Carly Lake is a visual artist born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley who currently lives in Ontario, California. Her passion for drawing and natural history inspires her paintings, illustrations, public art, and fiber art explorations with natural dyes. Her work amplifies the enduring relationships between people and plants, and her art practice focuses on the ecological stories throughout the urban Los Angeles landscape. Lake received her BFA in Illustration, with a minor in Native American Cultures, from California State University at Long Beach.
What does it mean to make drawings, especially over other art forms?
Drawing provides the ability to articulate, interpret, and tap into the imagination using very simple, accessible tools. For me, it is a vital process of movement that brings ideas into focus or generates new things into being from the nothing of a blank page. With drawing comes the freedom to create images of the surreal and stylized that foster my self-exploration and encourage imaginative thinking in others.
What kind(s) of rituals are embedded in your drawing practice?
I have a balanced back-and-forth practice of sketching from observation and creating more playful types of drawing from the imagination and memory. I take my sketchbook along when I travel and sketch in it during idle times: waiting for a plane, riding on a train, sitting in a garden, etc.
In 2024 I began a daily drawing practice where I spend a few minutes every day making a small drawing in a dedicated journal. This practice is an opportunity to see what comes to the surface even when I feel no clear inspiration to draw. I start making marks and work out little ideas. It is very much like a muscle being exercised. With this ritual, I am exploring the meaning and value of creating quick drawings consistently and seeing how it affects my practice overall.
In what ways does Los Angeles influence (or not) your approach to drawing?
Both the urban and ecological forms of the Los Angeles area capture my attention and inspire much of the content I choose to draw, either very directly or subconsciously. I love the split-second compositions that manifest as I drive around and see freeway formations intersecting against hillsides, trees, homes, fences. There is visual elegance and poetry amidst the density and grittiness, which I enjoy exploring in my sketchbooks.
I like to closely observe the local plants and animals, both native and non-native. Through drawing, I deepen my connection with other beings that inhabit this landscape. It is from this biodiversity of forms that much of my more imaginative figures and ideas spring.