Check Out Danielle Lanslot’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Lanslots.

Hi Danielle, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Like many artists, I would say that I have been creatively oriented for my entire life. I was always doing something artistic as a child and staying creative became a tool for working with depression and anxiety as I grew into adulthood. I never intended to become a professional artist and often thought that it wasn’t even possible for me. But I’ve come to see that life has a way of continually forcing me to face my insecurities and strip away stuck parts of myself to reveal my deeper truth.

Before I started a daily art practice about three years ago, I had many different jobs and disembodied pipe dreams that I would pursue semi-passionately and then move on from. I earned a BS in Environmental Science, worked with at-risk teenagers, and eventually even earned an MS in Biomedical Science. Even though I was quite successful in all of my pursuits, most experiences would end up feeling like failures. I repeatedly returned to a place of dissatisfaction as I realized time and time again that “this isn’t it either.” In actuality, all of these career trials echoed a shift that was happening on a deeper level of my being. I am quite spiritually oriented and have prioritized self-knowledge in the last decade of my life. So I really view the whole road that led me to where I am now as a process of healing and reclamation.

At one point, becoming an artist full time became inevitable. I began sharing my work on Instagram, and things began to pick up quite quickly from there. Now I can look back at all the detours I took before arriving here and say that things went exactly right.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Sure there have struggles, as can be expected on any entrepreneurial track. But I haven’t had the kind of struggles that I would have expected to encounter in this line of work. Professionally, things have gone quite smoothly from the start. My Instagram page gained traction quite quickly, and I didn’t have to spend much time wondering if my work was unique enough to attract an audience. I began working with local galleries within my first year as a full-time artist and began supporting myself financially then too.

I’d say most of my challenges have been internal ones. Big emotions and deep contemplations about the purpose of my life can get in the way of showing up for my work consistently. Admittedly, I’ve always been a little intrigued with the image of the emotionally burdened artist-as-martyr-for-their-work. I don’t mean to, but I naturally resonate with that level of seriousness.

As a practicing artist, however, the martyr approach to creating consistent work doesn’t really work. I think that emotion is a very necessary ingredient for creating evocative art, but too much of it can interfere with the business side of things. Undeniably, consistency is the most important ingredient to building a thriving creative business. So I’d say my main challenge has been showing up even when things feel too heavy or confusing while still honoring the very real reasons for feeling that way. I’m striving for a healthy work/life balance, and that includes acknowledging that I live is complex and work within a deeply confused cultural context. The cultural tide pulling us away from our hearts and into technology is very real. I sometimes feel that artists carry much of that burden.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a painter and I primarily create landscapes. My favorite medium is currently oil paint but the work that kickstarted my art career was all in watercolor. My landscapes do capture some landscape realism, but they also seem to play with abstraction. I’ve never felt much attraction to either end of the photo-realism to abstractionism spectrum, but I feel completely inspired by the intersection between the two.

I make most of my own oil paint using foraged earth pigments. Earth pigments can be found in rocks and soils, and I love to spend hours outside, collecting tubs of dirt. I process my materials using several different methods and then mull the pure pigment into artist-grade oil paint. Colorado is a very abundant place to source earth pigments, and I have a large collection of mainly Ochers that range from earthy yellow to deep orange and brown. Friends and fellow artists like to mail rocks and soils my way, so I even have some gorgeous green pigments from Virginia and California. I like to purchase blue mineral pigments from companies that have the appropriate machinery for processing mineral pigments, which tend to be much harder and therefore more difficult to grind with my mortar and pestle. Sourcing earth pigments and making my own paint is a very fulfilling process, as it gets me out of the studio and into the natural world, which my biggest source of inspiration.

I’d say that the word ‘atmospheric’ is most commonly used to describe my aesthetic. And the aesthetic that each painting arrives at seems to reflect the essence of my creative process as well– there is a tenderness, a gentleness that comes through in my work, which reflects the emotional fluidity that I experience during the painting process. I love creating misty, cold-weather scenes that feel mysterious, melancholy and stirring. Nowadays, I am very intrigued by the juxtaposition of soft, blended features and geometric features with hard lines and rougher brush strokes. Recently, a collector shared with me that my work reminds them of what the Celts referred to as “thin places,” which is a technical term used to describe specific locations on earth. Thin places are places that possess historical, spiritual significance, and it is said that the “veil” between our world and the “beyond” or divine is especially thin in these places. I understand that people visit thin places as part of a spiritual pilgrimage and go there to seek spiritual guidance and pay their respects. Interestingly, the photos I’ve seen of these places do seem to resemble the aesthetic of my paintings. I was delighted to hear about this connection because my personal spiritual journey plays a significant role in my life. It comes as no surprise that this would then make its way into my work.

My process is mostly intuitive, meaning that I create scenes from my imagination, and they usually start with certain colors or random marks that are then blended into misty terrain. My paintings don’t typically reflect specific geographical locations as much as they seem to capture feeling tones. They do often remind people of specific places, such as the Pacific Northwest of the US and the rolling, damp hills of the British countries. Although I have been greatly inspired by my immediate landscape of late, in the foothills of Boulder, Colorado, and find myself taking more and more cues from the local terrain while painting. But I often hear feedback from collectors that certain works remind them of places they’ve seen or felt.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Oh, so many things make me happy- and I find joy in the “little things”, truly. I have experienced a lot of loss in my life and several years ago, I became what you might call a “seeker”. Like many who grieve big losses of all kinds, I turned to spirituality for answers to my big existential questions. Having had the great privilege of studying with several gifted Buddhist and Contemplative Christian teachers, I learned that for me, happiness does not lie in material things and achievements.

I am learning every day to truly, deeply, enjoy the beauty of the natural world around me, of music and art, and of tiny pleasant moments throughout the day, like when the sun hits my face or my coffee tastes particularly good, or I get to watch my dog clumsily chase a fly around the house. Happiness for me comes in small doses. I’m not much of a dreamer, and I don’t really fantasize about travel or big events in the future. It’s really just about what’s in front of me. And I think that’s because I’ve learned and am still learning that living in the present moment really makes the inevitable challenges of life a lot more manageable for me.

Contact Info:

• Email: hello@daniellelanslots.com
• Website: www.daniellelanslots.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daniellelanslots.studio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daniellelanslots/
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/daniellelanslotsco

Image Credits
Photographer: Caitlin Fullam, https://www.caitlinfullam.com