Sweet Dreams, Digital art by Layne Chun, guest artist at Louise's ARTiculations.
Sweet Dreams

The past is reflected in Layne Chun’s art.

When I examine my older works of art, glimpses of my life story, interests, emotional state are obvious to me. My work as an artist has taken me on a long and often surprising road. I love to draw and that alone is the simple reason I continue this journey.

My family is very artistic. My father still draws Asian paintings while one sister majored in modern dance, another in vocal music, and a third sister has a degree in fine arts.

Some dreams are dashed…

Actually, my dream was to be a pianist when I was a little girl. However, when I was in the process of applying to a special music and art school, the piano teacher told me that my hands were small and the fingers too short to be a pianist. I was too scared of finger surgery so I had to give up being a pianist. It was a shocking event that lead to my first moment of despair.

Layne Chun finds a new passion as a graphic designer.

I turned to art and became a graphic designer. While working for a number of publishers, I learned a lot and gained experience, working alone, or in teams. Professors who taught me, including experienced designers, photographers, writers, and talented illustrators helped me find a new passion in my life.

Next, I traveled to Europe to study the designs of the wider world.

I was working as a designer for a music company, when I met my American husband who was a guest of the company.  We married, and I decided to immigrate to the United States.

Traveling as a tourist to a foreign country and living in it are quite different experiences and the shock of my new life sent my confidence plummeting to rock bottom. All the success I had known as a designer and artist was forgotten. I felt isolated from other artists.

Fortunately, I eventually attended an art school and started drawing again. My husband and family gave me strength to take the first step. I am infinitely grateful for their love and support.

Going back to school at an older age required a great degree of courage, but I still remember the excitement of new classes, materials, and methods.

Although my personal preference is traditional art such as watercolors and oil paints, I am enjoying my recent experiments with digital painting. Anything new requires more practice. An advantage of expressive digital work is that it involves far fewer art materials spread out all over the place.

Layne paints scenes that engage the viewer.

I like to create scenes with dramatic atmosphere and stories. When people see my works, I want them to imagine the story behind the art. Consequently, my favorite paintings are dramatic, colorful paintings and frequently include fantasy elements.

Dean Cornwell, Leonard Baskin, James Christensen, Michael Parkes, Andrea Kowch, Mark Ryden, Marcos Beccari, Omar Rayyan, are only a few of my favorite artists.

My plans for the future are not clear, but my goal is to make people smile and feel comfortable when they see my work. In sharing my work, I hope to bring comfort to anyone feeling lonely, isolated in much the same way I have felt at times in my life.

If you would like to see more of my work, please visit instagram @ laynechunart. Also, do not forget to give me cheer and support. Thank you.

To view other artists who have been featured on my website in the last 2.5 years, please visit the Guest Artist page.

I am grateful for all the talented, productive artists and creatives from all over the world (photographer, author...) who have appeared on Louise's ARTiculations. If you are a creative and would like to be featured in this space, please contact me. This feature will continue in 2021. I have December 2020 open now to highlight your work on my website.

Many featured guests remain in my circle of friends on social media sites, and some, I have even met in person.

3 Responses

  • Wow Layne, your work is amazing, so pleased you found yourself again and got back to painting. Not happy for you though that your music teacher said just because your fingers were too small you could not play the piano, what about all those young children whose hands haven’t even developed and are masters of the keyboard. I would give it another go.

    • Hello dear Sally.
      Thank you for say so and I agree with you about the piano teacher. Perhaps I met the wrong mentor at that time. It was difficult, but I was fortunate to get another opportunity to leanr art. Thanks again for like my arts

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