Building A Life of Creative Flow

with Tessa Stirling

Tessa, you spent your childhood in Australia, where you’re currently based. What was it like to grow up in this beautiful country, surrounded by nature? How did it shape your personality?

Both of my parents are Scottish, but I was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia. It’s a coastal town, so I’ve always had the ocean. On all our family holidays we would go to Rottnest Island, which is an island 30 minutes away from Perth. My dad loves the ocean, so all the international trips we took were also to the coasts. Growing up, I loved camping, swimming, and hiking. My mum is a fashion designer, and she would always make me notice certain things in nature. For example, we’d get on the beach where the crabs would be running around, making patterns in the sand, and my mum would suggest: “Let’s take a photo — we can turn this into a print for clothing.” Or we would look at patterns on leaves or spirals that water makes. I think that’s where a lot of inspiration for my art and design comes from.

Would you say it was your mum who got you into creating things and working with your hands?

My mum stayed at home with me and my siblings when we were younger. We were always doing creative activities — playing with playdough, painting, or even picking flowers and making perfumes or potions out of them (smiles). I think mum definitely planted the seed in me, and then both of my parents have always encouraged me. When I was nine years old, they enrolled me in an art course. Each week I would explore a different medium there — clay, printmaking, watercolors, and so on. That was the first time I was like, I’m obsessed with this. I just want to create with my hands (smiles). And both my auntie and my grandma are artists as well. So I grew up with quite a creative family.

So the idea that you’re a creative person was normal to you when you were growing up?

When I was younger, before any kind of external pressure, it was a natural thing for me. But later, throughout my teenage years, I found it hard to call myself a creative. I had imposter syndrome, which I still struggle with today. But it’s getting better as I get older.

When did you get back into creating things?

Every year after I did that art course, I would pick drawing, painting, sculpture, or anything like that as my electives at school. But after I graduated high school, I went to university and studied occupational therapy for a year. Looking back at it now, I think I was just confused and felt like I couldn’t make money from my art. So I went for something different. But after a year, I swapped to graphic and digital design, which was the best decision ever. There, I had a lot more space to do creative projects and started thinking that maybe I could make a career out of it.

How did you find your way back into creative space? Was there a specific moment when you decided to go into graphic design and commit to it?

I actually remember it so well. In occupational therapy, there’s a unit called applied anatomy — that’s where you look at the insides of humans, at deceased bodies. I studied that for a semester, and after the exam I was like, I am never doing this again (smiles). I went home and googled how to make money as an artist. The number one thing that came up was graphic design. At the time — it was 2018 — I hadn't heard of it. I enrolled in it on a whim, and after one week of classes, I was like, This is my calling in life! I don't want to do anything else (smiles). So I got pretty lucky when I followed my instinct and made a change.

As you were reconnecting with this creative side of yours, did you notice how you started to feel differently and interact with the world differently? Did it feel like coming home?

Yes, it felt exactly like that — coming home. Every element of my life — the way I decorated my room, how I dressed, the music I listened to — started to make sense. My friend group shifted that year as well — I met a lot of creative people. I think that’s what happens when you start to share your personal work — people start associating you with it, you become a part of the creative community, and opportunities come your way. It has a domino effect.

But at the same time, it’s a challenging period when you first reconnect with this creative side because you’re trying to figure out your style. I had a lot of doubts about whether my work was good enough. It’s honestly been a journey. Even to this day, I’m trying to figure out how to merge the lines between art and design, how I can have them at the intersection that makes me happy.

Let’s talk about that — merging the lines between art and graphic design. You often make paintings or cut-outs from paper, scan them, and use them in your digital work. Can you tell me more about this process and how you came up with this idea?

From the moment I started studying graphic design, the one thing that I didn’t like that much was how digital it all was. I remember that first year I bought an iPad, a pen, and an iPad cover that had a paper-like texture to draw on because I didn’t like to draw on my laptop. The tactile element of being creative is very important to me. All the projects that I’m most proud of are the ones that I’m able to bring into the real world and not just on the screen.

But for a while, I felt like I had to fit into the box of either a graphic designer or an artist. At first, I had my art page and posted only artworks on it. Then I swapped it to my graphic design page and didn’t share any of my art there. Then, at some point, I decided that I was going to do both and hoped that it wouldn't confuse my audience. When I started doing that, it received a lot of positive feedback. Especially when I was showing the process of creating something on paper and then using it digitally. A lot of clients started coming to me wanting that. That’s amazing because when you’re first starting out, clients give you very strict briefs and want you to execute their vision. But for the past two years, I’ve felt immediately aligned with most of the clients that reach out. Because I put out the kind of work that I want to be doing.

Your art is obviously inspired by natural forms and vintage typography. Can you tell me more about your style and aesthetic?

I think my work has quite an abstract form. I like design that is open to interpretation. Someone might see a flower in my drawings, someone else might see a fan-like shape in it. Organic, abstract, has a sense of flow — I love when things feel as if there’s movement in them — whether it’s an actual shape of a spiral or the way the paint is applied. Typography is a huge part of my work too. I’ve always been drawn to Sans Serif chunky vintage typography. I have so many pictures from my travels of vintage packaging from antique shops and flea markets. One of my favorite things to do abroad is to go into grocery shops and see typography on different packaging. Europe is incredible for that — especially Greece, Italy, and Croatia. I think they haven’t updated a lot of the packages in recent years, so they look vintage.

Is it just an aesthetic of previous times that you’re drawn to or the idea behind it as well?

My grandma and grandpa used to own an antique shop in Scotland. They would collect vintage magazines, vintage packaging, and even old business cards. So I’ve been brought up around that, and that’s something that I carried on throughout my entire life — keeping pieces of paper or packaging that I like. The thing that I love about vintage design is the nostalgic element to it — how it takes you back to those carefree times when things were much simpler. I also love the more tactile way things were done back then. A lot of new-age designs we consume through social media, whereas vintage designs we can see in person — you pick up a box and you look at the packaging. It creates a different type of connection. But I think it’s the combination of both aesthetic and the nostalgic element that attracts me.

Do you feel like your art is something that takes you back to your childhood, and that's why creating something is such a happy place for you?

For sure. One of my favorite quotes is The creative adult is the child who has survived. I make a vision book every year, and at the beginning of this year, on one of the pages I put a picture of a person building a sand castle on the beach. My goal for the year was to create with no other purpose than play. I think that’s what ultimately a lot of creatives try to get back to — creating without any kind of expectations or outside perspectives on their work, just like they did in their childhood. Before they were taught how to do things, or what is right and what is wrong. I’m still working on it. Often I’ll be making the design and thinking that it’s breaking so many rules — the composition is imbalanced, the color palette isn’t complementary, or there’s not enough contrast going on. Design principles are important, but I think once you learn them, you can break them. But it’s something that you have to teach yourself — to rewire your brain and to remind yourself that it’s okay not to follow certain guidelines. If you’re able to get in touch with what naturally flows to your mind, then to your heart, then to your hand — that’s when you tap into your true style and create something special.

I think it takes a lot of practice. How do you build this trust within yourself?

About a year ago, I was coming back from six months of my solo trip. I was waiting for my flight back home and listening to an episode of Jay Shetty’s podcast, 6 Steps to Overcome the Perfectionist Mindset. He talked about this rule — the 70 to 100 rule — which is all about how, if something is 70% good, the effort that it takes you from 70% to 100% isn’t always worth the pay-off. You can do a project, understand that it’s 70% good, be done with it, and move on to the next one. But a perfectionist is someone who gets stuck trying to get to 100%.

What it taught me is that a lot of the time it’s better to sit down, create, and not overthink it. I used to create a design for a client and then play around with it for a week before I sent it for feedback. After listening to that podcast, I was like, Okay, I’ll try to do something and just ask for feedback right away. Almost always, people are happy with it just the way it is. It was just my inner critic who was making me do all these tweaks that no one even noticed. So this has been incredible for my workflow. It allowed me to create at a higher capacity and brought me back to doing things in a more childlike way.

That’s such an amazing point, and I bet it’s so liberating to do — to allow yourself to try different things and to discover that all of them work in some way.

Yes, and I think it’s also important for creatives to have an abundant mindset. When I just started out, I thought that I only had a limited number of good ideas. I didn’t even want to give some of them to clients because I wanted to keep them for myself. But then someone told me that I would never run out of ideas. I don’t even know why I felt this way. But when they mentioned that, it really hit me. Now I know that there will always be more ideas, more color combinations, more of everything. It comes when every day you go outside and notice something that you haven’t seen before, or you travel and experience something new. It’s really never-ending, which is almost overwhelming. But it’s also nice because you can execute ideas knowing that the new ones are going to come in. Knowing that it’s not going to be your best and final project because your work is only going to get better and better.

You are also in a relationship with a talented photographer, Liam Fawell. How does being together with another creative influence your creativity? Is it exciting for you to be with someone who sees the world similarly and whom you can co-create with?

Liam and I had been friends for two years before we started dating. The thing that built our friendship was the creative connection and how we saw the world. We’ve always been drawn to similar things and discussed different brands, photographs, and designs. Creativity seeped into all of our conversations when we became a couple as well. We will literally go for a walk in the morning and stop to look at how the sun is coming through the leaves. He looks at it through his lens — which is film photography — and I look at it through mine. I get a whole new perspective when he explains things to me. We can be interested in the exact same thing, but our creative output will never look the same because we have different aesthetics. He’s more drawn to dreamy colors and soft sunset light, whereas I’m more drawn to orangey reds and brighter blues. We spend the days working together, and I feel safe painting around him. I also do creative direction and styling for a lot of his shoots. It’s one of our favorite things to do — to work together and to bring our vision to life. Being in a flow state by yourself is amazing, but being in a flow state with your partner is such a rare and beautiful thing. I think it’s the best part of our relationship.

What is your vision for the future? Are you planning on staying in Australia, and are there any other creative pursuits you would love to tap into?

In the next six months I want to be in Australia. I’ve been traveling for two years — I’ve learned so much, but it’s important to have a base to achieve anything worthwhile. You can do a lot of things traveling, but what I’m working on at the moment requires stability. I’m focusing on building Lasola as its own brand and bringing more of my personal projects to life. I want to do more paintings and ceramics, and I’m working on a product range that takes a lot of energy.

My end goal is for Lasola to be a brand with my name attached. I want to be able to release anything I want and never feel boxed in. Ultimately, it would be the purest form of the creative outlet where I am able to realize any idea that comes to mind, release it to the world, and make an income from that. The only client work I want to be doing in the future is collaborations.

That’s the big vision, and I’m still getting clear on that. It's a lot of writing, brainstorming, prototyping, and getting samples. The main thing I’m focusing on right now is execution. Getting it done rather than thinking about what the perfect first product or painting would be. It’s a work in progress (smiles).