Meet Lauren Garvin | Artist | Fawnder and Director of Doe Creative

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

Hi Lauren, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
A creative career has always felt inevitable to me. Even in non-creative jobs leading up to truly embracing my own work, I approach everything from an artistic angle – at times to my own downfall.

I’ve found often a career in art is seen as an intangible, far-off dream. The “starving artist” persona is an all too familiar cloud hanging over too many creative’s heads. While this stigma is slowly dying and we see more and more artists coming into their own in sustainable ways, fear has a funny way of being quite sticky.

I pursued my artistic endeavors alongside trying to safeguard myself for far too long. It only brought me upon burnout and exhaustion. Following this path wholeheartedly was thrust upon me in spite of my own fear after losing a ‘big girl job’, and it’s the best slap in the face I have ever received.

Having the incredible privilege to give creative work my total energy is an honor I don’t take lightly, and I plan on using that opportunity to open the same door for as many other artists as I can.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
In the past year, my work of building Doe Creative has bloomed more than ever. The core purpose of Doe Creative is to bring resource, opportunity, and education to help artists build a sustainable art-based career. To accomplish that, we’ve taken some pretty exciting steps this year!

In the fall of 2020 we launched The Daily Doe, a recurring newspaper that features independent artists of all outlets – printed and distributed to our Patreon supporters and around Orlando, as well as posted online through our website and through features on the Doe social media pages. We’ve been able to connect artists to local clients through the paper, and have been able to proudly send the newspaper around the world!

This October we premiered another huge dream for Doe: our very own podcast! Say What You Mean is a short-form podcast centered on creative communication. Each episode focuses on aspects of being an independent artist from how to communicate more confidently to tips on talking budget, and everything in between. The podcast serves creatives in a few ways: keeping the length of each episode short-form makes the content digestible and easily applicable to real life. Focusing on interactive opportunities in partnership with each episode on Patreon and our Instagram keeps our community involved. And talking about needs sent in from creatives keeps us on our toes providing ideas surrounding actual needs of the artistic community, sharing free education and resource for artists at the click of a button.

We also launched our store this year, and plan to start curating pieces from other artists early 2022.

I’m taken aback at all the momentum we’ve gained this year alone – Doe has been growing for nearly ten years. Starting as a twinkle of an idea as I exited high school to seeing where we are now and all the potential we have in store is empowering.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Orlando is a truly special place. We could spend much longer than a week here and only scratch the surface. Much of the treasure of Orlando is in each new spark that seems to appear in a new corner of the city on a daily basis. Here are a few of my favorites:

Food:
– Pho Vinh in the Milk District
– Santiago’s Bodega in Mills 50
– Krungthep Tea Time in Winter Park

Coffee:
– Easy Luck in the Milk District
– Edge Coffee in Mount Dora
– The Glass Knife in Winter Park

Drinks:
– Whippoorwill Beer House in the Milk District
– The Matador off Ivanhoe
– Tori Tori in Mills 50

Must See:
– Pinkie Orlando Salon in College Park
– Infinite Zion Farms on South Street
– The Maitland Art and History Museum

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
At the core of my personal work and the pillar of Doe Creative is community. The community of artists we work with regularly, our Patreon supporters, our fellow creatives who we shoulder the burdens, ideas, and curiosities of – I’m grateful for each piece that goes into the work we create together.

I’d especially like to shoutout Kayla Surico, a fellow photographer who has served as an inspiration of mine for years and who has become not only a treasured collaborator on many projects but a dear friend. Dorsa Vaziri, who far too often lends her brilliance to my outlandish ideas, who always entertains an unscheduled brainstorming session, and who forges the path of excellent creative work in an effortless manner. And Dom Potter, who spurs me on in each moment of uncertainty, who has displayed the unwavering commitment to his own dream that I’ve needed to pursue my own, and who regularly walks into chaos mid-project with such grace, never missing a beat.

I am truly a product of those around me, and I’m beyond proud to say that I’m surrounded by legends.

Website: www.doecreative.co

Instagram: www.instagram.com/doelaur

Other: www.patreon.com/doecreativeco https://anchor.fm/doecreativeco