Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Laurie Hunt. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Laurie, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
To be honest, developing my confidence is an ever-evolving endeavor for me. When I first started in the art world 10+ years ago, I lacked the ability to trust my instincts and capabilities. I felt shaky interacting with people when they came into my art booth during a fair, I had a difficult time pricing my art work, and I felt unsure about opportunities if I they were beyond what I perceived to be my wheelhouse. Growing out of this mindset and into a place where I can trust and value myself has emanated both from my continued work in the art world and the shape my life is taking outside of it.
As many people who have taken on parenthood will tell you, it pretty much changes the entire trajectory of your life. I took a major pause on my art business when I had my three daughters (now 7, 5, and 3). My husband was working a job that required him to work all 3 shifts with no consistency, and having me home full time felt like the right decision for our family. While motherhood certainly came with many challenges, it also offered me the opportunity to feel grounded in myself and rely more upon my instincts and intuition. Perfectionism went out the window (ever tried to keep a house clean with 3 kids under the age of 5 running around?), and I settled much more into myself, imperfections and all. For me, understanding and acknowledging my limitations as a mother helped my confidence grow immensely.
Once my youngest daughter reached the age of 1, I began slowly ramping back up my art business with new collections, art fairs, workshops, and online sales. I couldn’t believe the ease with which I could engage with strangers coming into my tent compared to the time prior to having children. I could participate in a market where I did not sell as much work as I had hoped and not feel like my self-worth was tied up in that. By shedding the older layers of anxious perfectionism, I was able to see every opportunity and engagement in the art world as information for the next opportunity, not something to feel disappointed by, and I my confidence and self-esteem felt like it had settled on a solid foundation.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My name is Laurie Hunt, I live outside of Madison, WI, on 5 acres with my husband, three daughters, two cats, and twelve chickens. I finished my undergrad at Notre Dame with a degree in graphic design and worked for a couple years in Washington, DC, as a graphic designer for a start-up company. I then went on to get my MFA in printmaking from Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, MI, where I was given free range to explore both printmaking and fiber arts.
Upon graduating from Kendall, I moved to Madison, WI, where I started my small art business, Wild Hunt Prints. With Madison as my home base, I taught workshops and sold pieces at art fairs all around the Great Lakes area. Upon welcoming my first daughter, I took a big step back from the art world to focus on being a mom. I went on to have two more daughters over the course of 4 years. When my youngest turned 1, I decided I was ready to jump back into my art a little by little, and slowly ramped back up with both making and selling work and teaching linocut workshops.
Wild Hunt Prints continues to function as more of a side-gig with my kids still being small, but I hope to continue to throttle up with each passing season so that when they are all in school full-time I can hit the ground running. All of my artwork originates as a linocut blockprint, which I hand carve and then print on my tabletop printing press in my small home studio. Some pieces are left as prints and others I work back into with chalk pastel to add color, detail, and/or embellishment.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1- “To everything there is a season.” I found it really hard to set my art aside while I was in the midst of having babies/small children. I just did not have the energy for creative bursts while simultaneously being in such high demand from my kids, and I had a lot of days where I wondered if I would ever get back to it again. Now that my children are a little bit older and I do have more time and energy to put into my work, I realize that babies and little children are a season of life, and it’s ok to set other things aside during these tender years. You will find your way back to what is meant for you.
2- “It doesn’t have to be perfect.” Before the hiatus I took from the art world, I viewed every art fair and workshop as a potential to be my “big break.” I would put so much pressure on myself to make every piece perfect, to knock every workshop out of the park, to have my displays topnotch. I now realize that while it is important to represent yourself and your brand with intention and purpose, it is ok to put pieces out into the world that may not seem to totally capture what you had hoped. It’s ok if your art fair display is slightly hodgepodged together. It is ok if a workshop goes slightly awry. I have learned that I can navigate imperfections with fluidity and grace, and I no longer put so much pressure on myself in these scenarios.
3- “It’s all information.” I am now in a place where every opportunity I have in the art world I look at as information gathering. This way of looking at things both allows me to stay neutral about situations that maybe aren’t as “successful” as I had hoped for and learn something from both my failures and achievements. I debrief every situation afterwards-nwhat worked, what didn’t, and what would I change next time. In this way, everything that comes across my table, good or bad, is FOR me rather than against me.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
One of the most profound books I have read in the last few years was Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself by Lisa Marchiano. In this book, Marchiano uses fairytales and myths to explore motherhood as a catalyst for personal development. As an artist and a mother, I found the passages on motherhood and creativity to resonate the most:
“Children have a way of demanding everything from us. Especially when our children are young, merely getting through the day can leave us depleted and exhausted, with little time for anything else. A woman’s creative life can readily become mired beneath the daily duties of motherhood. And yet motherhood can be an invitation to commit ourselves more deeply to our artistic offspring, offering renewed opportunities to trust in our creative potential. Motherhood, with its call to embodiment and authenticity, can provide a deep grounding for meaningful creative endeavors.”
These words strike a chord with me because I have found that motherhood has brought me back to myself, which has in turn transformed the way I can show up as an artist. I can feel the shift when I compare the way I interacted with art before I had children and the way I interact with it now. I feel much more grounded, capable, and confident.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.wildhuntprints.com
- Instagram: @wildhuntprints
Image Credits
Natural Intuition Photography Laurie Hunt
