Amy Lagers Studio

An artist origin story

This question has come up time and again in one form or another: “When did you start painting?”

Short answer – I started with my watercolor journey in 2019. My daughter had graduated from high school, and was busy with her own life. I knew she was getting ready to fly the coup, and I needed something to fill my time and my soon-to-be-empty nest. So, I grabbed some art supplies I had lying around the house and somehow found a tutorial on YouTube from an artist named Sarah Cray. Her company is called Let’s Make Art. Sounded good to me! So, I made a thing:

I kept following Sarah. Then I found more artists to follow on Instagram. That lead to more online tutorials. (I’ll list some of my faves at the end of this post.) I decided to do something very vulnerable and intimidating at the time: I posted my paintings on Instagram. I have some very supportive and encouraging friends, so I just kept painting and posting. And, I guess that’s what I’m still doing, although the reach has gone a bit beyond just Instagram. (More on that in later posts.)

That’s the short answer. The longer answer is that I’ve always been interested in creative pursuits. I remember as a child making flower bouquets out of cut out paper flowers stuck to toilet paper tube vases. I loved to color, draw, and craft. I come by it very honestly, because my mom is the same way. When I was a kid, she painted with oils. She also dabbled in ceramics, macramé, and she was a hair stylist. She now is on her own watercolor journey! (Not to mention the musical talent that runs deep in our family.)

When it was time to choose a path — a career — stability won. I picked a career as an early childhood teacher. It suited me. Teachers are very creative! They take the tools available to them and they create futures. I was very fortunate, though, because I landed at a school that became part of the Oklahoma A+ Schools network. A+ is a school improvement model that is centered around arts integration. We taught reading, writing, arithmetic, sure! But we did it through the arts. Now, I had a real reason to embrace and nurture my artistic side. It wasn’t long before I became an Ok A+ Schools Fellow. I got to teach other teachers how to use the arts to make their classrooms more hands-on, interactive and engaging. As a Fellow, I attended retreats with the other fellows. Those retreats were packed with arts experiences. I loved it!

My career path took me out of the classroom, and into the school library, away from that school and into another amazing school, and then out of the elementary school altogether to a community college library. This last transition happened about the time that my daughter was flying the coup. Suddenly, I had a job that was less taxing on my heart and mind, and I was no longer driving to dance lessons and helping with homework.

And, about that cardinal painting…. I keep going back to cardinals. I paint them at least once a year. The educator in me insists on measuring for growth, so that has become my benchmark painting. How has my style changed? How have my skills progressed? Where am I going to go from here? These little birds have become signposts along my journey.