Meet Andra LaMarca | Art Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Andra LaMarca and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Andra, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I remember waking up in the middle of the night at the age of seven or eight to draw the way a cat’s tail wrapped around its feet. I vividly remember that detail standing out to me in my dream. I also remember feeling everything very intensely in elementary school, while simultaneously being aware that a lot of adults seemed agitated [or were not comfortable] with the range of emotion that I would experience in response to a given situation.

Rick Rubin explains this so well, “Artists first develop sensitive antennae not to create art but to protect themselves. They have to protect themselves because everything hurts more. They feel everything more deeply.” I not only felt things more deeply, I was also hurt very deeply.

In addition to living and functioning in a neurotypical world with a neurodivergent brain, I had to learn to navigate trauma and difficult adult relationships. By the time I was in middle school, my life was completely devoid of trust in any authority figure and I had turned so far inward that cutting became a preferred coping mechanism. Cutting was my crimson red silent scream.

Like so many other artists and makers, I found solace in the sanctuary of my high school art rooms. I often skipped class and spent hours in the dark womb of the photography lab. I painted with all my teenage angst and waxed poetic with long dramatic poems on my bedroom walls. I tried to hold on to creative expression as a healthy outlet to process what I had experienced, but often chose unhealthy ways to deal with my trauma, Despite the meandering, I always seemed to make my way back to the soothing balm of what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls, creative flow – where the power of the creative process mirrors the life process.

Making art is a gift that helps us to illustrate the purpose of our pain. In her book, The Artist Way, Julia Cameron encourages those of us who have been deeply hurt saying, “Anger is meant to be acted upon. It is not meant to be acted out.” Thinking back to those turbulent times, I am grateful to have found other adults who lived on the fringe, the quirky ones who saw a familiar energy in me, who were creative themselves and enthusiastic enough to help me mold my feelings into something tangible that could be seen. They encouraged me to write, to draw big, and share what I wrote and painted.

I enrolled at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio with an interest in Art Therapy. I knew I wanted to provide a creative environment for people to use visual art to tell their story. I had planned on eventually transferring to Ursuline College in Cleveland for Art Therapy courses that I would need, but my educational psychology courses and field work in education at YSU turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. It all started to come together when I realized that with my own art studio and classroom, I could ignite and fan the creative flame in children!

I have been teaching art for 13 years now, both in the public school system and outside of it. The thrill and joy of seeing a young or old face light up in either the familiarity or the newness of the creative process is something that never gets old. It doesn’t matter whether my classroom is in suburban America or in trailers with no running water, in Haitian refugee camps in broken borderlands, and out of a tent in the Sub-Saharan desert. The mystery of making art lends itself to establishing holy ground regardless of the location.

My sister and I also started a non-profit called (Brown Horse Projects) after she made her own pivotal life-changing choice to turn anger into creative action. BHP developed while traveling overseas over the course of twelve years. We now support a fully functioning medical clinic in Balan, Haiti, with eleven Haitian employees and offer projects that focus on clean water, art, music and medicine. Our focus is always whole health, body, mind and spirit.

I have a handmade poster that hangs on my classroom door that reads “Art is for everyone.” Every single day, I walk through my own door with the intention to help foster confidence in creativity at a young age. My prayer is that instead of using their hands to tear down and destroy themselves or others when a big emotion takes over, my students will learn to harness that emotion to create and build.

Filling a blank page offered my body, mind and spirit enough space to heal, process, and relearn the truth about not only who I am, but also whose I am. I was created to create!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
The most unique part of my art making style is that my art is typically collaborative. All of my own art projects and ideas are completed by five, six and seven-year-olds. I have the unique challenge of teaching through multiple mediums, so I cannot become too married to one particular discipline. I teach clay, printmaking, drawing, painting, pastels, collage, sculpture and video/film. When I make my own artwork, I am constantly reaching out to my young students to inform what I could or should create next and how we could make it better together.

When I am commissioned to do murals I love to have an interview first, and try to incorporate the voice and intention of the client. If I’m doing it correctly, the client feels as though they had a hand in making the artwork themselves.

I recently finished grad school and while using the studio art making courses to hone my own skills, I found that without the voice of a child my artwork didn’t seem to fully communicate what I wanted it to express. My seven-year-old daughter sat close by watching me paint. By the end of the painting, she was collaborating with me. She read a poem over the artwork and filmed it alongside me. My students always say to me, ”I want to be an artist when I grow up”! I remind them that they already are, that they don’t have to wait to start. They just have to keep making art! Art is for everyone.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

Oh! I love thinking about this!

I live in Mahoning County and it is full of so many hidden Ohio gems. There are wonderful pockets of interesting pop-up communities of food and culture.

We would lace up our running shoes and run straight into Mill Creek Park for a morning run around Lake Newport. Mill Creek Park was designed by the same architect who designed Central Park in NYC and anytime I am in it, I am blessed. The park encompasses approximately 4400 acres and 20 miles of drives, and 15 miles of foot trails as well as stunning bridges, ponds, streams, well-tended gardens, and waterfalls!

Afterward we would grab a coffee and a breakfast sandwich at Glenwood Grounds in Youngstown Ohio. Glenwood Grounds is a new coffee shop and lunch cafe with a mission, run by a non-profit ministry and a volunteer staff. The food is delicious, the coffee is second to none, the staff is fabulous, and all the funds go right back into the local community.

Afterward we might hit up Fellows Riverside Gardens (also operated by MillCreek Park) for another cup of coffee and some stunning scenery. Each year over 40,000 bulbs announce the arrival of spring. Crocus, tulips, narcissus and other bulbs give forth their joyful colors in abundance! You can walk through a generous variety of labeled trees and shrubs that serve as the background for the many floral displays. Shade trees, flowering trees, shrubs and groundcovers of all descriptions combine to create smaller gardens within a garden. The Riverside Garden display is for the enjoyment and education of the visitor – what a gift!

The Butler Institute of American Art is also a great space to spend a few quiet hours. It was established in 1919 and is a diamond in our community. It was the first museum dedicated to American Art in the United States and has permanent collections covering three centuries as well as rotating exhibitions. I have seen Warhol, Van Gogh, Wyeth, Monet and many more at the Butler Institute, all for free!

Westside Bowl is one of the most interesting family friendly places in Youngstown. It’s known for bowling, record stores, booze, live music and really really good pizza (which is saying a lot in Youngstown)! Always a good time!

Finally, I would be remiss to not mention the greatest ice cream the planet has ever known: Handel’s Ice Cream. A visit to Youngstown is not complete unless you treat yourself to some Handel’s Ice Cream!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband Angelo is my best friend has been my best painting professor, guitar teacher, photographer teacher and wonderful encourager of my creativity since I was 13. He is a walking, always talking, always challenging inspiration!

Would love to shoutout my parents Diane and Steve who were both music educators in Youngstown. They dedicated 35+ years to music education, hundreds of unpaid hours after school designing performances, taking my siblings and I to experience music, played classical records, bought us art history books and encouraged us to pursue the desires of our hearts. Without their dedication and passions to their artistic career, I may not have seen the benefit of the arts in action.

Website: https://www.brownhorseprojects.com

Instagram: @OurPaintedPony @brownhorseprojects