Lolo | Momentum Community

Lauren "Lolo" Jie-ye Bahng

Illustrator

This year with Momentum has serendipitously coincided with a significant turning point in my life--after working as a public school teacher for 3 years, I have chosen to shift my focus, time and energy to art-making, and eventually make a livelihood from offering my artistic vision and service.

My media of choice are drawing, pen & ink, watercolor and acrylic paint. Producing art is a fundamentally healing way for me to translate and interpret what I go through in daily life. I already had a concept for my "art business" before joining this group--inspired by the passing of my dog Copper last summer. Now, after 2 months of being challenged to prioritize my creative self, I am finding that while this project commemorating and honoring Copper is still authentic within me, my inner artist has a lot more "healing" to do than I thought! There are several other subjects I feel compelled to explore

with 2D and 3D visual art media, and writing. I am humbled and thrilled to be on this year-long journey of self-exploration and growth, and I'm learning to "say yes" to inner creative callings, trust, and allow accountability and structure to empower me, my voice and vision.

Reaching in towards my inner artist has unearthed a great deal of inner challenges, which I choose to deal with using--what else--art! Along with this project about people and their relationships with animals, I am reconciling and championing other "artists" within me- a writer, sculptor and meditative healer. I feel a freedom and power when using verbal language that is similar to when I yield a pencil or paintbrush. The 3D language of sculpture has always come naturally to me, so it is no wonder that the active jostling of my inner painter is waking up my inner sculptor too. Certain visions, imagery, and words that come to me in my meditation practice are so vivid and compelling that translating them onto paper seems like the most appropriate stroke to complete the session.

Participating in Momentum is clearing a path for me to pursue a wild dream--a life built on applying my artistic skills in service of others and also myself. The path has been ignored for years in pursuit of an alternate career, buried with stories of its impracticality, overgrown with poison, thorns, and also sweet flowering trees and shade. With the structure and community that Momentum provides, I am supported in this journey of bristly hardships and blossoming celebrations, creating and healing all the way.