We caught up with Lisa Earl in her art studio at Ice Factory just before Christmas. This was after we had attended one of her little house workshops for adults, where a group of us got together and made our own mini wooden homes. Lisa runs kids’ art clubs, sells her own work, does exhibitions and shows as well as adult workshops.
“I’m cutting these for customers tomorrow,” Lisa said as she was sawing up wood, “but actually as I cut them I end up wanting to keep them for myself – oh, I’ll have that, and I’ll have that,” she says, putting a newly cut piece of wood in her apron.
So Lisa, tell us how it all began?
“I’ve always made things, I used to have a tapestry kit, you know the ones with an image printed on like a tiger and I loved making tapestries. Anyway, I always had a project on the go.
I’m good at putting things together and building on things. I’ve never been very good with a blank piece of paper; that doesn’t work for me. I have to start with something. That’s why I like making Robots because I find something and I’ll think about how amazing an eye it would make. That’s how I work.
Same with the houses, my houses come about from finding things that I think will look good.”
[Lisa picks up a piece of metal from her art room]
“I think that looks like a gorgeous tin shed. And that’s how I like making things.”
How old were you when you became an artist?
“I was 29. I started making pressed flower cards during the boom of the handmade card industry. Before that, I studied business studies, and after leaving college I started modeling and moved to Manchester. I joined an agency at 19 and stayed there for 2 years, then I came back to Scotland, but I was working all over the place. I had this whole career until I was 29. I had always made things in the background, loads of patchwork, tapestry and quilts. My friend’s dad came over once as I was sewing all these tiny little patches together and asked me why I ‘didn’t just go to the pub!’. I was 21!
The first things I put in a gallery were glass-painted bottles. I lived in Edinburgh in a flat on St Mary’s Street, and there was a gallery underneath the flat, and I painted bottles – with lovely rustic printed labels. I sold quite a few of those.
So I started making these handmade cards. I ended up with 20 outlets for my cards – it was great. Through that, I sold a lot of them to a girl who had a beautiful flower shop in Edinburgh. She offered me a job as a florist; I was still modeling, so it was a bit of a transition. I started doing odd days in the flower shop, and it was great! There were 4 of us, and none of us were trained florists, but we all had our own creative way of doing it; it was fab. I loved it. I’m still really good friends with the owner.
Then somebody said to me that I should make my cards bigger. I started doing the craft fairs and the art mart. Then I had the idea of these pressed flower pictures, a framed collage. I made four of these pictures, and they sold instantly; they got loads of attention and people really loved them. I ended up making those for around 12 years. I did a lot of 3D2D craft and design fairs, and the Royal Highland Show and Gardening Scotland.
Then I had my kids, and I didn’t have the time to make these in quantity, so I started putting them in galleries. And getting them professionally framed and they became gallery pieces. I was stocked in Dunkeld, Frames Gallery, and they were taken to the Affordable Art Fair in London and Idle Homes in Glasgow. That was really cool.”
When was it you ventured into workshops then?
“A local family asked me if I would teach their kids, their daughter. I said to them that I wasn’t a teacher, I didn’t study art, I just make stuff! But they were still keen. So I did it, and then their daughter’s friends and sisters started coming. And that was the start of the art club. I absolutely loved it, because I had made these pictures for so long and I found it really refreshing.
Then eventually I hired the forestry commission shed on the hill, and I put on some crafty events. I had the idea about the giant robots, and I started putting on a pop-up spray tent called ‘Rockets & robots’; they were amazing! We would make robots and spray-paint them outside my shed. I’ve met so many kids who were at the workshops who still have them – 10 years later. They are really a thing of beauty, and that was where my passion for robots started. I then started doing different event gigs. Kids used to see me in the street and call me the Robot Lady!
I went to Balnacraig School to do a warm-up workshop as a one-off, making robots. They asked me to stay, and I ended up being there for 6 years. I absolutely loved it. We did some work that went to Kelvingrove; we made artwork that was exhibited there – for a kids-in-care exhibition.
After I left there, I wanted to do some bigger stuff. I started doing work with 21cc, doing lighting events in South Queensferry, which was quite scary because I had only made little things until then. It really scared me; I never thought I could pull it off. I had so much self-doubt, a lifetime of self-doubt. I pulled it off and proved to myself I could do it!”
So you’ve done pretty much everything – made your own art, workshops, galleries, big shows, events, and installations; you’ve worked across the board. Which is amazing; you’ve broken the barrier to be just naturally incredible at what you do!
“I think I am good at putting things together. I’m good at showing people that it can be easy, and you can make something great, and it can be fun. I’m good at workshops, and I absolutely love to do that, because I love it when people get so engaged and are happy with what they have achieved. That’s what I love about it. It makes people feel good.
Making things takes you to a place where you don’t think about anything else. You are so in the moment, and there’s a reward at the end of it, and you don’t have to worry about anything else. What a gift that is, that you know you have a place where you can go to be completely in the moment and make stuff. You don’t need anyone, and you can make art with anything. A milk carton and a pair of scissors. It’s so good for your mental health.“
So you have Lisa Earl Design, which is your personal work, and CREATE, which is your workshops, and you are based in the Ice Factory; what’s next?
“I would really like to be able to spend more time making robots and photographing them beautifully and maybe have a robot exhibition. I dream of having a robot exhibition; it would be so cool. Framing them and having them on show, or having some freestanding.
I had a lockdown passion for making little houses, and recently I have turned that into an adult workshop. In 14 years of running workshops, these are my first tailored workshops for adults. When I ran my robot workshops, adults would ask me to put workshops on for them. So eventually I did, and then no one came!
To book yourself onto a ‘make a robot’ workshop, I think adults felt they needed kids, but with the houses, everyone loves making them no matter how old they are. And everyone can make them! They are such good fun to make. And they’re so cute.”
You were recently diagnosed with ADHD, when did that happen and how did that come about?
“I was diagnosed a year ago. I had no idea I had it until then. I obviously knew there was something wrong with me and I went down various paths. It felt like a big massive bit of the jigsaw that had been missing, and I had been looking elsewhere. I had never thought about myself as being neurodiverse. Probably because I didn’t know anything about it.
That’s why I am so vocal about it now, because had I read a magazine article or heard someone talking about ADHD, I would have instantly thought I had it. When I sat down and read what it was, my jaw hit the floor. I said out loud to myself, “I’ve got ADHD, of course, I’ve got ADHD. Oh my gosh!” 53 years old! I then started the journey of reading about it; I’m still reading all the time about it. There’s so much stuff to know, and it impacts every part of your life. It’s fundamental to who you are and how you function and operate. It affects everything; it is everything.
Then you join online groups of people in the same situation as yourself, you read other people’s life experiences, and the similarities between the struggles that you have or how you function generally are staggering. It still shocks me. How could you know so little as to not recognize it? I look at myself now, and it’s like of course I have ADHD!”
“It changes everything when you know, because you have had a whole lifetime of getting yourself wrong. And being incredibly hard on yourself because actually you don’t quite understand. When you find out, it makes sense. For me, it was my level of frustration; I was overwhelmed all the time. But not knowing you are overwhelmed because you have only ever felt like that. So you think it’s normal.
Now I can recognise it; I know when I am getting overwhelmed, when I start crying, I know I’m overstimulated. But before, I would just think I was upset, and I would be frustrated because I didn’t understand why I was crying. I was always trying to find a reason why. Why did I always get so frustrated at technology? Crying my eyes out? Being really angry at myself? Just being so raging at myself, white-hot fury and self-loathing. A constant cycle of hating on yourself. Doubting if you are a good person.
When you know you have ADHD, you understand why you are the way you are.”
It’s can be incedibly misunderstood, especially in women.
“Yeah, totally, but it’s good to know now, though. Although, now that I do know and I’m aware of the difficult bits and seeing just how difficult it can be. You realise how much of an impairment it is. A multi-faceted impairment. There are so many different things, aren’t there? It’s tricky.
Access to support can also be incredibly difficult, don’t you think?
“I’m not one to join groups, but it would be good to meet and talk to other people in the same situation. I would love to have a coach because I think as a person with ADHD, you don’t get many people who specialise in the area. We need to be talking to people who know about ADHD because if you have a good knowledge of neurodiversity, you would understand absolutely why we are the way we are.
It’s a fascinating subject though. The brain is mad! “
How do we make business, arts, and life more accessible for people with ADHD?
“I don’t know yet. I think there’s a massive population of people in Perth, and creatives, who have it. I have lots of friends who are creatives who are a bit like me who just get by and maybe don’t do much about it. Then I have other friends who are totally on it, and they manage the business element of their profession very well.
I will shy away from anything that requires form filling; I find that really difficult. Being able to find all the details I need when my personal organisation is a bit of a mess. Where will I find the information? And it doesn’t make any sense to live life like that, but that’s how it gets very quickly. We live in disorganisation. It’s horrible.
Being a grown-up is a nightmare. Renewing insurance and organising paperwork. So managing that, let alone being a single mum and trying to get my business going. It’s been quite challenging. The chaos starts to become more organised when I am on medication, though.
I’ve been functioning and doing my thing, but I’ve always been feeling like I am playing catch-up. Everything is last minute, and then you are worried that your work is going to be rubbish and everything just backs up. It still happens to me, but there is much less chaos, and I am able to start addressing things earlier because I am able to think.
I’m much more comfortable with my business as well.
It’s positive from here on in. I know now, and it’s awesome that I can put things in place for myself. Hopefully, by being less chaotic, I free up more time for me to be able to follow my creative pursuits.
When I don’t have time to be creative, it impacts me. I feel frustrated because I want to be making things.”
Lisa is an absolute icon, and we would recommend anyone who has an interest in art to attend one of her workshops.
This is what is happening for Lisa Earl in 2023;
- Mini House workshops
- Sun 26th Feb (kids and adults) 10.30-12.30 and 2-4
- Fri 3rd March (adults) 10-12
- Sat 4th March (adults)10-12
- Kids Easter Art Camp
- Vouchers for workshops available as gifts
- Houses & robots for sale on-site at Ice Factory, Shore Road
News and updates from the Perth Life editorial team.
