Meet Lia Walker | Artist

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

Hi Lia, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
For me, being an artist and seeing life the way I see it cannot be separated. I experience and identify with being an artist to my core. My being an artist is affirmed and outwardly expressed by creating my work. When I get asked this question the answer is so simple to me: I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Connection is repeatedly the most potent yet heartbreaking experience that motivates me to create my work. I believe that relationships aren’t limited to people but extend to places. By accessing the nostalgic peculiarity found in suburban landscapes, houses, and intimate memories, my artwork articulates the dance of connection and misalignment.

Finding where I wanted to be in terms of place didn’t come without misalignment. In 2023, I had the opportunity to go to art school in Columbus, Ohio. I grew up in a small town tucked away in the Rocky Mountains and the massive change in going from a town with two thousand people to a city with two million completely altered the way I saw the world. While I loved seeing new places, specifically houses and neighborhoods in the Midwest, I missed my home state and my loved ones who live here. So, I decided to move back after the end of the semester.

Now, I’m a student on track for my Bachelor’s in Fine Art with a concentration in painting. The time I spent in Columbus and traveling around the country in 2023 became sort of like a residency. I gathered material from the relationships I formed with different places around the county and now I use this to inspire my paintings. Painting about my past experiences helps me integrate them further into my life and process them in a space outside of my own head.

In 2024, I participated in a group show at the Lyric Cinema in Fort Collins and also showed my artwork in my hometown of Crested Butte. I’m very thankful for what the opportunities revealed to me since moving back to Colorado and I’m always chasing the high of selling my art. My artistic journey is just beginning and I can’t wait to see what opportunities present themselves in the upcoming years.

For more, follow @M0thworks on Instagram.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would love to shoutout my mom, Ivy Kim. My mom Ivy is an artist. I’m incredibly grateful for growing up around her practice and the ways it deeply influenced my own. There were times when I was a child when I would come into her studio and she would let me draw on her walls while she worked. She’s also a life coach with a Master’s in Ecopsychology. My mom spent an incredible amount of time learning about what she’s passionate about and I admire her for her continuous love for learning and pushing herself to “do the next thing”.

Her website is ivykimstudio.com. The rest of her information is on there as well.

Instagram: @M0thworks (First “o” is a zero)

Image Credits
Ivy Kim