Meet Lori McCoy

We were lucky to catch up with Lori McCoy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lori, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I think my creativity and my resilience come from the same place. I was homeless at fifteen. When you grow up that way, you learn to observe everything. You study people. You study power. You study vulnerability. You become aware of what it feels like to be overlooked or unseen. That awareness never left me. It shows up in my work.

Painting became the place where I could take those early experiences and turn them into something controlled and intentional. I don’t create from comfort. I create from tension. From contrast. From understanding what it means to be strong and exposed at the same time. Every piece I make carries that push and pull.

Working in male dominated environments, both professionally and in the art world, sharpened that even more. I know what it feels like to be underestimated. I also know what it feels like to outperform expectations. My feminism doesn’t come from tearing men down. It comes from refusing to shrink and from encouraging other women not to shrink either. It’s about expansion. It’s about ownership. It’s about taking up space without apology.

So when I paint women, especially, I’m not painting them as fragile symbols. I’m painting them as complicated, powerful, layered human beings. My resilience isn’t separate from my creativity. It fuels it. The same force that kept me moving forward is the force that pushes me to make work that has weight and presence.

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’m a self taught acrylic painter based in Henderson, Nevada. My work blends surrealism with strong narrative elements. I paint my human subjects in black and white while the environments around them are in full color. That contrast is intentional. The figures represent memory and lived experience. The world around them carries the emotion and symbolism. Nothing in my work is decorative. Every element serves the story.

At the core, I am a storyteller. I’m interested in what people carry, what shapes them, what breaks them, and what rebuilds them. My pieces are layered because people are layered. Strength and vulnerability exist in the same body. Control and chaos share the same space. I want viewers to feel something before they fully understand it.

Feminism is present in my work, but it exists inside a broader human narrative. It shows up in the way I portray women with agency and weight, but I tell stories about everyone. Power, survival, tension, memory. The through line is humanity.

Beyond my studio practice, I served as President of City Lights Art Gallery, working in a nonprofit capacity to support artists and expand opportunities within the community. Building space for other artists matters to me. Art does not grow in isolation.

I currently have active exhibitions at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas and at the City of Henderson City Hall. My work has been exhibited at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, published in Artstonish Magazine, and has earned multiple awards including Best in Show.

Recognition is appreciated, but it is not the goal. The goal is to build work that lasts. Work that carries weight. Work that stands in a room and holds its ground.

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?

Looking back, adaptability was huge for me. Nothing about my path was straight. Plans changed. Doors closed. Things fell apart. Instead of seeing that as failure, I learned to pivot. In the art world especially, if you are rigid, you break. Trends shift. Opinions shift. Markets shift. You have to be able to adjust without losing yourself.

The second was endurance. This field is tough. It is competitive, subjective, and not always fair. There are rejections. There are rooms where you are overlooked. There are moments when you question whether it is worth it. The artists who last are not always the most talented. They are the ones who keep going. They refine. They improve. They show up even when no one is clapping.

The third is confidence, and I do not mean ego. I mean clarity. You have to know what you are doing and why you are doing it. If you let every opinion shape you, you will lose your voice quickly. Feedback is valuable, but it should sharpen you, not redefine you. The art world will try to categorize you, compare you, and sometimes underestimate you. You have to be secure enough in your work to stand in it without constantly explaining yourself.

For anyone early in their journey, I would say build your foundation before chasing validation. Develop your skill. Develop your voice. Be willing to evolve, but do not let anyone tell you who you are. This industry respects strength, even if it tests you first.

It is not an easy path, but it is worth it if you are built for it.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

My biggest obstacle has probably been myself. I hold a very high standard for my work and for how I move through the world. That standard has built a lot of strength in me, but it can also turn inward. I can be harder on myself than anyone else ever could be. There’s a fine line between pushing for excellence and never feeling finished, and I’ve had to learn where that line is.

I also learned very early to rely on myself. That independence built resilience, but it can make collaboration and delegation feel unnatural. Growth requires expansion, and expansion sometimes means loosening your grip.

The challenge has been learning that strength is not just about pushing harder. Sometimes it is about knowing when the work is ready, when to release it, and when to allow it to stand on its own.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Artistlorimccoy
• Facebook: Artistlorimccoy