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Meet Laura Garabedian

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Garabedian.

Laura, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Growing up, my closest friends were the animals around me. From my first parakeets to chickens and then my horse. We moved a few times when I was a kid and then school district lines changed enough that it always felt like moving. I had lived in three states, and attended six schools by the time I was in seventh grade and while I didn’t always understand the people around me, I always understood my feathered and four-legged friends. This love of animals made me passionate about their behavior and care. I was always torn between expressing my love of nature and fantastical creatures through art, and veterinary school, where I could help heal them physically.

A few classes in biology and learning that Formaldehyde gave me headaches made the choice clear. I went into illustration, which in my mind was how you made a living at art. The reality of the situation was that I spent a few years working as an Art Director and Graphic Designer for small businesses and in contract work. Once the economy crashed and I was laid off I built up a portfolio and struck out on the fantasy convention circuit. I already had a lot of peers and friends in the industry so this felt like the next logical step.

It’s been a decade on the convention circuit and I’m changing tracks again, slowing drawing down the number of cons I do each year and trying to really push my personal work, engaging with collectors and telling my own stories with paint. My hard work and physical presence at conventions over the country has allowed me to make a lot of contacts, learn from amazing artists, and develop a better idea of what stories I want to tell.

My life is still a confluence of animals and art, the more I paint, the more I want to tell their stories. Through my paintings, I hope that people will see emotions and life in the animals around them. I hope they see the uncertainty and perseverance in the eyes of the coyote that they have merely seen as a silhouette on their street or a media trope, the clever humor in a crow’s eyes, or the sadness in the lonely lives of the big cats pushed so far up and away from their previous territory. I push my art further into fantasy as well, stepping into the realms of myths because I think it helps our imagination thrive. What if that stag stepping out of the mists had silver flame wreathing it’s antlers, when he steps back through the mists, where does he go… and would you follow? Those are the kinds of stories that I like to tell and want people to make up for themselves. I hope that my art makes people build stories around the animals that I paint.

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s been a tough road, for quite a few reasons. I did a lot of things right’ according to my parents and the knowledge at the time. I went to a state college for a degree in illustration, which I came to find out wasn’t necessary at all for what I was doing, much less what I’m doing now. I spent a lot of time doing graphic/contract work, which helped me a lot to get a nest egg going after I had emptied my savings account in college.

Admittedly it was a lucky break to even get to go to college, much less manage to get out without loans, I’m very thankful that my parents helped me to get there and saved their money and my own from jobs during school. If I had taken on student loans I don’t know where I’d be today. The stress of the long days and nights working full time doing advertising in toxic working environments, and following that up with contract jobs at night, took a nasty toll on my mental and physical health and I’ve struggled a lot with the fallout from that.

Throughout this journey to get where I am I’ve struggled financially. From day one I just rented rooms. I was incredibly lucky to get the Best Roommate Ever when I moved back to Colorado and having a stable, inexpensive room rental made a huge difference in my quality of life. While living that well-below-minimum-wage-income life, I did it with the knowledge that I had a stable and comfortable home to do it out of. My roommate was not only supportive of my art but also helped me prep for shows and got the word out when he could too. My move to Colorado came with the added bonus of getting healthcare again since Colorado expanded Medicaid I suddenly could afford to get doctor’s appointments again which was rather marvelous in and of itself.

We’d love to hear more about your art.
It feels so odd to have someone ask about my business, I’m just so used to people asking me about ‘my art’ not everything else that comes with a business. My business is mostly run out of my home and online. I paint animals that I hope tell stories to their viewers, animals engaged in everyday and fantasy lives of their own, that invite the viewer to step into their worlds. A majority of my clients are looking to add a touch of another world or a look of the wild into their life.

My primary connection to my dedicated collectors is through social media these days. Most prominently I use Patreon to share stories about my life, work in progress photos of my art, and give dibs to my collectors. It is rare for me to take commissions these days, but if I do I do it through Patreon. I also utilize the big three (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) to connect with my audience and to find new followers and connect with people around the world. I’m thrilled to bits to know that my work has been shipped to places I’ve never visited, and know that social media is the main reason for that!

Nothing really replaces meeting people in person, and I do keep a few conventions around for just that. I have started working some of the local open studio and market events too. I’ve loved getting to know my town and neighbors as I show in these events and see familiar faces from all my local restaurants and small businesses. I look forward to the Studio Tour at the end of September and the Holiday Market in December every year!

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I love my city so much. When my fiancé and I started looking for a place to live, Longmont was top of my list and I’m so glad it worked out for us to find a house here. For artists just starting out, Longmont may be tough. The cost of living is a bit higher than where I was in Aurora. The advantages of the area are huge though, and the bike-ability of the city means a lot of saved money on gas!

Longmont has a lot of active engagement in arts and culture and I’ve found the reception to my work and my story has been wonderful. I’m so thankful that I’m here among people who seem to resonate with the work I’m doing.

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Photo of the artist taken by the amazing http://adaytoadore.net/

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