Meet Lisa Gakyo Schaewe

We were lucky to catch up with Lisa Gakyo Schaewe recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lisa Gakyo, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

As an artist, I’ve needed to learn to trust that in the creative process, what needs to arise will arise. All areas of my life including my art practice stand on the foundation of my Zen practice. Through my daily zazen (seated meditation) I observe thoughts surfacing and dissipating, as patterns of clinging and aversion ebb and flow. If I do not get caught up and attached to a singular idea and concept, something new and alive can happen that I would never have been able to imagine if I was fixed in to a formulaic approach to problem solving. Resiliency as it applies to art making is about remaining fluid and not getting hung up by what I imagine a finished product should look like. This approach allows me to be artistically agile as I pay attention to the process of art making, not just the outcome. So resiliency is in the softening, vulnerability, and opening of mind rather than locking down and hardening around ideas

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a painter primarily working in encaustic (a combination of heated bees wax, tree resin and color pigments), watercolor and printmaking. My work leans toward the abstract. but is deeply informed by my sensory experience of nature. So while a painting may not look like a traditional landscape, it incorporates the sound of a crow out my window, the flutter of aspen leaves, the scent of pine needles, the feel of mud. It is all there in the painting and while not explicit, it can viscerally be experienced by the viewer.

I enjoy connecting with collectors, designers, decorators and architects. My artwork can be viewed on my website (108Lotuses.com) and in person at Studio 108 at 4949 Broadway in Boulder, CO where I often participate in the NoBo First Friday art walks (https://noboartdistrict.org) and private viewings can be can be arranged. My biggest event of the year is coming up in October when my work will be on display as part of the Boulder Open Studios Tour (https://www.openstudios.org/open-studios-tour).

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Having a daily art practice helps me develop technique, refine my artistic vocabulary and helps me become fluent in that language. Often it is just a sketchbook doodle or reworking a section of a painting. There is no sense of expectation. It is just a way to stay involved and committed to creative process and to keep that light alive. This is personal, it is something I do just for me and it connects me to the life I am living in a deep, meaningful way. It is how I show up for myself.

Being open-minded and curious helps me cultivate flexibility and the agility I need to move from one concept to another or to combine ideas, or use materials in new ways. I find inspiration everywhere,

I think it is helpful to buy the best quality supplies you can afford. Brushes that loose their hairs, paints without enough pigment, paper that tears or ripples are frustrating to use, don’t last and inhibit creative flow. And judgements? They are part of the nature of how our minds work and they will always arise but you don’t need to feed or entertain them, just move on. Creativity and play are our birthright, regardless of innate talent. We all deserve to be able to enjoy colors, the way shapes fit together or making lines that meander. It doesn’t have to be what you or anyone else thinks of as good art to be enjoyable to do.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

I’ve gone from a big dedicated art studio to a small work area in my home. I no longer have the space to work on 5 ft long paintings and I can’t carelessly splatter and drip paint everywhere. So I’ve had to adapt, and by doing so I’ve discovered new ways of working that are a better fit for my current art making circumstances. Working on paper which is easier to store than thick panels and canvases, getting back to my earlier loves; drawings and watercolors. I still get to listen to loud music and dance around the room which seems to be a necessary part of my process. And being home, I get to have my cat Leeloo by my side, have lunch with my husband Tim, and I can step out the door an be in a grove of Aspen trees instead of a parking lot. It let’s me feel more a part of my mountain community than I did when I was commuting to Boulder to paint everyday.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://108Lotuses.com
• Instagram: 108Lotuses
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/wrzWGs0fLRE?si=wBomf24ZW-pFbWXm

Image Credits

Photo credit on portrait: Robin Enright Salcido