well, hello, it's miriam schulman here, of the inspiration place. and today, we're sitting down with jane lafazio! jane is also going to be one of our handcrafted holidays teachers! handcrafted holidays is going to be a group class, co-taught by ten teachers, who are all going to share with you ideas and instructions and projects, for you to make your holiday special,
no matter what holiday you celebrate. jane lafazio is a full-time artist since 1998, and she truly believes she is living the life she was meant to live. in that time, she has cultivated a wide range of skills as a painter, mixed media, quilt artist, art teacher, and blogger. she's known for her fun-loving creative teaching style
and providing a relaxed, supportive environment in the classroom. she teaches her own art workshops online, and sketchbook school, and adds art retreats internationally. jane's artwork has been featured in cloth.paper scissors, and quilting arts magazines many times, and in danny gregory's 'an illustrated life', and in numerous books.
she also designed stencils for stencil girl products, jane lives in san diego, california, i have had the pleasure of meeting her in person in colorado, so i'm so excited to have her as part of this handcrafted holidays team. so, today, jane and i are going to be discussing her process, and also, what i was very curious and interested about, is her retreats that she leads internationally, and painting holidays.
so at the end of this interview,we're going to tell you how you can download jane's bucket list of places that she feels every artist must paint. so, we'll tell you how you can get your hands on that download, at the end of the interview. so, here we go, without further ado, here we go with the interview with jane lafazio. jane, i am so thrilled that you have decided to join us for this handcrafted holidays team.
and also, i'm so excited to have this chance to virtually sit down and talk with you about your art, and your business. and welcome to my studio. thank you. ...or my virtual studio. welcome! thanks. very happy. it's good to be here. i'm most fascinated about your travel painting trips, because they just look so tempting to me. where was the last place you've been to?
the last big trip, was, i was gone a month, and it was actually two trips, back-to-back: the first half of it was a river cruise down the danube, painting and drawing along our way, from budapest, and we ended up in prague; and then the second one was greece. so we flew to athens, and then went on to a small island named morkos, and that was twelve days. i'm actually giving the greece one again this year. ah! take me with you!
yeah, you're gonna like it. i don't know how many years ago it was, but i kind of put out there into the world that i wanted to travel, and teach places that i could take my husband. and it's really come true: he doesn't go on all my trips, but the fact that he can, he was on that month-long trip, so, it's really great, and i love to travel. a hundred years ago, i was a flight attendant, so it's in my blood. oh wow. your husband-is he retired, now,
that he's able to take off these...oh, that's fantastic. yeah, yeah. i was going to ask if your husband came with you. and i don't know if my husband would be that adventurous, but any way, i can leave him at home with the cat. well, my husband goes a lot. he's been to art retreats with me, like, when i teach in arizona for a week, he'll come with me. and so he's learned, and it's his personality: he gets along with everyone, and so he can sit at a table with
a little group of women, with everybody talking about what they made today, in their workshop, and be perfectly content. so he fits in really well with the group. so he creates as well, or he just likes to chat? yes! oh he does? that's wonderful! yeah, 'cause i'm teaching on most of the overseas trips, sketching and watercolor, so he does it all with us, and does his paint drawings.
now, how do you actually prepare for quilting with the stitching team? do you actually do a watercolor in preparation for that type of work? uh, no, i'm not a planner, so that wouldn't happen. you're an improviser. yes, yes i am. but what i do is i, maybe i drew in my sketchbook something; then i either freehand-stitch it with the sewing machine, so, re-draw it on fabric; or if it is an ornate
drawing, then i'll put a piece of paper on the back with that drawing, and then stitch through the drawing. and you teach all these techniques in your classes, is that right? yes. so, now in terms of planning, how do you get help planning those trips? do you have help from an agency? i have, this is a good story, about how many years ago?
2011. i got an e-mail from a woman who lived locally at the time, and she said, 'jane, somebody in my yoga class told me that i should get in touch with you. i do walking trips in france. are you interested? on the french riviera, not just france, on the french riviera. (laughter) so i went back and... i have got to start putting stuff out into the universe, too...
yeah. ...like, you know, law of attraction. yeah. i believe in it. you ain't up, but you need someone to teach watercolors the one week your son is on vacation, when he's at camp... yes, yes, that's it. so anyway, i wrote back, 'yes yes yes', and this woman, her name is carlo, does all the logistics of my trips, handles all the reservations, does all the hotels,
goes on the trips with us, she's fabulous. she actually goes, and she's like, the cruise director for the whole thing? that's fantastic! yes. yeah. it's like, ok, we have to be on the train in 10 minutes, she says. wow. so, i just teach art, and hang out with the people, and so, it's the perfect way to do it.
that's great. that's really great. does she also handle a lot of the marketing for these trips as well? i-she does have a site that markets the trip, i would say i do the majority of it. yeah, because people, i assume, would be signing up because they know you, and they want to learn from you, besides being in the french riviera. but... yeah, yeah. and her other trips, are without artists, and they are strictly walking trips. they really are marketed
to different people. mine are less walking, but the same locations. now, describe the type of person; your avatar of the trip person; who is the type of person who takes these trips? it's-most of the time, it's a woman, that travels alone, that is over 50, and if she has a husband, he doesn't like to travel... yes, i get that. ...and if she doesn't have a husband, she doesn't want to
go. either way, they don't want to go by themselves, and they want to go with like-minded people, because, of course, we spend the time seeing the country, but we also spend time just sitting and drawing. so, how much of the day do you spend sightseeing versus drawing in the evening? we probably spend about three hours a day drawing and painting. the rest, sightseeing, and eat lunch, and going on a ferry ride somewhere across lake como, in italy.
oh! ha ha ha yeah. it's pretty great, we go to great places. how do these women bring their art supplies on the plane with the tsa and everything? do you guys supply them with the stuff when they get there? no. that's the beauty of watercolor. it all fits in a ziploc bag. you know, just a little travel watercolor set, the fiji water brush, that pulls the water in, it's minimal
supplies, super-easy, so they bring them in. yeah. oh, that's fantastic. do you have people who, like, it got lost, or they don't have anything, what do you do? do you share with them, or are you able to lend? we take-unintelligible-. ha ha ha. well, it's-i mentioned me not being a planner, often, it's me saying, 'ah, you got my pen! the last one!' people always have, honestly, everybody has supplies, but we totally share, like, you
know, your pen goes bad, or you need another one. oh yeah, we become really close because we're together a lot, we're traveling a lot, we're having meals together, you know, it becomes-even though they don't know each other at the beginning, you really build a community on these trips. do people become serial trip-takers? i mean, do people sign up for more than one of your trips? yeah, i have had people who have gone on, i don't know the most, but at least, three or four.
yeah. and, honestly, i think this ties in with a group of these women who have been on the most trips together, and have become friends. all met in my online class. one's from australia, one's from canada, one's from san francisco, one's from arizona. that's fantastic. so what was that class about? it was sketching in watercolor. ah. that's really cool.
isn't it? i love that story. the small world thing, how it can come together, and now we're all the best of friends, and we go on trips together, so it's nice. yeah, and you become friends with them as well, so it's not just... absolutely. that's beautiful. i'm really excited about the
handcrafted holiday project that you have in mind. do you want to-you've already told me about it before we got online together, but is this inspired by one of your trips? well, it is inspired by my love of travel. one of the things, when i do travel anywhere, is looking at the folk art of that country. i'm fascinated by folk art, and very drawn to it. i'm wearing a mexican-inspired blouse, as are you, today.
and i got mine on etsy. ah hah ha ha! well, hopefully somewhere along the line... well, i don't even think it was even made in mexico, i think it was made in honduras, hopefully not by starving children, you know. anyway, so i love this kind of folk art crafts. and i like working with my hands, and all that. so my project is inspired, based on the traditional mola,
which is a reverse-applique process, which originated in panama, 150 years ago. but i'm doing it with felt, because i love working with felt. it's. yeah, so. felt is accessible, it comes in every color; but what i like most about it; it's immediate. you just cut the edge, and there you go. you don't have to hem it or stitch it or anything, you just cut it, and if you don't cut it right, you cut it again, so...so i think it's going to be a cool project.
oh, i'm excited. i'm so glad that you're going to be teaching a handcrafted holidays class. so, jane, have you always been an artist.? i haven't. i haven't. but it's-it's all inside here. it's really-it's a big leap for many, many people to say, 'i'm an artist', and it doesn't happen even after one pretty pciture, you know. it's something you have to believe in, inside of yourself. and then, ended up not-i mean, what i tell my students,
'what makes you an artist, is showing up to do art'. yeah, that's great. it's not because you're selling it, it's because you're teaching a class, it's not even because you're good. you showed up. that's excellent, mary. yeah. yeah. i really believe that too, that's good. i like that, 'you're an artist if you just show up'. i think that's great. yeah. i'll write that down.
yeah, i'm writing that down. i'm gonna stitch that on a sampler! no. i want a licensing fee on that! (laughter) it was so fun having you join me today, in this talk. i really enjoyed getting to know you better, and i just can't wait for the handcrafted holidays class. it's going to be quite... i know.
so, there you have it. on behalf of jane and myself, thank you so much for joining us today. now, i promised you that you would be able to get your hands on her freebie, and you're not going to want to miss this: it's a beautiful guide of 10 places you must paint, and hope you find a lot of inspiration, from this free download. what we're going to do, you need to hop on over to my blog. there'll be a link, whereever you're watching this, scroll down underneath the video, click on this button to click to
download, and then you'll just have to enter your name and your e-mail address, and click the button. and we'll send it straight to your inbox right away; check your in box. make sure it's there; if it's not there, double-check your spam folder, your promotions staff, 'cause we really want you to be able to get your hands on this. and not only that, but you'll be able to be notified of all the other interviews that i'm doing, all the handcrafted holidays teachers, each one is equally exciting and fun. and i
really truly hope you'll be able to joing us for handcrafted holidays, registration is open. if you go over to the inspiration place (dot) net, you'll be able to check
that class out and sign up right away. hope that you'll join us, and i'd love to see you there. take care and good luck with all your creative adventures. undefined
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