I'm not anything. And there's also this kind of I feel an accountability as I'm filming. I'm not going to walk away and go, whatever, fold laundry. Now the camera's running.
[0:27:15] SW: No. Yeah, that's more editing for you later.
[0:27:17] BL: Exactly. Or having to make sure the tripod's in the same place or whatever it may be. That helps a lot. And then aside from that, it's just I have a very particular palette, I guess. All those little things that we all have. But yeah, no, it's nothing too particular.
[0:27:34] SW: We've definitely gotten weirder answers. That's very like –
[0:27:38] LHL: I love the apron one. I feel like that's more than just a ritual, it's conditioning, like you said. And I think that muscle memory of what mode you're in. Because I think it's really easy to, "Oh, I got to respond to this email." I think that's a very inspiring thing as well. I might have to steal that.
[0:27:56] SW: Yeah. It's something that a lot of people who like work from home do too. I can work from home in my pajamas, that's not an issue. But a lot of my coworkers will like, "I have to change and like put on a real outfit so I feel like I'm at work."
[0:28:07] LHL: Yeah.
[0:28:08] BL: That's me. Yeah, even if I'm not painting, every day I have to put on clean, fresh outfit, shoes. I don't know why. I'm just like I have to have shoes on even though I'm home. And then yeah, to the easel with the apron on, good to go.
[0:28:22] SW: Yeah. Do you block out time or have a specific day that you dedicate to the business side, the admin stuff?
[0:28:28] BL: I wish. Yeah. No. I need more structure, I think, at this point is something I'm realizing. So far, it's been very intuitive. And I'm so, so lucky and privileged to get to do this full time. And so much of my art is purely inspired-driven. If I'm feeling the super strong pull to paint, I might drop my business side of things for like a straight week, as long as orders are getting out and people who I need to respond to are hearing from me. And I'll go into paint mode for a week and forget the world. And then I can kind of play catch-up the next week. And it all seems to balance out eventually. But, yeah, there's no set schedule.
[0:29:13] SW: That's wonderful, though.
[0:29:15] LHL: And being an entrepreneur on top of being an artist, you have to balance those two sides, which dives into the next question nicely. We often ask our guests, if you won a ton of money, what do you imagine your creative life would be like? And I do still want to ask that in like, "If you won millions and millions of dollars." But before that, I did want to mention, you recently did win some money from a business competition from the Regional Economic Development Center, where I work. That's kind of how we, I mean, in-person, connected, right? I'd love to hear about your process as far as writing that application, and then finding out you're a finalist, and then receiving that. And what does that grant mean for the next step in your business?
[0:29:57] BL: Yes. Great question. This is going to sound, I don't know, maybe annoying to some people. It was the first grant I had ever applied for, and I did not think I was going to get it because I was like, "You know, it's just good experience to have." I think I'm the type of person who over-prepares for things and tends to underestimate my ability to do things. And it almost makes me work twice as hard or maybe even harder than I have to. I don't think so necessarily in this context, but in life. And I studied every part that was available on the REDC website, and I was like, "I need to have this unlocked."
I was pretty stressed around the time I was applying, hearing a lot about tariffs, and what's going to happen to small businesses, and all of these things. And I was like, "The economy. What's going to happen to the economy in the next year?" And I was like, "Okay, I need to figure out how to write for grants." And this is my little piece of hope for 2025. And I didn't expect to get it. And the shock and excitement when I got that email, I lost my mind.
There's actually a photo. My aunt who lives in Ireland likes to DoorDash things when stuff is – whatever. To celebrate things. And so I told her. And she sent stuff immediately. And there's a photo from the DoorDash driver of me in my painting apron, looking just out of my mind happy. My smile is so big, my eyelids are almost rolling over backwards. Like I am so excited picking up my little Duncan bag off the doorstep. And this guy caught me in that moment.
But like as goofy as the photo is, I'm like I kind of cherish that because it was such a happy moment for me. And I am just so excited to apply that to my business. I've already started to apply it to my business. And we had talked a lot about puzzles. That's a huge part of that, is expanding that because they're kind of expensive to get going. Yeah. And any new product that you add is going to be a little pricey initially, too. But I'm just so stoked to – and a mural was part of my application. And that's going to be happening. I was just talking with someone about that today. And everything's kind of falling into place, and I'm so excited and grateful.
[0:32:12] SW: That's amazing.
[0:32:13] LHL: I have a big goofy grin because it's such a joy to see the fruits of that competition. And to be able to connect with the winner, it means a lot. Because if you don't know, the Regional Economic Development Center is all about helping small businesses in New Hampshire, and primarily through not just grants. It's primarily through alternative lending, and business advising, and other sorts of things like that. But the grant programs that we do have, I think, can make a real difference in that next step for businesses.
[0:32:40] BL: Absolutely.
[0:32:40] LHL: It's like a really close part to my heart, you know?
[0:32:44] BL: Yeah. No, it's amazing work that you're all doing. And I'm so grateful. And I'm telling all my friends, I'm like, "Check this out. This is incredible." And there's places out there that do want to support small businesses, and it's such a hopeful thing because it's hard to have a small business and to have success. And when you can get a grant like this, it's like life-changing, literally.
[0:33:03] LHL: Yeah. And there's obviously other economic development corps like us. But then there's Small Business Development Center, and SCORE, and the Center for Women's Enterprise, and your chambers, and all these different folks. There's a lot more out there than folks realize. The competition that you won had an arts and culture vibrancy focus. Of course, me being an artist, I'm like, "This is it. This is the best."
[0:33:30] SW: Yeah, it's so reaffirming, right? Because, obviously, arts and the creative economy are super important to us. And then, of course, when REDC did their pitch competition, what feels like a billion years ago now, it was Big Ink that one. And we had Big Ink on the podcast. It's really cool to see like artists win and like get this small business support.
[0:33:49] LHL: Yeah. Yeah.
[0:33:51] SW: Awesome.
[0:33:52] LHL: I know. Very, very exciting. It was win-win in my heart because it got to go to an amazing artist. And to be able to meet you was awesome.
[0:34:00] BL: Thank you so much. It was amazing to meet you that day. And I'm still floating every time I remember. I'm like, "I won?"
[0:34:11] LHL: Back to the, I guess, the origin of this question, if you won millions upon millions? And sky is the limit. Do you have any high in the sky dreams?
[0:34:23] BL: That's such a good question because I kind of operate every day. I feel like I'm living out such a lifelong dream of mine to be a full-time artist that I joke with my sister sometimes, too. I'm like, "If I could be doing anything or whatever, I think I might want to hire." I would want to hire at least one person to help me.
[0:34:41] LHL: Yeah. Administrative stuff.
[0:34:43] BL: Yes, administrative. I also joke, someone to fold cardboard boxes, because I hate the sound of cardboard on cardboard. That would be my, whatever, diva thing. You are the cardboard box holder because that is like the bane of my existence. No. I'd love to have kind of like a community space, I think, very similar to where we are now or the Front Street. But maybe a little bit more of like commercial space too, since I do that kind of thing. And I know I have so many friends, really from across all of America or even globally, who also have small art businesses with just fun little things. And I would like, "I would love to be able to have a space for events, and artists, and studio spaces." And just, yeah, to have in-person community.
[0:35:31] LHL: Totally the dream.
[0:35:32] BL: Yes. I think that's what I would do. Yeah.
[0:35:35] LHL: It's awesome.
[0:35:36] BL: Yes. And some people that help me actually make it happen.
[0:35:39] SW: Yes, yeah. So I have time to walk my dogs and sleep.
[0:35:46] LHL: Yes. That work-life balance that we were just talking about.
[0:35:48] SW: Exactly.
[0:35:51] LHL: You kind of talked about this earlier, but you were talking about showing the real side of making art. It's not just magic, right? Aside from that, or maybe expounding upon that, but what do you wish people understood better about art and being an artist?
[0:36:08] BL: That's a really good question. I think about art in general, I mean, it's also personal, too. I can only speak for myself. I think people might not realize how personal art can be. Even these goofy little critters that I make, they probably seem so light-hearted. But to me, it's like they're living, breathing creatures to me. And I love them so deeply. And I know it can sound like you're full of yourself if you're like, "Oh, I love this piece. And I love this piece." But I'm like I don't even feel like I'm talking about something I made. They just are like their own. They're like my kids. It's like easy to be proud of them, if that makes sense.
[0:36:42] SW: Yup.
[0:36:43] BL: It's personal in that sense. Also, I think I joke that they're each kind of like a self-portrait in a way, even though they don't look like me at all. But they really all have elements and things that reflect who I am, and some of them are directly derived from like childhood photos or whatever. And so it is deeply personal. And I think that's true for – that might be a thing that's very true for all artists, I would say, is we all find a way to take ourselves and make it into art.
[0:37:12] LHL: Which I think ties back to the guts of it all. It's such a vulnerable thing because it's not just judging skill, it's judging someone's life and their experience that they're putting into it.
[0:37:22] BL: Absolutely. It's so vulnerable. Yes.
[0:37:24] SW: Absolutely.
[0:37:26] LHL: How do you define success as an artist?
[0:37:29] BL: Oh, I do not know. I don't even think I spent time trying to define success. I'm just like, "What am I going to do today?" You know what I mean? Yeah, I suppose it's just – I don't even know. It's finding joy in what you do, and feeling at peace with what you're doing. I don't think it's necessarily financial or anything really.
[0:37:58] SW: Number of followers.
[0:37:58] BL: Exactly. There's so many ways to be an artist. Yeah, I'm just remembering. Someone asked me the other day, "If you didn't have all these followers and whatever, would you still feel validated in your art?" And I was like, "Yes." It took me a moment to think. I was like, "Do I take a lot from that?" And then I remembered how I really got my start making art was is when I was completely alone, dropped out of school. And I would spend all day, every day making art by myself. And I would end those days and I would look at a piece that I worked my ass off on and I would stare at it and I would feel so proud and so satisfied. Like, "I made that. I made that with almost nothing." A number two pencil, maybe some printer paper. And I felt such a deep satisfaction from that. I don't know. You could be successful or feel successful, it just is something like within yourself, if that makes sense.
[0:38:55] LHL: Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
[0:38:57] SW: Yeah.
[0:38:57] LHL: I think that's another thing that folks who aren't artists don't realize. It's not about the recognition of my name, or the money or – I mean, that's certainly fine and great to have.
[0:39:07] BL: It's nice. Yeah. I won't turn away the money.
[0:39:12] LHL: I mean, I see those things not as this means I'm successful, but this is the stepping stone to being able to do more art. More of the business of it all. Getting further down the road. I think that has a modicum of success in it. But yeah, I think it's the fulfillment you get from within from the pieces that you're making. And one of our pillars is everybody is a creative, whether they want to call that an artist or whatever. It doesn't have to be fine art. But everyone is creative and has this within them. And so many people think that they don't.
And so when you're defining success, I think when you're pointing your finger at, it means your overall fulfillment. I think that maybe can help people be more onboard with it. Because if you think it's, "Oh, social media, and putting it out there, and all that." It's like, "No." But I think that's what a lot of people think.
[0:39:59] SW: Yeah. I wonder, it must be hard to be an artist without social media now. I don't want to say it's impossible. But yeah, if you want to financially support yourself, it sounds really hard.
[0:40:13] BL: Yeah, I don't have an in-person brick-and-mortar shop. As far as being able to financially support myself, I do rely heavily on social media, for sure.
[0:40:23] SW: Although, you have some art out in the local world, right? You have art at a restaurant?
[0:40:27] BL: Yes, I have art at Juniper Kitchen in Dover and then also at Street in Portsmouth.
[0:40:32] SW: Love Street.
[0:40:33] BL: Yeah, I love Street, too.
[0:40:34] SW: Yeah. I'm curious if you can talk a little bit about, speaking of making it as an artist and balancing business and art, how you went through the process or go through the process of like figuring out how to price your art in your products. Because that's so hard. And I feel like every artist struggles with that.
[0:40:52] BL: It's so hard. I'm trying to even think back because I've always struggled, especially early on, pricing my artwork. I was doing pet portraits for a long time and just way underselling myself. And that's kind of when I learned to actually value my work. I would calculate at the end of a job, and I'd be like, "Okay, I made like $2 an hour. This is great."
[0:41:16] SW: Well, your art takes so long. It's so many hours going into every piece.
[0:41:19] BL: And even then, I would have people haggling with me, like, "What if I buy the canvas? Can you take this much?" And I was like, "Oh."
[0:41:26] SW: That's not it.
[0:41:27] BL: No, not at all. Yeah, no. I think I got to a point where I was partially pricing my work. Like, "Okay, this takes a long time." I need to be able to afford to continue to make the art. And so it was partially like, "Okay, what do I need to afford to live these two weeks that I did nothing but paint?" is a part of it." But also, I had a really – I don't even know what to call it. A very lucky, I guess, experience with my work going viral in the way that it did so early on, where I was like, "Let me just put a number on this and see what happens," kind of thing, early on. And I did. And I did not expect anything to sell. I've always said I structure my business kind of like I sell prints, and stickers, and whatnot. And if I sell an original, it's icing on the cake. I never expected them to sell the way that they do. I've been very lucky that they do sell so quickly. And so it's partially like I see the work and I think what's it going to take for me to let go of this piece that I've just fell in love with?
[0:42:28] LHL: Yeah.
[0:42:29] SW: Yeah.
[0:42:30] BL: It's a different part of it, too, which I think I'm privileged to be able to ask those questions.
[0:42:33] SW: Have sentimental value.
[0:42:36] BL: Yes. And I've sold pieces that, truthfully, I kind of regret saying goodbye to. Yeah, I sold a couple, I regretted it right away. And I went on my website literally in 24 hours and I was like, "That's mine, and that's mine, and that's mine." And I took a few things down. I was like, "I didn't like that."
[0:42:53] LHL: I was going to ask that. And I think I saw you have some on your wall, in your living room, are those all yours that are staying yours forever?
[0:43:01] BL: Yes. If I paint one of my pets, I keep them. I try not to – I let myself paint one of my pets a year. And I have a lot of pets.
[0:43:12] SW: That's interesting. I actually was going to comment because you have three cats, and three dogs, and lots of foster kittens. But I was like, "There aren't actually that many dogs and cats on your website." Those ones, you're keeping.
[0:43:26] BL: Yes. Yeah. I keep those. I also reference past pets. I grew up with lots of animals. And so I've like painted one of my rats. I've painted one of my chickens. I keep those. The only one that I've kept that isn't a pet of mine is there's a little jumping spider named Stella. And she was almost like a gift to myself after B'Nan and T'Can sold. And I was a little sad about it. Not going to lie. And I was like, "Okay, I have to keep Stella for myself. This is my little gift to myself." Yeah.
[0:43:57] LHL: I love freezing it that way. That's nice.
[0:44:00] BL: Yeah. Thank you.
[0:44:04] LHL: I think it's time for rapid-fire.
[0:44:05] BL: Okay.
[0:44:06] LHL: Yeah. I know. We could talk all night. What other artists has influenced you the most?
[0:44:13] BL: The most. Ooh. I really like Ebb Flow Studio, Emily Buchanan. Yeah. She does super silly little pet portraits, too.
[0:44:21] SW: Yeah. Very cool.
[0:44:23] BL: Thank you.
[0:44:23] SW: This is impossible. What is your favorite animal?
[0:44:27] BL: Aside from my dogs, I would say possums.
[0:44:32] LHL: All right. Here's the off-the-cuff question. What animal would you be if you were an animal?
[0:44:40] BL: I'm going to say, specifically, my dog, Darla.
[0:44:44] LHL: Oh, Darla.
[0:44:46] BL: I joke that like we're Elliot and E.T. We're just one and the same already.
[0:44:52] SW: So cute. What's your favorite color?
[0:44:55] BL: Right now, blue.
[0:44:56] SW: Okay.
[0:44:57] LHL: What is your favorite scent?
[0:44:59] BL: Coconut.
[0:45:00] SW: Good one. What's your favorite sound?
[0:45:04] BL: This just makes me think of my animals. I'm like, "My little Wilbur's purr." I don't know. Yeah.
[0:45:10] LHL: What's your favorite texture to touch?
[0:45:14] BL: Oh. I'm stuck on my pets now. Darla's fur, her stinky old fur. Yeah, I don't know. I do love paint. I love mixing paint. That feels nice. Yeah.
[0:45:24] SW: I was definitely expecting fur.
[0:45:27] BL: Okay. Okay. Good. Good.
[0:45:28] LHL: That's like our most common one that we get.
[0:45:30] SW: It is.
[0:45:30] LHL: It is. People love their pets.
[0:45:31] BL: I do. I do. I'm obsessed. Yeah.
[0:45:35] SW: Where's the most inspiring location you've traveled to?
[0:45:39] BL: Probably Saco River Wildlife Center. Yeah. I have a friend that works there, so I get to visit the little baby animals in springtime, possums, raccoons.
[0:45:47] SW: Oh my God. Actually, that's a great question. Do you get to go visit animals in real-life to get inspiration?
[0:45:53] BL: Sometimes, yeah.
[0:45:54] SW: That's awesome.
[0:45:55] LHL: I love that.
[0:45:56] SW: It's been an unexpected perk, yeah.
[0:46:00] LHL: What is the last new thing you've learned?
[0:46:04] SW: I mean, my GPS did teach me how to get here. Does that count?
[0:46:10] LHL: Yeah.
[0:46:12] BL: Yeah. I don't know if I have any new fun facts.
[0:46:15] LHL: That's a good one. Art Up Front Street. It'll be awesomeness this year.
[0:46:19] BL: Yes, absolutely.
[0:46:20] SW: Clincher question. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your younger self?
[0:46:25] BL: I think I would just tell myself it's all going to work out. Yeah, I've spent so long worrying, especially when I was younger, especially during hard times, like, "What is my life going to look like?" And it's better than I could have ever imagined. Yeah, that would be it.
[0:46:40] SW: Love it. Beautiful. Thank you so much.
[0:46:42] BL: Thank you. This was so fun.
[0:46:44] LHL: This was awesome.
[0:46:45] SW: This was, yeah, amazing.
[0:46:46] LHL: I feel like I learned a lot. This was just such a great peek into your mind.
[0:46:50] SW: Yes.
[0:46:50] BL: You got the brighter side of my mind.
[0:46:55] LHL: Becca, thank you again for being on the Creative Guts podcast. And with that –
[0:46:59] LHL, SW & BL: Show us your Creative Guts.
[0:47:06] SW: Another huge thank you to Becca Lane for joining us on Creative Guts. It's going to be hard not to gush about her here, because Laura and I love her. And this was such an amazing conversation.
[0:47:21] LHL: It really was. We only look behind the curtain here. We only had one interview tonight. Usually we have two a night. Didn't happen this night. But usually after two interviews, our cheeks hurt from smiling so much. Only one interview tonight, and our cheeks are so sore from smiling.
[0:47:37] SW: Yes.
[0:47:39] LHL: I think she just provided so much inspiration, but realistic, authentic look behind the curtain as well. It was a really nice balance of the wonder, and the whimsy, and the excitement, and the absolute zen that she finds, and the peace within that she finds through her work. But then also, folding cardboard boxes and having to really do that processing part. And her just saying that she doesn't always have it together, it just really surprises me because she seems like she does.
[0:48:09] SW: Yes. She has such like a polish in her brand, and image, and social media. But she's also so open and so vulnerable. And she reminded me of something that I have learned from this podcast lots of times, which is like I could understand artists being competitive. And I don't want to share my secrets and talk about the process. But largely, I found through talking to folks that artists aren't like that. I'm like, "Let's chat about this." And she's open and is willing to sort of talk about it and share the sort of behind the scenes and the nitty gritty.
[0:48:42] LHL: You know, you just said something that sort of made me think of something. Not necessarily related to Becca, but artists really aren't competitors.
[0:48:50] SW: Nope.
[0:48:51] LHL: Or at least not in the real world. Maybe in like the depths of New York City and these big kind of hubs that are just not really about it. But I think the reason that we're not is because society and the world in general needs the arts but doesn't really notice it, or appreciate it, or recognize it. And so we're sort of the underdogs, one of the many groups of underdogs.
And so when one of us wins, we all win. Because one more person buying art is one more collector who is going to buy art again from another artist. It's a community that truly is going to benefit off of all of us thriving. When you look at it in that lens, it's like, "Well, no. Duh? Of course, I'm going to –" if I apply for the same grant as someone else and they win it, good for them. Hold the torch even higher for artists and creatives.
[0:49:41] SW: It's so beautiful.
[0:49:42] LHL: And I think Becca is holding a torch high in many ways. And I really applaud her perseverance, and thoughtfulness, and authenticity in what she does.
[0:49:53] SW: Yeah. And also, her art is so whimsical, and cute, and gives me joy to look at. It's colorful, and contemporary, and fun. And she features a lot of the oddball animals. There's raccoons, and possums, and tarantulas, which I don't love, but it's okay. It's very cute.
[0:50:17] LHL: And I think in any situation where an artist can bring more appreciation, even if it's unrealistic personality, maybe it is, maybe it isn't, maybe this possum has sass or not. But I think anything that brings people closer to animals is a good thing.
[0:50:33] SW: I think so too.
[0:50:35] LHL: I got to say, I got my vegan card here. It really matters to appreciate the other living beings on this planet. And if you fall in love with a raccoon in a painting, maybe you'll be less likely to say, "Yeah, these raccoons." And just have a little compassion, and that we're sharing this – okay. I'm sorry. I got to get all – that just unlocks so much, man.
[0:50:58] SW: I know. I know. Well, the other thing, too, is that it's nice to remember when you see somebody who's making cute, whimsical, fun, joyful art, that there's so much of their personality, and trauma, and emotions. And it's still so vulnerable to remember that when you're looking at a piece of art that somebody put their soul into it. Ugh, it's just so beautiful. And she thinks of all of her paintings as her babies. They have a little of her in them, because of course they do.
[0:51:24] LHL: And her community. I think building that and having these close friendships with folks that are just off the same kind of love of appreciating these pieces that her soul is in. Well, we said we would try not to gush. But guess what, folks? We did it.
[0:51:40] SW: Yeah. Whoops.
[0:51:42] LHL: You can find Becca on the web at onelanestudios.com. You can also find One Lane Studios on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky. Or Becca made it easy for you and you can visit onelanestudios.com/links to be taken down the road to all of her social media links. You can also subscribe to Becca's newsletter on her website.
[0:52:06] SW: You can also find us, Creative Guts Podcast, on Instagram, and Facebook, and LinkedIn, and Discord. And if you're not on social media, but you want to stay in the know about what we're doing, you can join our newsletter list on our website, creativegutspodcast.com.
[0:52:20] LHL: This episode is sponsored in part by the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts. Thank you to our friends in Rochester for their support of the show.
[0:52:28] SW: A big thank you to Art Up Front Street for providing a space where Creative Guts can record.
[0:52:32] LHL: We'd like to recognize another sponsor who recently sponsored a big program of ours, the Currier Museum of Art. Thank you so much to the Currier Museum for your support of Creative Guts.
[0:52:43] SW: If you love listening and you want to support Creative Guts too, you can make a donation, leave us a review, interact with our content on social media, purchase some merch. Whatever you're able to do, we appreciate you.
[0:52:54] LHL: Thank you for tuning in. We'll Then we'll be back next Wednesday with another episode of Creative Guts.
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