Tamara Laporte Bio
Tamara Laporte (‘willowing’) is a creative catalyst of thousands of beautiful people. She is a celebrated mixed media artist and art teacher who has been running her own creative business since 2008. Her work can be described as ‘mixed media folk art’ with a focus on ‘magical realism’. It ranges from whimsical children’s illustrations to a more stylized fantasy art. Love, mystery, innocence, hope, spirituality, kindness and self-connection inspires her artwork. Symbolism and layering play a big part in her work. Her paintings often contain healing themes, uplifting messages, and inspirational poetry.
She believes that the act of creating art can be a gateway into healing and personal growth – often, her art classes contain an element of self-development as well as learning art techniques. She is deeply devoted to helping people get in touch with their creative fire and would love to help YOU too to get in touch with the artist in you!
Please tell us about your work.
My name is Tamara Laporte, I’m a mixed media artist and online art teacher. My site is www.willowing.org. My work can be described as ‘mixed media folk art’ with a focus on ‘magical realism’. It ranges from whimsical children’s illustrations to a more stylised fantasy art. Love, mystery, innocence, hope, spirituality, kindness and self-connection inspires my artwork. Symbolism and layering play a big part in my work. My paintings often contain healing themes, uplifting messages and inspirational poetry. I earn an income from selling my art and teaching art classes online.
Tamara Laporte’s Art Background
I have some formal art training but am mostly self-taught. I majored in art and music in high school and then went to an Art Academy in Amsterdam. I was there for only a year because the place made me miserable. Teachers there were very critical of people’s artwork and did not encourage nor inspire me sadly. I’m glad I did not continue at art school and found my own way eventually! Before I started running my own art business in 2008 I taught music, art and drama at a British International School in Colombo, Sri Lanka, it was so much fun!
How did you get started with Willowing.org?
I got started through sharing free time-lapse tutorials on youtube. I did this for fun and as a hobby. The more I shared on youtube and my blog, people started asking me if I taught classes and that’s how it all began for me. I ran my first class, World of Whimsy in late 2008.
Are you focused on teaching or do you also sell your own art?
I do both. I sell original paintings, prints of my artwork and some products with my art on them (like pocket mirrors and postcards, etc) but a big focus of my work is to teach art online. I love my job! 🙂
Your website says you are a “mixed media artist”, can you please explain?
Mixed media refers literally to the mixing of mediums. So I don’t focus on watercolour or acrylics only. I mix many supplies together like: collage, crayons, watercolour, markers, acrylics and inks.
Tamara Laporte’s Art Classes
I have many classes running on my site ranging from short mini-classes of an hour where I demonstrate how I create 1 of my (usually whimsical) paintings to longer courses that go more in-depth. The biggest most involved course I run is called; Life Book – it’s a year-long art class I run each year (since 2012) that involves another 20 or so mixed media art teachers. Together we provide a class a week that has an underlying personal development component. We both demonstrate how to create beautiful art while also learning more about ourselves and becoming kinder towards ourselves.
Your lessons have a spiritual focus, please explain.
I believe that the act of creating art can be a gateway into healing and personal growth – often, my art classes contain an element of self-development as well as learning art techniques. I like to use the creative process to get more deeply connected to myself, access parts of myself that I might not be able to access in other ways. I find creating therapeutic, meditative and cathartic. It’s like I have deep conversations with my ‘higher self’ if you will. I can often ‘work things out’ through creating and playing with paints. I love encouraging and supporting others in doing the same. 🙂
Has that artistic focus helped with your success?
The focus for me was ‘organic’. By that I mean I did not choose it to have a niche or to become successful. It was the natural outcome of my life experience to ‘show up’ that way if that makes sense. I think it’s important to have something that you love, feel passionate and excited about to be successful.
Tamara Laporte’s advice do you have for aspiring artists
“Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle” -Jon Acuff
– Be gentle with yourself, be kind. Do not listen to your inner critic. Or, listen compassionately, but don’t let him/ her stop you from continuing on your creative journey. You won’t make art that you love straight away. That is ok. Keep going anyway. It’s a necessary and natural part of your process and progress. Make art, a lot. It’s the doing and practicing and learning and doing that will eventually get you to a point where you are more satisfied than not with your paintings. Enjoy the journey, focus less on the outcome. If you focus too much on the outcome, you will become rigid and stifled. If you focus on the journey/ process, the outcome is often more appealing than when you’ve focused on outcome only. You are worthy. Your voice matters. You are loved.
Tamara Laporte’s Most Popular Art Class: Life Book
Tam’s annual Life Book is her most popular art class. Thousands of artists purchase this year-long course every year. Tam is joined by dozens of incredible artists, crafters and healers who are all gearing up to share their art, crafting and personal growth techniques with YOU! With a holistic approach to creativity, self-development and healing, you’ll be creating several loose mixed media art journal pages per month which by the end of the year you will bind into a glorious journal (a Life Book)! Your final book with your artwork in it will function as wonderful keepsake that you can treasure for the rest of your life!
Tamara Laporte Links
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