We had the good fortune of connecting with L.A. Watson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi L.A., putting aside the decision to work for yourself, what other decisions were critical to your success?
The artwork that I ultimately create originates from a place of curiosity, a desire to learn and better understand the problems of the world in order to hopefully contribute something beneficial and expand the dialogue that is taking place in the field of eco-feminist art-making and critical animal studies. Keeping an open-mind, asking a lot of questions and staying curious has allowed me to continue fanning the flames of creativity in my life. I have found that curiosity is critical in being able to persist as an artist over the long run.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am an interdisciplinary, multi-media artist, so my artistic medium changes depending on what the project at hand calls for. My love of art came very early as a child and I would spend most of my afternoons after school immersed in drawing. In my early twenties, I began lampwork glass beadmaking and jewelry making. My work was juried into the Ky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen and the Kentucky Crafted Market. I made work and sold it to galleries and had a set career path in crafts work, but by my mid-twenties my body was getting tired of the daily repetitive stress of it and I was also reading more about feminism and animal rights. I became interested in art and activism and began to merge my interest in the two together. I decided to get an undergraduate degree in Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Kentucky and then I got an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) after seeing my husband go through the program. VCFA was great because they really encouraged research, writing, activism and community-based work.

While I was at VCFA, I began working on The Roadside Memorial Project, which is an ongoing, site-specific installation of reflective road signs that function as a memorial for animals killed on the road, as well as a new kind of warning sign for drivers. The installation comes to life at night and is activated by the passing drivers who illuminate the signs with their headlights. Many drivers will slow down when passing by the signs and this was an unexpected and pleasing outcome of the project. I document drivers’ interactions with the installation at night through long exposure photography. These photographs have been shown in lightboxes or as metal prints in galleries and other arts spaces. I am always very excited when I can make work that goes out into my community and works on multiple levels, creating a dialogue both within and outside of traditional arts spaces.

For me, the process of creating an art-work is like an archeological dig. I read, research and excavate disparate bits of information and must take time to sift through and process what I have been learning. The process is not always easy, it can be very messy, tedious, and time-consuming, but also very exciting. I try to embrace the mess at the start of a project and stay curious. Sometimes it feels like you are digging around forever and coming up empty handed, (things are not going as planned!) but I try to embrace the mess and trust in the process.

I have to feel my way through it and very slowly, if I’m lucky, I can begin to unearth something that excites me, or allows me to think about an issue or feel a problem in a new or interesting way.

The project I’m currently working on is one that I started during the pandemic. I am utilizing printmaking and am creating small etchings and solar-plate prints that deal with the animal origins of pandemics, zoonotic disease spread and the feedback loop of climate change. I am looking at this and other disease spread in relation to wildlife trafficking, factory farming and environmental destruction. I am assembling the finished prints, collaging them together in a mandala-like format (a series of interlocking circles and squares that represents the universe) in order to talk about our interconnectedness and explore the duality of order vs. chaos and hopefully debunk the idea of human exceptionalism along the way.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I have not had the pleasure of visiting Phoenix, but would definitely be looking into any vegan fare and art attractions the city has to offer!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are so many people past and present, who have helped shape and contribute to my artistic path it would be hard to name them all, however, when I was a young artist, I applied for and received several grants from the Culture & Animals Foundation (cultureandanimals.org).

Because I was just starting out and so young, I really didn’t think I could receive a grant like this. Receiving a grant from the Culture & Animals Foundation was a pivotal moment for me as a young artist in the world.

It really encouraged me to take my creative practice more seriously, and bolstered my confidence to pursue and invest in art-making. I’d also love to give a Shoutout to author Carol J. Adams, whose books paved the way for so much of my own work as an artist.

Website: www.lawatsonart.com

Instagram: artanimalaffect

Image Credits
L.A. Watson

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