Laura Jane: rediscovering the joy in making art

Children are at the heart of our cause. So, what better way to start off the school year than with a collab with an artist who is all about unleashing your inner child’s creativity? Meet Laura Jane, an Irish illustrator and content creator, who went from being a teacher to a full-time artist. Her story is an inspiring testament to the importance of working hard and following your passions. For this Face This merch drop, she collaborated with 9-year-old Putri from Lombok. 

Starting out as a teacher

Although it seems she has been a creator all her life, Laura’s career actually began in front of the classroom. She says that at the end of the last recession she was encouraged by her career counsellors to pursue a course that would set her on a clear career path. After finishing her education, she taught children between 3 and 6 years old. “There were parts of it that I loved,” she recalls, “but there's also a lot in the education system that didn't align with who I was as a person. It was a mental struggle to have to battle that every day, especially when you're working with young kids.”

While the weight of her job caused a lot of her struggles, it was also the thing that brought her back to her passion: illustration. “I found my way back to illustration as a way to do something creative that I loved, to bring me joy again.” She started out with just an Instagram account, which she has now grown into a full-time business with over 350.000 followers. 

So, how exactly did she do it? Laura calls herself a self-taught artist, explaining: “I started teaching in Italy. Every day, I had to commute 2 hours to school and 2 hours back. So, I was on a train 20 hours a week. I would spend that time either testing out Procreate, or learning how to use it, or watching YouTube tutorials, or reading books, or looking at what other creatives that I admired were doing. I was constantly trying to hone my skill.” 

She even admits that every bit of free time she had was spent on her art. All her hard work has certainly paid off – just one look at her website and Instagram will reveal the inspiring and colourful style that she has developed.

Although she has left the education system, Laura is still very much involved in teaching, from sharing her craft to leading creative courses. And when it comes to giving advice to artists who are just starting out, she suggests: 

“Practice in public, which means just create and share, even if it's not perfect yet. When we have a creative vision, there's this massive gap between our skills and what we want to do. A lot of people give up because what they're creating doesn't match what they want to be creating. But the only way to move between where you are and where you want to be, is just creating and sharing it.” 

Growing as an artist

Laura is no stranger to big brand collaborations. Companies like CASETiFY, Penguin Random House, Mind UK, and The Teaching Tools are just some of the companies she has worked with. What is the secret sauce to success, you ask? Her talent and hard work were enough to capture these brands’ attention – a privilege she doesn’t take lightly. She further explains that her online presence is the reason why Dr. Michaela Dunbar specifically asked if Laura could make the illustrations for her book, ‘You’ve Got This’.

Speaking of publishing books, in 2021 Laura published her own – ‘The Magic of You’. Funnily enough, when the publishers reached out to her, she assumed that their email was spam and almost didn’t take the meeting with them. Luckily, she pushed past her imposter syndrome, which resulted in a book that, in her words, is: “something that my younger version would have wanted to have on her bedside table or bookshelf.”

Advocating for mental health awareness

Throughout our chat, Laura mentions mental health a few times, which is unsurprising because she is a big advocate for mental health awareness. It’s no wonder she has been featured in dozens of articles promoting mental wellbeing. When talking about the one thing that everyone should know about mental health, Laura says it’s “realising that it's not that different from your physical health.” 

She goes on to say: “As a society, we’re really accepting of the fact that we can be in top physical health and then we just catch the flu, and we're in bed for a week. We don't hold that same space or grace for ourselves when it comes to our mind; we feel there must be a reason for when we feel sad or for our mental health dips. Sometimes there is and sometimes there isn't.” 

And with all her experience working with children, Laura goes as far as to say that one of the main reasons she advocates for mental health is directly linked to her time with children. “When you teach at an early-years level,” she clarifies, “the areas that you prioritise are their physical, emotional, and social development.” 

However, as children grow up, the main focus becomes their academic performance, and their mental wellbeing is no longer prioritised. It’s then no wonder that we as adults have a hard time holding space for our emotions. Laura’s solution? “[Children] inspired me to start looking at myself that way as well. When I have days where I'm struggling to show up, I like to step back.”

From teaching children to collaborating with children

Laura admits that she’s never been to Indonesia before, but when we reached out to her for a collab, she was immediately on board. “I loved the idea of getting to collaborate with a kid on the other side of the world and take a piece of their art, their hope, and their joy, and turn it into something that could potentially help fund their future as well.” Given our mission and Laura’s passion for children, creativity, and mental health, this was a match made in heaven.

Going into the collab, she wasn’t sure what to expect. But her nerves immediately subsided when she saw Putri’s artwork: “The drawing was of her holding this red balloon. I immediately thought of the Banksy artwork of the little girl and the balloon that's slipping away. That artwork is supposed to represent hope, a child's hope that she could catch that [balloon].” Home, family, hope... the dots started to connect, and Laura knew exactly the direction she wanted to go in. 

Now that she had Putri’s red balloon as a central concept, Laura brought the original drawing into Procreate, traced out the shape of the balloon, and built the rest of the illustration around it. She also made sure to add elements that represent joy and hope for her, so she added some green and flowers. In the end, the illustration was a true marriage between Laura’s style and Putri’s drawing. 

After reflecting on such a fun and inspiring collab, Laura adds that this experience has reminded her of how important it is to work with other people. “The biggest takeaway that I have from this is that collaborations that aren't focused on just financial gains can sometimes give you a lot more. Being able to give my art to someone else or to another community and offer that up is so rewarding. And even more so, this experience reconnected me with the joy of creating art.” 

Finding home

When speaking about Putri’s drawing, Laura reflects on what makes you feel at home: “Home isn't always a physical place. It's a feeling. Sometimes we get that in a physical building, but sometimes we get it with a person... And I think that [Putri] nailed it because she chose to share her relationship with her mom rather than her physical house, which I think most kids would do.”

As this eye-opening and inspiring interview comes to a close, we only have one last question for Laura: who is that one person who makes her feel at home? “My partner is my home. We have said this in our relationship for a long time. We've shared a lot of houses over the 11 years of being together, but it's never mattered where the house is or what the physical appearance of the house is. There’s a song we used to listen to, which says it all: home is wherever I’m with you.”

Check out the Laura Jane x Putri Face This collab now.