Meet Lara Kushner | Artist and Mom

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

Hi Lara, as a parent, what do you feel is the most meaningful thing you’ve done for them?
Showing resilience and showing them consistency. I am a person who thrive under discipline, starting my day at 6am, creating a daily task list, and checking off boxes help me stay focused and I get more done.

This has had the most impact on my children, they have adapted my to do lists and they tell me that they actually enjoy crossing them off too.

We are now calling this list “we GET to do list” instead of “to do list”

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My Art is a combination of my cultural backgrounds. Being an Armenian origin and being born in Beirut Lebanon, our family made a big move to Japan when I was only few months old. I was raised in Japan, for 15 years before moving to US., my final destination… ? My Art definitely has influences from the worlds around me. My parents are both Armenian, and we speak Armenian at home, I speak Japanese to my sister and English to my husband and kids. It’s a beautiful, complicated mixture of languages and culture.

What sets my Art from others, is probably my medias. When Covid hit and I had to resign from my position as a full time retail manager with extensive experience, to be a stay at home mother for the first time in my life, my world was shattered.

I did not have a clue how to make myself feel accomplished and contribute to my family without bringing in my salary. Safer at home meant that I will be spending all of my days and hours in my house with my kids while my husband continued working as an essential frontline worker.

Now that I look back, this is the moment I went back to Art. Our daily walks around the neighborhood became a chance to collect rocks, we would bring flat smooth rocks home and started to paint “kind” messages and art on these rocks. We distributed our finished rocks around the neighborhood, and created a sign in front of our house for others to take if they needed one and to tag my Instagram account to spread the kindness.

Soon, people started to reach out saying they wanted a painting of their dog, cat, their mom, their soccer logo, their wedding portrait and I even started creating business cards/rocks for brands. My kids also would put in request for their friends birthdays and we would walk and place the rock in front of their homes.

When online virtual schools began for my kids, I began creating art lessons for their classes. I then decided to film these lessons so that the kids can follow along and create drawings and crafts from home, using very basic crayons and a sharpie. I ended up creating 30 YouTube art tutorial videos under the name @drawwithlarachan, using my nickname from Japan. I uploaded these videos and I have to say, this was one of the hardest things I have done, filming, editing and uploading videos is no Joke! But I did it… I learned how to do it.

I am most proud of myself for taking a chance on the “unknown”, it started with my desire to keep my kids entertained and not bored, and I grew from painting kindness words on rocks to creating large murals/ paintings/ art tutorials to try to reach more people who needed art in their lives.

When Artsakh war took place, I was devastated, I had to do something to raise awareness and raise money for Armenian Foundation. I started to paint Armenian rocks, Artsakh mountains paintings, and donated all of my earnings to the foundation, making my family so proud, including my kids who also helped me with chalk art, and using Art as our voice to “speak up for humanity”.

Finally, my Art took another turn when my sons friends’ mother approached me to partner up to create a childrens book. She had been watching her son do my YouTube tutorials and loved my illustration style. I ended up illustrating her first book, and making both of our dreams come true.

Once schools were back in session in person, I switched my YouTube tutorials to creating daily napkin art to include in my kids lunch boxes. I created 183 days of napkins. 366 total daily artwork and a short quote to put smiles on their faces during their lunch, to show them that I’m thinking of them. It took me extra 10 minutes a day, but my kids loved receiving these surprises everyday and soon became a conversation starter amongst their classmates.

My story began with the pandemic but I’m so excited to see where my art will take us!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love living in pasadena! We have it all!!! I would take my bestie to Eaton canyon for a morning hike, have brunch at “Millie’s”, and have happy hour margaritas and tacos at “Anayas” in old town pasadena. It’s my go to spot, I love the atmosphere there!

On another day, I’ll take her to “Huntington Library”, checking out art and having a nice picnic in the Japanese gardens. We will absolute take the most beautiful photos there! For dinner, I’ll take her to “Yes Sushi”, it’s not a fancy place by no means, but you feel right at home, and I love the people there, I always used to say “people work for people” and I can tell all of the employees love working for one another there.

Knowing my bestie I know she will want to get in some fitness during her stay, so I’ll take her to the rose bowl and go running around the loop, and take her to my friend Christina’s gym @pendulum fitness, for some heavy lifting. After a great workout, I will take her to “Bloomfield” and have frozen yogurt, and make a reservation for Houston’s steak house!

On a girls night out, I will take her to the “union” for a very delicious black in pasta, and end up at “Blind Donkey” for an old fashion or some martinis.

Coffee next morning: “lavender and honey”, or “cafe the de lece” in Altadena. For some retail therapy, I would take her to old town pasadena, start at ZARA, Urban Outfitters, and Anthropology… at last, we would have to stop by the “peloton” pasadena store and take a selfie before sending her home.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to shout out my father, who always wanted me to go after my talent, to create art, I pushed him away for so long, hiding behind my retail management work and juggling being a working mom, when we were quarantined from covid, he created a large blank canvas for me and did not take no for an answer. I created my first mural sized painting of “lovers rock” from Beirut Lebanon, it took me a whole week, but when I realized he was sitting outside more and looking into my artwork and mind- traveling to Beirut, that truly made me feel happy.

My Husband and my family also inspire me and helped me get back into creating art. If it was not for my husband telling me “don’t look back, go for it, believe in yourself”, I would have given up many times.

Instagram: @drawwithlarachan

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lara-kushner-45a19381

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lara.proudiankushner

Youtube: Draw with Lara Chan https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTsdIBwQXp3vNuLc7xu7x1blIu1ZQFFMp

Other: TikTok: larachan66 Etsy: https://etsy.me/3kN6CAr

Image Credits
David Corralva Photography