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Meet Stephanie Lailine of Stephanie Art & Design

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Lailine.

Stephanie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Ever since I was a little girl, I was in love with beauty and aesthetics. As such, I wanted to be able to create visually-pleasing things and always had a propensity towards the creative arts. Growing up, I was constantly doodling, and by the fourth grade, I was designing graphics and book covers for online writers. I found that piecing together the right shapes and colors to make a cohesive work to be so incredibly satisfying. So in 2016, during my senior year of high school, I decided to take a leap of faith and enroll in my first art class: Advanced Placement Drawing & Painting.

That experience completely changed my viewpoints towards a career in fine arts and was easily one of the best years of my life. Although it was difficult to complete so many projects, I was challenged, learned about so many different media, and grew immensely as an artist. I am forever thankful for my teacher, Matthew Phillips, for helping me along the way that year.

With some mentorship from my parents, I was later accepted into the Georgia Institute of Technology for their Industrial Design program. Through my studies, I found that I was particularly drawn towards graphic and UI/UX design. To dive deeper into those fields, I found a job as the student graphic designer for the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech, and I interned at the NASA Ames Research Center in California as a user experience designer. Both opportunities taught me so much, confirmed my desired career path, and reinvigorated my excitement for design.

In December of 2017, I decided to merge my love for the arts and my background in design to start creating works that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also serve a purpose. Thus, Stephanie Art & Design was born.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I think it would be impossible to be in a creative field without having a few bumps in the road, but I think those struggles help us grow and become better artists and designers as a result. One of the biggest challenges I faced these past few years is figuring out how to combine my love for fine arts with my studies in design, which was for a Bachelor of Science rather than an art degree. In classes, my work tended to be more arts-oriented rather than design-oriented.

Once I had a classmate ask, “Why aren’t you in art school?” while I was drawing in the studios instead of researching for my projects. It was a bit jarring because, throughout my early college years, I had continually asked myself that same question. To hear it be asked aloud from someone else caused me to seriously reevaluate whether or not I wanted to continue to pursue my current academics. I remember staying up late into the night looking up requirements for applications and tuition costs for art schools. I didn’t want to regret not having gone.

It wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year when my perspective changed. Our class was assigned our final: to design and build a floor lamp. This project really helped me mentally merge the two disciplines because while I was technically designing a lamp, I was also creating a visually pleasing sculpture. Thinking of the end product as an art piece really encouraged me to explore different ideas, and I had a lot of fun working with metal for the first time. I was extremely happy with how it turned out, and it was selected to be one of the few lamps exhibited in the Stubbins Gallery at the end of the semester! Since then, I’ve been able to shift my mindset about my projects and have really enjoyed working on design tasks.

Another obstacle that I’ve been tackling more recently is the incessant need to create. It’s a constant struggle to balance work and fun, and I tend to have an inverse relationship with inspiration and motivation. Whenever I have some downtime, I feel this itch that I should be making something. I feel guilty when I decide to relax and watch Netflix over painting my next piece. I know it’s important to not overwork myself, but I’m slowly teaching myself that it’s okay to not constantly be artistically productive.

Stephanie Art & Design – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
As Émile Zola once said, “If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.”

Stephanie Art & Design is my creative outlet. I’m a self-taught freelance artist and designer, so I try to explore every type of artistic practice I can get my hands on. From drawing and painting to sculpture and printmaking, I love dabbling in all sorts of media, both digital and traditional.

Being in God’s creation is an endless source of inspiration, and I strive for my art to reflect the beauty of His work. My favorite art movement is the Impressionist era, and I believe that it shows in a lot of my paintings. I enjoy using soft colors & muted tones, and I am a huge fan of Pierre-Auguste Renoir. While I am still trying to find my own personal style, I love the fact that I don’t box myself in. Discovering and combining different media allows me to push the boundaries of what I can do and shapes my artistic sensibilities. I am often inspired by nature, vintage curiosities, and my hometown. Recently, I have been focusing on character portraits, plein air paintings, botanical & animal illustration, and integrating the elegant macabre into my work. I am actually currently doing a series of plein air work based on my hometown and the memories I have associated with the different places around Roswell. I’m extremely excited about my future projects and am eager to see how my style develops.

As an artist, I take commissions and sell my work online through my Etsy store. I also sell my artwork through Redbubble, so people can buy my pieces as stickers, prints, shirts, and other products! In the future, I hope to be able to sell them without the use of third-party retailers, but this works well for me now.

As a designer, I work with various clients to meet their graphic or UI design needs. I’ve created logos, business cards, various graphics, and wireframes to help small businesses or young professionals establish their brand and increase engagement. I’ve also used my design expertise to manage social media accounts and raise awareness.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success to me is finding joy in what you do, and it’s as simple as that. I’m so happy that I’m fortunate enough to be able to do what I love. Finding happiness in the process of creating is an incredible feeling, and sharing it with others is so rewarding. Success is being proud of the work you create, and growing as a result. Having a community of friends, family, and other creators who encourage me to pursue my passion makes me feel successful, and I’m so blessed and thankful for their endless love and support throughout my journey so far.

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