We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lacey Schmitt a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Lacey , really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
As a young child, creating things brought me so much joy. I think this is what drove me to continue doing it and venture into all kinds of mediums. I love painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, building things from wood, making jewelry and much more. No matter what I was creating, seeing it come together in the final product and knowing that I did that just sparked something in me. My motivation and passion for creating grew and grew with each new finished piece. I constantly wanted to try new things because I just thrived off learning and creating new pieces. I got to a point when I knew that this was me and there was no other path in life that I would want to take that would make me as happy as creating.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Art has always been my passion. I ventured away from my small town in Michigan after high school and studied art in Chicago. The big city was a drastic change for me, but I fell in love with the art, the city and the abundance of cultures coming together. After college, I got an opportunity to teach art. I have been teaching at a non profit art studio back home in Michigan for 8 years called Design Street. I had never wanted to teach originally, but the experience has been very fulfilling. Having a place for young artists to learn and grow is so important. I would hear too often when I was younger “what will you be able to do with art,” or “that’s not a real job.” Giving young artists an environment where they can expand their skills and learn about real world art jobs and possibilites is rewarding. For students, it’s a place where someone believes in them and their interests and shows them they really can follow their dreams. I’ve always been a big dreamer and I definitely want to push others to find their true passions and follow their own big dreams.
Growing up in a country setting, my art has been largely inspired by nature, plants and animals. I discovered my innate love for plants along the way and that led to opening my ‘artsy plant shop’ in Allegan, Michigan in June of 2023. My shop, Eccentric Garden, curates a mix of moody plant and nature art along with a jungle full of plants. This new venture has allowed me to pursue my love for art and plants all in one amazing and inspiring place. I want people to walk into the shop and fall in love with the luscious foliage and other unique items that we carry.
I will be offering a mix of plant-related classes starting this fall that partner with a local brewery, Tantrick Brewing, right here in Allegan, Michigan. Pots and Pints classes will have offerings such as building your own plant shelf and how to make a moss pole, to name a few. These classes will take place at the brewery’s ‘Down Under’ room on the beautiful Allegan riverfront.
This isn’t where it will end though. I did say I have always been a dreamer. I have plans to expand to a larger space eventually and offer a gallery and other areas for artists to display and sell their work alongside the beauty of nature’s own art.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Similarly to my love to try anything and everything with different art mediums, I have been on a whirlwind of job and life experiences in my short 32 years of life. I have been a tattoo apprentice, an operations manager for a large retail chain, and spent 7 years bartending and serving in the restaurant industry. I have learned invaluable skills throughout all of these very different experiences that I feel were all in preparation for where I am at now. I learned the ins and outs of running a business through my operations management experience. From controlling inventory, to hiring and staffing, risk management and team building, task time management and learning to stay calm under pressure, this experience gave me the confidence to start my own business. My bartending experience helped me become a social butterfly and helped me to build an amazing community of people that still stand with me in my new endeavors. Working at a tattoo shop really pushed my art into new directions and challenged me to be a stronger artist and also develop my communication skills even further.
You never know where life is going to take you. Always be willing to try all the things and don’t be afraid to meet new people and strike up conversations with strangers. Building relationships with people is one of my favorite things. It is such an asset to grow your circle and fill it with all different kinds of people from all walks of life. Everyone has a different path and different advice or life experience to share. The connections you develop will allow for so many opportunities you may have not even known that you wanted.
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?
As an artist myself, I understand that many of us may like to be more secluded or introverted in some senses. There are 2 specific books that I feel changed my life and the way I look at things and people, which has influenced everything that I have done since these discoveries and really opened up my own personality and social skills. The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman and Personality Plus by Florence Littauer. I feel like these books go hand in hand. I got on this big kick of personal growth when I met some friends who were in a life development program. Once I started to dive into the books and information, I just wanted to learn more and more. These books help you to understand that people are all different. Everyone thinks about things differently and has different perspectives. Everyone wants to feel loved in different ways. Not only romantically, but in a general human sense. People do things differently based on their personality types and that’s ok! How boring would it really be if we were all the same? These things are sooo so important to me though. After learning the psychology of different personality types and why we are the way we are, I have become more patient, accepting, understanding and loving towards all people. I believe this is why I am so passionate about building relationships because they are the heart of our human connection. If this seems off topic, I promise it’s not. These are some of the most valuable life skills I have ever learned and have resulted in the ease of building new relationships with customers and in turn, growing a business. You have to love people if you want to be in a service type of industry.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.eccentric-garden.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/eccentricgardenplantshop
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/eccentricgarden
