Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Careese Alexander.
Hi Lauren, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I was born in Dallas and have lived in the DFW area my entire life. Growing up, I went to Life School Red Oak until it was time to go to the 9th grade. At that point, I switched over to Waxahachie Global High School, where I received my Associate of Art degree at the same time that I received my High School Diploma in 2018. Since I received my associate degree in high school, I was then able to jump immediately into my major at UT Tyler, which was Studio Art. I stayed in the Studio Art program for the entirety of my time at UT Tyler and then graduated in December of 2021 with my bachelor’s in fine arts degree. As of Fall 2022, I began my master’s in fine arts program at Southern Methodist University, which I will finish in the Spring 2024 semester. While art has always been something that has been present in my life, I can’t talk about my life without sharing about my faith. In elementary school, I served at a church as a student leader, where I would help teach a group of students that were younger than me, and it was at this time that I fell in love with volunteering and working at churches. At the age of 12 (and then again at the age of 13), I went on a mission trip to Guatemala. Seeing and helping another culture in another country was fundamentally impactful on my life. It opened my eyes to the fact that our world is not as small as I once thought and, that we are not so different from one another, that we all have our own problems we are working through. Since then, I have been to China, Italy, France, and Spain on educational tours, and just recently, I went to London to help churches and missionaries in the UK. Back home, I have worked at many churches throughout my life, but I currently serve at Northwest Bible Church in Dallas on the Audio/Visual team, where I run cameras, slides, video switcher, and occasionally video direct for the broadcasting team, but I also work on the childcare team as well, setting up classrooms for events and Sunday mornings or working directly in the classroom with the kids. I love working at the church, the community that it provides, and the ability to serve others.
When I am not in school or serving at a church, I love making art and helping others with their art. Over the summers, I try to find some sort of summer camp position where I can teach art to kids. The rest of the year, I work on my own personal art, a variety of ceramics, painting, sculpture, and crochet. I have always loved making art, and when people ask about my profession, artist is the all-encompassing answer. I love that in every aspect of my life, I have a creative outlet of some kind, and I love that life influences my creativity as well. Being an artist is a cyclical process of taking in and putting out, and I really love that part of my life.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t been a smooth road. If I am being honest, in high school and into my undergraduate program, I struggled with high levels of depression, anxiety, and a struggle with finding purpose. I knew I wanted to be an artist, but I was afraid that I was wasting my other talents and not being financially stable, especially because that was what a lot of people would tell me at that time. I was warned I would starve if I became an artist or that I could be so much more like a doctor or an engineer that I was wasting my intelligence. It took a long time to overcome those thoughts, but through my faith, my trust in God’s plan for my life, and the advice of my parents, friends, and members of my churches and schools, I was able to come to the understanding that being an artist is what I wanted out of my life and I have really found purpose in the desire to use the gift of art I have been given to help others with their own problems and situations.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Right now, I feel like my art has been pretty all over the place since I am studying and experimenting in graduate school. I do ceramics, painting, collage, crochet, and overall mixed media work. I love combining lots of different materials and practices and seeing how they work or don’t work with each other. Recently I learned how to crochet, and so it has been really fun to try figuring out how I can incorporate that within my other work. I think what sets me apart from others (or maybe not, since so many people now share my sentiments) is my interest in the process over the end result. I am really more interested in how art feels like therapy or meditation for me. I love the act of creating, the slickness of putting paint on a surface, the malleability of a ball of clay moving through my fingers, the meditative twisting and turning of yarn against a crochet hook, and the way a pastel feels as you scribble it across a paper. That, to me, is more valuable than what it ends up looking like in the end. Don’t get me wrong, my art still means something deeper than that, either the viewer’s interpretation or my own, but the meaning to me is more dependent on what happens DURING the process rather than what happens in my head beforehand.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
If you are thinking about becoming an artist, do it! Don’t let others discourage you from that ambition. Art is EVERYWHERE, and we will always need artists; the world would be so horribly boring without it. Keep creating, keep making, keep taking in the world around you, and don’t forget that art comes from life, and life comes from art. If someone is telling you that you can’t have a career in art, don’t listen to them because there are thousands of companies and organizations that are looking for and constantly desiring to have an artist on board in some capacity!
Contact Info:
- Website: laurencareese.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurencareese.art/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laurencareese.art
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg5LxBvSWpq1OQaQ1Bk0SEw
Image Credits
Lauren Careese Alexander
