An Interview with Reggie Laurent (Ep. 425)

Ahead of his keynote presentation at next week’s NOW Conference, artist Reggie Laurent joins Tim on the podcast today. After telling about his childhood, developing his creativity, and his beginnings as an artist, Reggie shares a few more stories about his life and his art. Listen as he discusses his own artistic voice, how he began working with teachers, and why he wants his work to inspire students to be part of his legacy.  Full episode transcript below.

Resources and Links

• Follow Reggie on Instagram and check out his website
• Find out about (and register for!) the NOW Conference
• See Reggie’s partnership with Woodpecker Crafts

Transcript

Welcome to Art Ed Radio, the Podcast for Art Teachers. This show is produced by the Art of Education University, and I’m your host, Tim Bogatz.

I am thrilled–absolutely thrilled–to be joined today by artist Reggie Laurent. Reggie will be the keynote speaker at the 2024 Summer NOW Conference, which is happening next week. He is going to be a great keynote–not only is he an incredible artist, he loves working with kids and is truly appreciative of everything that teachers do. I’ll let him introduce himself, but I would encourage you to look up his work if you are not familiar already with what he creates. I would also like to read part of one of his artist statements, because it does a great job of explaining his work. He says:

My art imitates life because it is representative of the diversity and inclusion of every culture, the backbone of what makes the world such an interesting place. The artistic irony and true narrative are reflected in the various stages during the execution of my process. My creations go through a regentrification process, and the intended result is a multi-cultural amalgamation of color that can be universally appreciated. My canvas is the only place I know where every color can exist in perfect harmony yet maintain its own individuality. It is the only place I know where I can mix, manipulate and integrate beautiful pigments and hues of colors, and every single color is equally significant. Each color has its own place and space and purpose and complements, respects and adds to the totality of the work. I try to do on canvas what we can’t seem to do on earth.

Now, Reggie is a great storyteller, so I will just ask a couple of questions in this interview and try to stay out of his way. Here is Reggie Laurent.

Reggie Laurent is joining me now. Reggie, how are you?

Reggie:
I’m doing great today, Tim. Thank you for asking.

Tim:

All right. Good. First of all, let me say great to see you again. Welcome to the show. We really appreciate you coming on the podcast. And I guess to to start with, we should probably do an introduction. So can you share a little bit about yourself for, for all of our listeners out there and kind of tell us about your art?

Reggie:
Oh, absolutely. Well, thank you again for having me. And yes, my name is Reggie Laurent, and I am a multidisciplinary abstract artist. So I work in several mediums and I managed to build an art career just on my desire to create art. It wasn’t something that started out as something that was intentional but is now my purpose and and it drives my whole life. The reason why I wake up every day is to create art, share my art, and and most importantly, to inspire children to create art.

And my art is an amalgamation of colors. I like to think of my art as a universal entity. Of course, I’m an African-American man, but that doesn’t mean everything that I create is just geared towards a diaspora for black people. My art is appreciated worldwide across the board. And I kind of humbly say, and I try to do on canvas what we can’t do in life. and that’s make all colors exist harmoniously together. So that is the crux of what I do.

I have a broad palette, and I just try to make all colors coexist harmoniously, which is simple in art but not always so easy in life.

Tim:

Yeah, very well said. No, I love that description, though, and and I appreciate kind of sharing the meaning behind that. And you said you love to inspire kids to create art, which you know is one of the reasons why art teachers appreciate you so much. But I would love to hear about your own, I guess, creative endeavors as a kid. like what What did you do when you were younger? What did you create? and And I guess ah as a second part of that, like, did any of those endeavors have an influence on on what you’re creating today?

Reggie:
Yeah, that’s a great question because with me being, a self-taught or, as I say, god-led artist, I didn’t really have a blueprint to figure out all of this stuff. So at some point in my career, I had to figure out the origins because, you know, I left Chicago.

Tim:

Right.

Reggie:
When I was 24 and art was not really my thing or a part of my life. So a lot of people who knew me in Chicago are amazed at the transition and the metamorphosis from me leaving Chicago, not being an artist to being an artist today, but everything I do actually does stem from my childhood. I was raised by a single parent. And I had three older brothers and a twin sister. And and we didn’t grow up with a lot of money. So how could I put this and make it sound okay? Sometimes poverty bolsters creativity.

You have everything that you need to do things, you become creative. So games that we play and things of that nature. And my mother, who will be 90 shortly, um she was creative. She would crochet, she would make jewelry, And it could be something as simple as us unwinding the kinds of yarn and and then rerolling them into the ball so that was easier for her to knit or crochet or whatever she was doing.

Tim:

Okay, okay.

Reggie:

So that creative seed was implanted in me early and take that with a hyperactive imagination. And that’s pretty much what I am. I mean, sometimes when I look at how I create, how I am in my art, it’s not that far of a stretch from when I was a child.

I’ve always thought that no idea could ever be too crazy, that if you just wanted to do something, you should just do it. And the place where I found you can do that is art. And that’s something that I try to teach kids when I do have Zoom sessions that, you know, I was that kid, they were like, you’re out of your mind. what How do you think you can, and everything makes sense to me. Somehow you just make it make sense. And I was very fortunate to have teachers who nurtured my creativity.

And they saw things in me, I guess, that now, in retrospect, they were able to nurture that and bring it out. But what they didn’t do ever was bridle me in, rein me in, and say, ah well, that’s kind of a little bit too far-fetched. So you grow up like that.

And they enable that creativity. And it really makes you think that you could be a force and do anything at any time. So that’s very important to me. Like I said, I started out as a compulsive doodler. So my art, all the art I create right now, to me, is like an exaggeration of what I did as a child, a much more mature exaggeration. But when I tell you my roots for my art were established early in life, they really were. I look at some of the things I did as a child and I see those same innocent things in my artwork right now.

And that childhood being stoked with creativity by my mom, my brothers, and my sister; we were all kind of creative in our own way. And I had an appetite for literature. And I think that the more you read, it also broadens your horizons to see things, you know, a book and open up a world of ideas and creativity.

Tim:

Yep.

Reggie:
So I would say it was a culmination of all of those things that was in that DNA art seed that I had inside of me. Yeah.

Tim:

Yeah, i I love that. I mean, so much I want to comment on and ask about there. But I i love the the idea of your teachers not reining you in or not you know putting limits on on what you can do. And I feel like there’s a lesson there for all of the art teachers. out there, i you know, and just to to embrace your your students’ creativity and and see what they can come up with. And, you know, i also I also want to talk to you about Zoom calls in just a second and what you do with students.

But before we get there, I’d love to just kind of trace the the evolution of your work a little bit more, because you have a very distinct style of work. So can you talk about just sort of your learning process, that evolution, as I said, that you went through as an artist, like, what you’ve created in the past and kind of how that’s that’s led to the work that you’re creating now? I know that’s very broad, but can you just give us an idea of kind of how things have changed for you throughout your career?

Reggie:
No, that’s a perfect question because the reality is that’s something that I had to do at some point. It’s got to figure out where did it all come from and and and how did it originate? So I guess it’s a combination of things. First of all, I had an art seed inside of me. I truly feel my whole life. But I think we all know that a seed is only a seed. You have to take that seed. You have to put it in dirt. You have to water it. You have to fertilize it. It needs light. It needs sun. It needs water in order for it to grow into whatever the DNA in that seed dictates what it is. If you take ah you know an apple seed and plant them, you’re going to grow an apple tree. You’re not going to grow oranges.

Tim:

Right.

Reggie:
So the reality is I had a seed inside of me that had all of these components. But unfortunately, um living in Chicago, went to grammar school, high school, and college there. I mean, I’ll just be honest, it was not an environment that was conducive to creativity. um So I was college educated. But in as much as I was college educated, I was raised in the streets of Chicago. And that just gives you a whole different edge. so the the aspects of doing creative things back then, it just didn’t really manifest itself. It was only when I moved to Atlanta at the age of 24 when things started waking up inside of me. And when I look at the process, when I think of DNA, I always think the word organic kind of goes in the hand with that. um So the the reality is what woke me up to a world of color and art was nature. It was when I saw my first fall in Atlanta. So that would have been in the fall of actually 1984. And I remember it exactly. I came to Atlanta to run an air freight company that was opening up an office in Atlanta.

I had an out-hood friend who launched the one in Chicago, and it was phenomenally successful. So when an opportunity in Atlanta came up, he simply asked me, and it was just the right time. I had a job. I was employed. loved my life in Chicago. I had never even been to Atlanta. But something in me said, yeah, just go.

And I literally backed up, left, and I’ve never looked back. So if you could imagine, as I was running this air freight company, what I did was a lot of driving.

I had to retrieve packages from the airport and taking all these destinations. So I was going down back roads and hills of Georgia. And coming from a concrete jungle like Chicago, I mean, the contrast is beyond stark. So I arbitrarily would see these colors in nature that I had never seen. I would drive down a highway and it was a panoramic view of nothing but trees and different colors and almost to the point where I would run off the road just to have my own nature. And and then the the other thing is so I would be busy in the middle of the day delivering packages in the a.m. and then I had a lull in the afternoon where I had two or three hours to kind of And then it would pick up again at four or five in the evening when I pick up packages and take them to the airport to send them out. So to make a long story short, it was during that mid-afternoon lull when I discovered Mr. Bob Ross.

And when I saw this man with an afro that used to look like mine, paint these landscapes from start to finish in 30 minutes, I was hooked. I was like, that’s it?

Tim:

Hahaha!

Reggie:

That’s what I want to do. I mean I would sit and watch him he would start out with a canvas as he said with this liquid white and then little by little he would make that canvas come to life. When I tell you it was one of the most amazing things to sit and watch this man do that and if I relied on what I considered to be my artistic aptitude to that point there’s no way I would be able to do it. I did a lot of art when I was in grammar school, but yeah from my assessment, it wasn’t really good.

I had some friends, some of my buddies who were phenomenal artists. We would all sit and draw cars because you know boys are in the cars. Their cars will look like cars, mine will look like a spaceship. ah So I’ll be honest, I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my artistic ability. um And even now, that’s not something I struggle with. I have the utmost of confidence in it, but sometimes I sit back and I’m like, man, I don’t know how I’m gonna save this piece of where it’s going. So yeah, that was my foray into art.

So I was married at the time, and my wife at the time, asked me what I wanted for my birthday. And I said, I want a beginner’s paint set. I want to start painting. And I was curious, that’s what I wanted.

And so she got me a swatch watch.

I took it back and bought a beginner’s paint set and started painting some of the most horrible abstracts ever.

Practice doesn’t make perfect, but no, but to be honest, tim that was my for rate and they just got better and better. I practice and practice. And that’s all I wanted to do was paint landscapes.

Tim:

Okay.

Reggie:
And I got fairly proficient at it in a short amount of time. But then my landscapes, going back to my childhood art, started taking on an abstract look. So I think that it was the abstract in my DNA seed that was being suppressed.

I needed to acquaint myself with the medium of paint. I needed to learn palettes. I needed to learn colors and all of that cool stuff.

And landscapes afforded me that baseline knowledge just to navigate the medium of acrylics. um And then when they started taking on an abstract look, that’s when I say I found my abstract voice. I don’t think I found anything. I think my abstract voice was always there, but it was just dormant, waiting for the right time to come out. And when I did find my abstract voice, it was a mirror image of the doodles that I did as a child and the margins of my notebooks. All the way through college, I have college notebooks that for whatever reason I’ve not thrown away. And sometimes I revisit the margins of those and I look at the same doodle shapes, this language that I could write that means nothing. And I just marvel at how that turned into what I call my DNA art form. So yeah, that was the foundation of my art. And then I found that voice and started painting it. And it’s just been a progression over years and years, finding ways to adapt it to other formats, other medium, on a larger scale.

But it all started with those simple doodles, which is why it’s so easy to relate this story to children when I’m talking to them, because I’m letting them know that. and The art you’re creating right now is super important. You don’t you never know if this is going to be your thing, this is going to be your voice. So try everything and then you will find at some point your own style, something that you’re doing that wasn’t motivated by anything or inspired, it’s just your voice.

Tim:

Yeah.

Reggie:

You know, if we all talk or sing, we all sound differently. So it makes sense that we would have a different artistic voice, which it shouldn’t be the same, maybe some similarities. But ah once you find your voice, that’s what starts the journey of art. But um try everything and find what you think is uniquely yours, and then just hone it, keep working it, and it’ll keep reading other styles of art. And I build off of that.

Tim:

You actually gave me the perfect segue at the end there because I did want to talk about, you know, the zoom calls that, you do with with all of your students. And I know, you know, when I interviewed you for the now conference, you’re talking about how you show them your doodles and how all of that kind of comes together. And so I really liked that, but I would love to know, um, or I guess just hear a little bit more about the Zoom calls that you make in the classrooms and the work that you do with kids. as I know that’s something that that’s really important to you. So can you talk about why that’s so important and I guess a little bit about what you enjoy when it comes to working with students?

Reggie:

Yeah, it is very important to me. and And I had no idea that motivating and inspiring children to create through Zoom sessions will be part of my artistic journey. It’s something that you know you have to have your eyes wide open on things that are bigger than what you think are in front of you. If you ask me, I wanted art in museums. I wanted famous people to own my art. I wanted to sell art for six figures. Those are the things in my mind that I wanted. And I can tell you right now, none of those things matter to me as much as the art, the way I get to inspire children to create art.

And it happened innocently.

There was a teacher by the name of Melinda LeBoff, and she’s in Texas. And what she saw was an art blog interview idea called Art is Fun with an artist named The Nia McArdle. And we met because our art was similar in style, and we just started chatting online. And she asked me to do an interview for her blog.

I had no idea what the blog was all about as with most things. I’m like, yeah, cool. Let’s do it. And what I didn’t know was that was an art blog that teachers use like a Bible to teach. So inherently teachers started reaching out.

Ms. LeBeouf was the first one and what it was, it was a Skype session. Now I was in corporate America working. And once again, art was kind of on my back burner on a low flame. So. it wasn’t something that I was offering. And she kindly asked me if I would Skype with her kids. And I’m like, what the heck? Why not? And that was really what started it.

Tim:

Yeah.

Reggie:

And what I’m able to do in these sessions is, like I said, when I go back to my childhood and think about how much confidence I lacked in art, um you know I would take mine and turn it upside down so you couldn’t see it. Cause I’m sitting next to two guys who had these, what I thought were amazing pieces and that was outside of my scope of capabilities. So I was always that way. And even now I want children to know. whatever art you have inside of you is your art and it’s okay. you know i wasn’t I wouldn’t say that I was art bullied, but yeah, they were they would make fun of my art sometimes. And what that can do, you know especially nowadays, it could suppress the art that you have inside of you where kids are scared to create because they don’t wanna be judged. So, I mean, I summarize it with them and I tell them, there is no such thing as good art or bad art.

All art is good. All art is supposed to be different. So that’s the main thing. The word is different. You’re not supposed to be able to create what your neighbor creates. But this part of my journey is so important to me because um I’m able to reach children who are growing up in a time where technology has supplanted what 10 fingers can do.

Technology and pushing buttons with a remote control ah It has decreased the amount of natural organic creativity that kids don’t even know they have in their body. So the main thing is, I want them to know is that they have the ability to create these ten fingers that we have as one of the most amazing parts of our body. And there’s no limit to what you can do with them as long as you apply yourself. So for me to have the opportunity where teachers are gracious enough to allow me in their classrooms and give me access to their students, it’s is it became the most important part of my legacy. And that’s how I knew I was really growing up, you know, because all of the little, whatever the little dreams I had in my head, there that’s gone away. That is not important. I’m enjoying this more than anything. When I tell you, I feed off of the kids’ creativity. I get as much out of each session as they do.

I learn from them. And the teachers who invest so much time in their students, the teachers who find me and they go through all of the the, you know, the little routines it takes for me to do a session, I can’t tell you how much that means to me. um and And the one thing, I know we haven’t gotten to this point yet, Tim, in the conversation, but it’s important because I don’t want to forget this. I talk to so many teachers who are phenomenal artists in their own right. And so many of them lament the fact that they don’t get to create. I don’t get to create as much.

Tim:

Yeah.

Reggie:
I don’t get to, you know, and I think about it. I equate it to when I was in corporate America. I mean, their job is to teach art all day. That’s the job. So when I was in corporate America, I would sit behind a desk and wish that I could just be creating my own art.

So the reality is with them, you know, being teachers and motivating kids, they’re basically putting their artistic career on the back burner on a low flame. Now, respectfully, some are able to do both and they have a burgeoning art career and they’re able to teach. But it was me when I came home from work, you know, after giving you know a job all of that time, you come home, you’re tired, you eat a little something, you really only have two, maybe three hours max in the evening, if you can find that.

Tim:

Right.

Reggie:

And then on the weekend, I think you have laundry, You have to do hard work, you have to get groceries. So there are other things you can do, and it’s hard to find that time.

So to all of the teachers who are frustrated, I say, find the time. I understand, but create, because I love when teachers show me their artwork, because I know they’re more than just teachers. They’re also artists who are saying, despite the fact that I am, you know, a fine-tuned artist. It’s more important for me to motivate these children to create, to put mine aside and grow this new breed of artists. I think it’s one of the most unselfish things you can do in life. And I applaud the ones who are able to do it. Even when I’m doing Zoom sessions and I’m most busy in February and March,

I’ll be honest: it takes me out of my studio, and I’m off balance because to have a whole day in the studio interrupted, like getting there at eight o’clock and not leading to 10 o’clock at night, is exhilarating to me.

Tim:

Right, right.

Reggie:

And I have to break my day up. Even, you know, When I have something planned at one in the afternoon, it’s hard for me to go in the studio and get started, say, okay, I’ll go and work for a few hours and then I’ll stop. There’s no stopping with me. I lose of time and I lose myself. So I always tell people now who seem to feel sorry for me that I spent so much time in my studio, I’m the happiest guy you’re going to meet. And I think in a lot of ways, I’m making up for lost time. I’m making up for all the time when I wished I could be in my studio, but I can’t. So you know this is everything to me. And now I’m able to offer this art style to kids in its most organic form. It’s just shapes, organic and geometric shapes, which is truly the foundation for all art.

And if we just take it in its most basic form, every single child can be successful in this artistic format. Children whose teachers told me they were genuinely shy about their art seem to get emboldened when creating a little Regular on DNA pieces of art. And if I’m able to help them come out of their shelves, mission accomplished, because I needed to come out of my shell. I was scared to show people works of art. I still have works of art that have only seen these two eyes that no one else has ever seen.

And that’s, it’s a pride thing. It’s a, well, you care about what you’re doing. You’re passionate about it. And there’s always that thing to where you want to get better. I’ll never hopefully get so cocky to the point where I create a work of art and I’m like, man, this is so good. There’s nothing I can, I can all find something that would be better or different in a work of art. And that’s my assessment. You know, for the viewer, they’ll look at it and say, oh, that’s amazing. When I’m subtly sitting here quietly, yeah, I could have did this better, could have did that better.

And that’s not a bad thing, because from my stance, it makes me always know that I can improve, I can do better, I can do more. And I can never be completely satisfied, you know. I may have one or two pieces where I can say there’s not anything that would change, but they are very far off you in between. In retrospect, especially years later, I love evaluating the work of art that has seasoned where I said, and look and I can’t even go back to that spot where I was as an artist. You know, abstract art, in particular, is so of the moment. I have to remind people all the time that when you interrupt me and take me out of the studio, when I go back to whatever I was working on, it’s not gonna be the same. There’s no way it could be the same.

Tim:

Right.

Reggie:

I’m not gonna make the same decisions. At that point, I’m looking at it through at a different time through different eyes. So sometimes that’s a good thing, and sometimes it’s annoying, But I like that continuity of having, you know, start to finish uninterrupted. Yesterday, I left my phone in the house all day while I created it. And then I have to spend an hour catching up on missed calls and messages.

But I was able to get something completed. I went out there with a mission. I said, today, this is what I want to accomplish. And and I’ll be honest, sometimes the only way I can accomplish it is to not have my phone out in my studio.

Yeah.

Tim:

Yep, yeah, no, I love hearing that. So I guess I just have one last question for you as we wrap up here. You had some great advice for teachers there about continuing to, you know, make their own work, continuing to inspire kids. But I was just curious if you have any other messages that that you want to put out there for our teachers, just about what they do every day and what they’re doing for for students as we close this up. Is there there anything that you would like to tell all the art teachers out there?

Reggie:

Well, first of all, I would like to let you know how much I appreciate you. I’ve connected with so many teachers over the years and so many have come back for repeat sessions. And it’s like a family. It’s like a fraternity that I feel I’m part of. And sometimes I feel guilty because I’ve come in for 45 minutes to an hour and get the class all roused up. And then they have to deal with the after-effects of all of that joy and excitement.

But the energy and time and the dedication that teachers have is not missed by me. When I see how prepared they are for the Zoom sessions, when I see kids come up to them and hug them, the affection that they have for their teachers, ah it’s a lot that they have to juggle. And once again, I feel like sometimes I’m an outsider just coming in for a minute. And I know that after the Zoom session is over, they’ve got their hands full.

So I have so much respect for what they do. I have respect for the teachers who taught me. Once again, my only thing is I want to make sure that that they get the feel of artwork that they need to leave behind in this world, too, but to let them know that I see them. If nobody else does, I see them. I appreciate them. I respect them. And I try to model some of the things I’ve learned so much from them is I have one teacher tell me something, and this is probably the most poignant thing I’ve ever heard in a Zoom session. She said, in 23 years of teaching, I learned more from you today than I have in 23 years.

Tim:

Wow. Yeah.

Reggie:

She said, to just let these children create and not be such a force woman. She said, just let them create. And that sounds so simple. But I know what it’s like because when I do sessions, I want to be not heavy-handed. I want to give direction. I want to. And then amazing when you take your hands off and say, let me just see what you have naturally and organic in you. But that was a very profound statement. And she said, just let them create. And I think that’s what we all know. At the end of the day, they go off tangents sometimes that we hadn’t even thought of. But what a wonderful place for them to be able to come in a place where there are no restraints, there aren’t any rules, where you truly get to see the true nature of that child, every nuance of their personality. Things that don’t come out in math or may not show themselves in science will reveal themselves in art.

Tim:

Mmhmm. Mmhmm.

Reggie:

And that same art that we create, once again, these are skill sets that will help them throughout life. There’s Never a Day in My Studio, where I’m using creativity that has nothing to do with art, just the ability to think outside the boundaries, which is what art does, to figure out how to do something easier, better, or faster. So art is the muscle ah that builds character that these will give these children skills that they’ll use throughout their life.

Tim:

Yeah, I love that. So well said. And yeah, like I said, I’m sure you have a million great stories like that. We appreciate you sharing them all with us. So Reggie, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down and do this interview with me. And we’re really looking forward to seeing you at the NOW conference soon.

Reggie:

Absolutely. It’s my pleasure. Thank you again for having me I can’t wait to meet all of the teachers at the now conference and you know, enjoy your last few weeks of vacation We know it’s on the forefront. It goes by fast, but I’m looking to an amazing school year and creating my DNA style in wood pieces with 3D style with ah my line that’s out at woodpeckerscraft.com right now, so I’m excited about Absolutely,

Tim:

Yeah, we’ll make sure we link to that so everybody can check that out as well.

Reggie:

Well, thank you again, Tim!

Tim:

All right. Thank you.

Thank you so much to Reggie for this interview, for his keynote presentation, and for being a part of the NOW Conference this summer. We are looking forward to everything at next week’s Conference, and we hope to see you there.

Art Ed Radio is produced by the Art of Education University with Audio Engineering from Michael Crocker. 

If you are not yet signed up for the NOW conference, you can find all of the information you need about the event, and register for the event, by following the link in the show notes or going to the AOEU website. We will have an amazing kickoff event on Wednesday the 31st, and a full day of PD, including Reggie’s keynote, on Thursday, August 1st.

Thank you, as always for listening, and we will be back with you next week with our full NOW Conference preview.