Lauren Daughty

y: hello Lauren :) can you tell us a bit more about yourself ?

l: so, i was born in singapour and my mom is north macedonian and my dad was british from liverpool. I lived in Southern Asia until I was ten years old. although I was very young, this period had a big influence on how I approach life. i also lived in myanmar for a couple of years, which was such a vibrant place full of life. it often felt like that in countries where the people are oppressed by the government. I think when you are a child you don’t really understand this kind of thing but you sort of experience this place on a really sensasory level and a get a sense, a feeling, emotions about your environment and the people and then you can kind of look back with a more adult lens and understand the political complications.

besides living in these amazing places as a child, I spent a lot of time in my imagination. I have always really love drawing and that was something and my parents always encourage me with that.i also felt i always had a voice at home, and opinion was always valid even though i was a kid.

going back to the UK was a quite difficult adjustment. my dad hadn’t been living in the UK for forty years and my mom had never been.

i’ve always been an observational person and always curious about the world around me and try to understand what it means. I think it is really rooted on my experiences of living in different places and having parents from different cultures.

y: do you think it has played a key role in your inspiration? where do you draw it from?

l: I think in a subconscious sense yes. also just like the attitude of my parents, they are both big storytellers. they have a lot of stories of their lives like travels of various things that they have done. so I grew up listening to stuff like that and feeling like I wanna tell stories too kind of thing. and also, just being open to what’s happening around me and communicating it back in drawing.

y: when did you know that this is what you wanted to do ?

l: i studied illustration but i didn’t know that this is what i wanted to do. basically, it was like through school and specially secondary school, that drawing was always my favorite thing to do. it has always been a kind of space I could go to. it was this thing that I would just do for fun and over the years it became this really grounding thing that I can come to and feel relaxed or use it a space to play or explore ideas. illustration which is really connected with drawing but also storytelling and communicating.

y: what emotions or responses do you create with your work ? is there a particular story behind ?

l: it’s been a few years since i’ve started to concentrate on nature, thinking about the outdoors and its connection with mental health. i lost my dad when i was 26, which is four years ago, and we were really close and it was quite a shock, it kind of came out of the blue. during that time, and specially during the first year afterwards of grieving, I found that one of the main thing that really comforted me and helped me in that state of mind was going for walks and being outside and paying more closer attention to nature and doing that kind of thing with friends and also reading a lot of books. there is really good one which is essentially about why do our minds need the wild and the outdoors. obviously we kind of all know that already, but it was really interesting to read that book during the time i was also directly experiencing this. it gives lots of joy in a point where I was feeling very sad and really deep in grief. so I guess in a way my work isn’t about grieving but it definitely is about feelings. that’s what I really want to communicate, a feeling of that joy, or that comfort or wonder I guess when you are outside, exploring, discovering and being curious about the world.

with commercial illustration, i do tell a specific story but with my own work it’s more a mixture of observations and memories and how do you communicate energies and movements. so it’s part communicating that feeling but also part just enjoying spontaneity in the moment of making something and being expressionist with it I guess.

y: what’s your most beautiful moment during the creative process? what’s the most enjoyable thing when you are creating?

l: I think i’m really drawn to color. I really love trying to piece together combinations that feel harmonious but also this something that is maybe a contrast that make you look into the piece more. and I really enjoy the start of that process, when it feels like mapping things out. when i’m doing that it’s really nice because i’ve just entered a space where i’m not thinking about anything else and I guess it comes back to that idea of like a safe space thing and I feel like I can enter it to my world and also create a world and that feels really satisfying. I feel quite lucky to have something like that. it’s a bit like meditation. I guess creating something is an act of being very present and in the moment and it’s really nice to be able to have time like that.

y: how do you nourish your creative process? in a daily basis?

l: it’s funny because being here, (casa balandra, artist residency in mallorca), makes me really think about that. I think, it’s quite a mix process.i try to meditate quite often because I think that grounds me if i’m feeling a bit all over the place. I love looking at reference materials so I love going on walks and just taking in colours and shapes, trying to pick out patterns and also if i’m more busy, just watching people and what they are doing and how they are interacting with things. I also find that very interesting. I think also reading really nourishes me and I guess that’s like partly maybe coming from more illustration mindset. I found it really inspiring when I read something really exciting because it starts sending my brain into like thinking of images. it can start the process of thinking about something to portray. beside that I don’t really think I have a routine ahah. It’s like one day, I wake up and i’m really in the mood to just go and draw, and experiment, and see what comes out, and then another day, that energy isn’t there and then it’s good to note that energy and being like ‘okay maybe I won’t push that today and just read or just be a person and do your day, do other things. It’s quite hard to do that because we are so set in feeling like we need to have a routine. I think with the creative process, things can come out really randomly. sometimes I just see something that sparks my interest and then. sometimes it’s just when i’m going to bed or just randomly in the day, I have an image that pop in my head. I can see something really clearly and I can see how it would look portrayed down on paper or canvasses. and I go and I can draw it, and i’m like okay that feels really good, that makes sense, but that doesn’t happen that often ahaha.

y: do you have a memory of being very overwhelmed emotionally with a piece of art?

l: even though I make art like paintings and drawings, I think I get those feelings more from films. it’s a really hard question ahah! I really love Hilma af Klint. She really makes symbolism as a way of communicating ideas. It’s a really good way of like trying to get across an idea on a more simplistic form. this artist, she had some paintings shown, her work has re emerged recently even though she is considered as one of the first female abstract artist and a lot of her work has to do with astrology and has this natural element with organic shapes and forms. I really like looking at her work, it sparked inspiration but also a feeling of being part of a bigger thing. Looking at it helps me feel i’m part of the universe. I guess that is a strong feeling. I’m also very inspired by Japanese anime films. one of the first films my mom got me was spirited away by Hayao Miyazaki and I used to watch it on repeat. It’s the story of this girl who is an only child with her parents and lose them and it’s this story of deep loneliness but also self-discovery. there is also another one that I absolutely love, another Miyazaki’s film called nausicaä, it’s the story of a world where insects have grown very large in a toxic jungle that humans cannot inhabit. It’s this kind of story about humans use of the world and taking advantage of it and what can happen if that goes too far. there is this main character who is a girl and she has a way of being harmonious with the insects. in her home, she has this conservatory where she is growing plants. she managed to figure out how to create clean water to grow plants that are not poisoned. So it’s this story of how to be harmonious with nature.

y: what are you currently working on ? what’s next ? how do you see yourself in the upcoming years ?

l: so what I’m doing here (at casa balandra) and was longing of it is to develop my practice in a way. so i have illustration which I love but I also want to develop my work as an artistic practice where I have this freedom to explore and communicate my thoughts. I guess I would just like to keep building on that and I love the challenge of it. it’s a lot harder than doing illustration in a way because you’re really trying to pull from yourself and like what you’re thinking and how to do it. I just feel that it’s a something that i’m always going to be trying to work out and also really enjoyed doing. i’d really love to collaborate with people. it would be amazing to make my textiles things if i’m thinking about what kind of things i’d like to make. just keep of doing it. it’s amazing, i just don’t get bored of drawing. I think i’ve always really liked exploring new ways of doing it and that’s my way of challenging myself and not getting stuck in one way of making, or one way of drawing, it’s just really fun.

y: and the last… what would you tell to your five years younger you ?

l: i would say that you are going to mature very quickly for reasons outside of your control aka grief and that you are going to be okay and be more confortable in your skin and also don’t get caught up in thinking that you can’t do things or letting anxiety guide you. you’re free to do whatever you want. life is to be enjoyed and experienced. what else is the purpose of living ? use the time you have in the most ways you can when you can.

a conversation with Lauren, at casa balandra, artist residency in mallorca,

march 2022